The beauty of numerical thought

You can see patterns of logic that the average person will dismiss as chaos

You can prove things that the average person will dismiss as unsubstantiatable conjecture

You can make level-headed decisions based on solid foundations

You can persuade very powerfully

You can LEAD...

If there's one subject you should insist on your child spending a lot of time on at school, it should be mathematics. The only sad thing is, as with most other talents in life, some have it and some don't...

Abdul, I don't know if you would recall an essay I suggested for our writers here that had to do with the differences between writing "cow," which the author defined as facts without relevancies, and "bull," defined as relevancies without facts.

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~lipoff/miscellaneous/exams.html

Most of that article had to do with writing essays, but near the end, he made the claim that higher level mathematics and physics might not be entirely "bull"-free:

Quote :

I feel, however, that the Natural Sciences have no reason to feel slighted.... As part of my researches for this paper, furthermore, a student of considerable talent has recently honored me with an impressive analysis of the art of amassing "partial credits" on examinations in advanced physics. Though beyond me in some respects, his presentation confirmed my impression that instructors of Physics frequently honor on examinations operations structurally similar to those requisite in a good essay.

When I showed this passage to my astrophysicist son, he just grinned and shrugged. So now I ask another astrophysicist: Is it possible to "bull" in physics?

Ann

I know I am in above my own head here, but I do think that the whole mechanism of what we name a universe and others are the unraveling of the big bang and on into infinity ripple by ripple and so it goes. It has nothing to do with humanity at all, just the contuation of this universe and others. Our bang may not have just been for the earth. Humanity is just a microbe in the process.

Love,
Betty

Betty Fasig wrote:

I know I am in above my own head here, but I do think that the whole mechanism of what we name a universe and others are the unraveling of the big bang and on into infinity ripple by ripple and so it goes. It has nothing to do with humanity at all, just the contuation of this universe and others. Our bang may not have just been for the earth. Humanity is just a microbe in the process.

Love,
Betty

I've always wished I was better at math than I am. Maybe not quite as good as that math professor character on the show NUMBERS, but good enough to keep up with 6th graders.

Malcolm

You have all left me behind somewhere in the fourth grade.

Carol

Me too. The fourth or fifth grade was about when I decided I could add, subtract, multiply and divide so anything beyond that was brain clutter.

alj wrote:

When I showed this passage to my astrophysicist son, he just grinned and shrugged.

Ann

That's one of the beauties of mathematics. You can't bull in mathematics. Your answers are either right or they're wrong, irrespective of whether your teacher likes you or not.

When physics transcends to that "higher level" you speak of...then I guess it's down to whether your immediate academic peers like to accept your work as cow or dismiss it as bull...as at that level the distinction between right and wrong becomes very blurred to any outside observers...