Hulver's site || I'm Finally Learning Math

Diaries
Everything
Who's Online?
FAQ / Help

I'm Finally Learning Math

By Clipper Ship (Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 08:23:17 AM EST) (all tags)

As certain other users of this site can attest, I have specifically put off learning math of any sort since grade 11. That was about 17 years ago.

So, in an effort to not watch Big Brother or sell drugs or do yardwork, I am learning Calculus for kicks and for the Calculus course am taking in about a month. Math is alright.

I wonder why it is that at 16 you simply cannot get it, but at 33 you can find fairly easy to self-learn it and actually enjoy it? It's interesting to actually decipher all those previously pointless symbols and work your way through a problem. Kind of like the Sodoku games you see people playing, but not so useless.

Anyway, for the Math geniuses out there, it's highly likely that I am enjoying this more than you are. Like when someone reads Hamlet as an adult for the first time, instead of as a teenager. Or, I can only assume, anyway.

But, one thing I've realized in taking up math again is that it really is a philosophical approach to logic and not a science at all. Just a tool to make examples of real world ideas and figure out logic problems.

< Can anyone else see a simple solution? | Yesterday was about work >

Login

Related Links

- Clipper Ship's Diary

Google

Hit Counter

68 Husi users have viewed this.

Comment Controls

I'm Finally Learning Math | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Answer by jayhawk88 (4.00 / 1) #1 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 09:16:59 AM EST

I wonder why it is that at 16 you simply cannot get it, but at 33 you can find fairly easy to self-learn it and actually enjoy it?

Built in safety mechanism by nature. Those that don't have this safety mechanism end up going to college at age 14 or doing other things 14 year olds have no business doing, getting all screwed up socially, and end up either on the run from gangsters in Vegas for counting cards or an expatriate in some third world country.

: I've always thought that those wiz kids by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #5 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:03:48 AM EST

you know, the ones that become doctors at 17 and all? They are just another surgeon at 30. You don't go in and think, oh, hey, this 35-year old surgeon is a whiz kid. You think, oh, hey, get rid of my brain cancer.
---------------
Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]
: Simpler explaination by Herring (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:53:47 AM EST

At 16, you can't enjoy anything. Hence emo music etc.

You can't outlaw rabbits! They'll just go underground - Milton Jones
[ Parent ]
: Memory changes by Alan Crowe (2.00 / 0) #23 Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 01:48:20 PM EST

As a kid your memory soaks things up like a sponge. As you get older it is not so absorbent. On the other hand, if one has worked at learning things, one acquires the knack of it. Deliberate memorisation of chosen details becomes easier.
But what if, like mathematics, the devil is in the details? Then the young have problems. Without the knack of spotting a tricky detail that will cause grief later and without the skill to focus hard on it they find their learning too soft and squishy.

[ Parent ]

First thing you need to know by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #2 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 09:50:25 AM EST

Is that it's Maths, short for Mathematics. HTH.

In the end... by ana (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 09:51:56 AM EST

there can be only one.

"And this ... is a piece of Synergy." --Kellnerin
[ Parent ]

: What about zero though? by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #7 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:08:24 AM EST

NT

[ Parent ]

No, in North America we've streamlined by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #4 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:02:22 AM EST

you folks will catch up soon enough.

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

Why stop there? by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #6 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:06:37 AM EST

Trim it back to "M" and be done with it.

So, in USia, are you only allowed one operator per mathematical operator per statement in order to preserve the non-plurality of "math"?

I'm Canadian. by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #8 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:24:27 AM EST

The Queen rides a astride my coinage.

However, we don't say gay-ass stuff like 'whinge' and 'maths' cuz it's dumb. And don't go on about how awesome English in England is, cuz you inherited your accent and most of your words from the French, as we all know.

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

Tut, I'd have thought Canuckistanis by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:23:48 AM EST

Would have been better informed.

In fact, a lot of the "high" words come from Norman Franch, such as "pork" and "beef". The "low" words such as "pig" and "cow" are Saxon and Scandinavian in origin, which give you an idea as to who did the work and who did the eating, back in the day.

Well, if we're going to get all etimologic by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:30:14 AM EST

then let's face it: it's an utter mish-mash. However, that great vowel shift gave you cats your accent.

Ror, you have a French accent. And the French have an Italian one. Or Spanish; can't remember.

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

I'd rather we got etymologic, myself by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #12 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:36:50 AM EST

Oh yeah, English is one mongrel of a language. As are the people, what with so many different nations invading over the years.

Which always cracks me up when the BNP (UKian far right political party) and the like go on about "pure blood Brits"; I'm not so sure there really is such a thing.

There may be by Merekat (2.00 / 0) #13 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:37:46 AM EST

But they're probably Welsh.

[ Parent ]

Cornish too by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #15 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:53:08 AM EST

Although it's unclear how many Welsh fled south as yet another army swept west.

Aside from Dublin, did the Vikings settle many other places in Ireland?

: Yup by Merekat (2.00 / 0) #20 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:50:20 PM EST

Carlingford down to Waterford (funny how you can tell by the name) and on the west, up the Shannon a bit to Limerick. Mostly kept to enclaves in or near the coast though.

[ Parent ]

Yeah, according to a documentary I saw by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #14 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:38:00 AM EST

most of them are Welsh. I'm sure that would just warm the cockles of that party.

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

I think the BNP's main target for hate by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #16 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 11:57:48 AM EST

Is those with a different coloured skin, rather than accent.

I thought the English had a general disdain by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #17 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:16:04 PM EST

for anyone not from London?

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

Oh no. by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #18 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:28:13 PM EST

There's regional rivalries everywhere. North / South is the big one (flatcap northerners with whippets, soft Southern shandy drinkers, etc), even cities (eg Manchester, Liverpool) are riven by football affiliation rivalries. And those not living in London are convinced we all drive Porsches to work.

And doesn't everyone pay extremely close by Clipper Ship (2.00 / 0) #19 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:30:44 PM EST

attention to your accent as gauge of your place in the universe or something?

---------------

Destroy All Planets
[ Parent ]

: Not really by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #22 Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 11:57:13 AM EST

Unless you've already got a plum in your mouth, no one really pays attention to accents anymore.

[ Parent ]

Great! by zarathus (2.00 / 0) #21 Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 04:53:42 PM EST

I sincerely hope it turns out as well as you think it will and that I have a similar experience since I also haven't learned any math since 11th or 12th grade and will have to jump back into it soon.

----------
Blogger - n. Someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do.

I'm Finally Learning Math | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback