Time for a poll

[chickenfeet2003]

I needed an excuse to use the user pic voted most popular by a random sample of sentient beings. I've also had some interesting on and off line convos and comments about math(s) recently so I thought what we really need is more ticky boxes. Lo, I bring you the great math(s) poll!

Poll math

Comments

[bopeepsheep]

What about 'I married a mathematician so am not allowed to ignore it whether I'd like to or not'?

[chickenfeet2003]

I'm not sure which is weirder; a mathematician or someone who would marry one.

[bopeepsheep]

Ah, there may have been false pretences involved. I thought he was a CompSci, because of his D.Phil. The BA in Mathematics only sneaked into conversation later. ;-)

[melted_snowball]

We often sneak that onto people. It's part of our charm.

[chickenfeet2003]

It's interesting to see how people answer these questions because different people have such a different perspective of what mathematics is. As best I can tell, everything you've described above (except maybe a bit of stats), I would regard as 'arithmetic' and therefore barely mathematics at all but your perspective would be, I suspect, much more 'normal' than mine. (see kalypso_v's comment. I did 'A' level chemistry (well four terms of it, I eventually dropped it to concentrate on a really nasty conditional offer from Cambridge) and I would have said that no maths was involved at all. But then I was doing double maths 'A' and 'S' levels.

One of the reasons I asked the questions that I did was a not very well formulated idea that there is a point at which 'real' maths kick in and at that point some people experience a kind of philosophical/aesthetic breakthrough but that others, equally able, don't. It's not easy to express. It gets a bit like trying to explain colour to a blind person.

[badasstronaut]

I have to qualify my responses here. I'm no mathematician. I don't understand much, although it was my favourite thing at primary school when I was little. But whether I understand or not, someone talking maths (or physics) at me is hott hott hott (if they can cope that I probably have no idea what they're talking about). One day I might meet the special person who can unlock the barriers in my head and let the essential maths juice flood in, and everything will fall into place, and there'll be world peace and flowers and ice cream for everyone.

[chickenfeet2003]

This is really interesting. See my reply to asrana in this thread. Your comment suggests the existence of people who intuit the wonder of mathematics without actually having the technical skills to go there. I would never have guessed that such people existed.

[badasstronaut]

In some ways, it's a bit akin to magic (except with the advantage that sometimes it really works). When someone talks maths at me, sometimes I get a momentary little inkling of what they're on about, and it stretches my brain a bit letting some fireworks in, and that's a pretty powerful aphrodisiac. I do wonder, though, if I did have a better grasp of maths if that would kill the romance and mystery of it rather than enhance it. But that would be a one way path of discovery - no turning back.

[kalypso_v]

One thing that exasperates me is the way the general public use "maths" as a synonym for "arithmetic". Because my job does require extensive use of arithmetic, so that confusion crops us a lot. (And yes, it's a branch of maths, but I would never describe what I do as maths.)

Typical conversation with my boss:
Him: "Can you check the maths for me?"
Me: "You mean the arithmetic."
Him: "If I wanted your help on English language and grammar I'd say so."

[chickenfeet2003]

I know exactly what you mean. See asrana's comment above.

[kalypso_v]

The other thing that annoys me is the way people glory in their inability to do arithmetic or maths (of course, they generally say the latter and mean the former). I don't mean that they should be deeply embarrassed or ashamed, just that they should admit to their blind spot in a matter-of-fact way rather than indicating that it's a badge of pride (because understanding maths would be so uncool).

This carries over into radio programmes on the topic, which always seem to take the line "Ha, ha! Bet you really hated maths at school! He, he! But we're here to tell you lots of jokes so you'll realise it's jolly fun! Ho, ho, ho!" (At this point, I switch off, so I never find out whether they had something worthwhile to convey.) They never do this in programmes on science, where the presenters adopt a businesslike approach assuming an uninformed but intelligent listener.

[chickenfeet2003]

Grr, snarl, yes!

I've never met anyone who thought it was smart or a sign of a superior mind to be illiterate.

[thidwick]

I have no idea what the US equivalent of an O-level in maths would be, so my checkbox there may be incorrect. I [barely] made it through trigonometry pre-calculus before I quit

[chickenfeet2003]

I have no idea what the US equivalent of an O-level in maths would be

There isn't one really I guess. That part of the question was aimed more at people in countries that have national exams at 16 and 18.