h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*shudder*

I have a girl in my lab that I'm TA-ing who claims she hates math. I put the formula on the board for them to use, tell them what the variables mean, do an example if its more than plug & chug, and let them do the rest. I couldn't be any clearer if I gave them the answer.

"I hate math!" she shrieks. "It's so hard to understand! Can't you make it any easier?"

I laugh. She doesn't know the /meaning/ of the word "hard." She won't know what it is to "hate math" until she deals with eight partial differentials in three different equations, none of which actually tell you what you need to know until you solve all three, and plug the results into a fourth equation and solve for Q.

I think I'll show her my open channel hydrology exam when I get it back.

*Practical response*

Well if she finds maths hard then it will be on a different level to you won't it? I find the concept of proving the factors of a polynomial daunting but for you I imagine that's a doddle.

I think a lot of people's problem with maths is that they don't understand WHY they do each bit. Like why does doing this give this and what does it mean...you know?

ho just slap her! and tell her to get on with it!


Hard work, I'll tell you whats hard work...... perents thats bloody hard work

rjr

I dont understand a word any of you are saying - I couldn't learn maths at school - I hated it too and have never got to grips with anything other than simple adding and subtracting, but, I have to say it has ever blighted my life in any way. I have never been in a situation where a knowledge of all that complicated maths would have made things easier for me. I am able to check my change and that is all I have ever needed.

Maybe I could have learned if the teachers had been better or maybe some of us will just never be able to grasp the concepts.

I agree with Jack - being a parent is hard - is that what you meant or your own parents are hard work? (reading it again I am not sure!)

Scan, can you repeat that in English please

Ahhh the joys of math *lookingforreallysarcasticsmiley*

Best of luck and I am sure if you showed her that lot she would have a heart attack.

Maybe a suggestion

Maths is a functional thing, which I try to ignore as much as possible, but can cope with when I have to. Useful, but I'm afraid I find it rather dull.

well both really, being a parent and your own parents are bloody hard work! Just when you thought it was safe, too! Just when your getting a handle on the moment, POW there it is, life in all its glory, with a cherry on the top, farting in your pudding!



RJR

Scan, try this. As her to envision each part of the equation as something concrete (like 4 would be 4 *of* something). Tell her the solution is constructed of these things. Such as apples and flour and sugar and cinnamon and butter make a pie, or some such. For some people, the abstractness of numbers makes it hard to grasp. I myself am lousy at math, but using this process, I was able to make it through college chemistry.

*goes into marvin mode* Math don't talk to me about Math. Brain the size of a Planet..... ect

I can theoretically grasp the beauty in maths, but never enjoyed it very much, and therefor am not very good at it.

I think the main thing I don't like (which I know is the exact same thing other people love about maths) is the fact you only have ONE answer - or even if it's more than one, a limited number of answers, preferably as small as possible. You can reach it in different ways, but ultimately, you have one absolute truth.
In art or literature or suchlike, you can make more use of your imagination. You can have almost everything.
Yeah, there is only one straight line going between two points (in Euclidean geometry anyway), but who said it had to be a straight line to begin with? Why not let it wander about and see where it turns out and what it turns out to look like?

It can drive some people crazy, I know - they tend to ask 'Okay, but WHAT IS THE ANSWER, DAMMIT?!'... hey, I don't have the answer. I might have MY answer, but yours could be completely different.
And I love that.

Everything comes down to math. There is no such thing as free will or imagination and such, it is all a fabrication created by our minds. Everything that happens happens because of the interaction of particles and these interactions can be mapped and predicted by math... unfortunately the math is too complex to actually do but you could theoretically map out the future of the entire universe using a piece of cake

Not exactly. Some things cannot be predicted by equations - weather is a good example (I learned a bit about Chaos theory some years ago, it was fascinating).

Why does the fact that everything comes down to interaction of particles contradict imagination? Or free will, for that matter?

Mmmm.... Cake...

?

actually chaos theory does not preclude the prediction of the weather, it just accepts that it is verry hard to do. Look, all of your thoughts occoure because of the interaction of various particles, their interaction was caused by the interaction of other particles, which was caused by the interaction of other particles and so on all the way back to the creation of the universe. Their interaction will also cause interactions in the future.

The cake comes into it because if you could accuartely measure all the neccessary data about the particles which make up the cake, such as their location, velocity, interactions etc. then you could use that data to extrapolet back to the creation of the universe and then work forwards to find out exactly what had, is and will happen in the universe up untill its demise

>>The cake comes into it because if you could accuartely measure all the neccessary data about the particles which make up the cake, such as their location, velocity, interactions etc. then you could use that data<<

Oh and you need to know all the necessary math too, which we don't

Mm-hmm.

You still didn't explain why all of this contradicts imagination.

Imagination isn't contradicted, it just doesn't exist as anything more than the effect of certain predetermined interactions between particles within the brain. The concept of an imagination as a thing in and of its self is... well a figment of the imagination

Not only was that tautological but I still don't see why it matters.