math ignoramus

My name is dem_z and I am a Math Dumbass. I'm not proud of this, it's something that I need to work on. But come on, does *anyone* understand long division?

Are you pisspoor at math? Do you wish you were better, or don't you care, or do you have some form of freakish "math dyslexia"? Or perhaps there's some other subject that you're really bad at. I'm not so good at geography. Or history. Or physics. Or chemistry. Or, well, that's a long list.

Perhaps you're really good at math, in which case please feel free to point at and mock me.

Long division is totally easy, but everything after algebra 2 is too complicated for me. And by complicated, I mean boring.

I'm awful. When I was doing it on a daily basis I was fine, but a liberal arts education stunted that ability. I normally do not care, except when I was entertaining notions of returning to school for architecture, and an ill-fated Physics class torpedoed those plans.

I'm terrible at math. I use a calculator to do 8 plus 6. Okay, it's more out of habit, but I stopped taking math a long ass time ago due to my inability/failure to understand it.

Try Meeks she's freakishly good at math and sciences. Im with you, no math for me.

I suck at maths too. I was a straight-A kid in school too. And then I did art in college, so I'm blaming art.
I'd like to get back into it but where does one start? Maths for Dummies?

I believe Al is something of a math wiz... in that she has (I think) at least one degree in mathematics. I myself am a math dumbass.

Everyday Math for Dummies.
Algebra for Dummies
Calculus for Dummies.

I'm going to have a look at these in Waterstones tomorrow.

Is it "Waterstones" or "Waterstone's"?

OK I know your a bit of a star , and you audience might be American, but its
maths not math!

*points and laughs*

Also, I'm disappointed that you don't have a math problem for me to try and solve.

[Edited on Feb 13, 2005 by MisterSatan]

I have a math degree. One thing I've found in years of helping/teaching/tutoring math is that most people are much less bad at it than they fear. It's true that some people seem to be more naturally comfortable with some of the abstractions of higher-level maths, but most people never get a chance to know because there is a pervasive confidence problem.

One of the reasons for this is that many pre-college math teachers are awful. They are good mathematicians, and often very nice people. However, they are not capable teachers and they end up stifling learning. I'm not saying it's an easy job, or well-paid. So it's hard to demonize. But I still claim that these teachers add to the general lack of confidence found in math students.

I bet that if I sat down for an hour with anyone in this thread who has claimed to be bad at math, that person would be genuinely surprised by his or her ability. I'd also wager the person would find it more interesting and elegant than predicted. I have enough experience helping frustrated math students to make these bets with confidence.

If a train leaves from Cleveland at 50 miles per hour and a train leaves from San Francisco at 88 miles per hour what does two plus two equal?

P.S. Math is hard.

[Edited on Feb 13, 2005 by unravled]

No it isn't, I like it. I was solving rational equations on the plane home.

This is true, I spent a whole lot of my junior year not in class because of my math teacher, but still managed to hold down an A in Honors English. The woman haunts me to this day.


[Edited on Feb 13, 2005 by unravled]

Does it matter really? I mean, I'm a computer programmer, what the hell do I need to know math for?

Damnit, most of you guys (computer programmers) know as much math as most mathematicans; yet you only get one piece of paper. I hardly call that fair. It's like psychologists and statistics.

Modeling the asymptotic behavior of algorithms and data structures? Estimating quantities that cannot be cheaply computed directly? Maybe I'm biased because I work in scientific programming, but I use math roughly four days a week. My position in our project is Lead Programmer.

Unless you were kidding, in which case I feel dumb.

A lot of us get/have gotten a double major in math an CS; many universities make it easy to do so. It took me something like five extra courses.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume Ace was kidding.

That's cool; it's really useful when you liase with a programmer who really knows their stuff. (Oh, and I got that Ace was kidding; I just took it a step)

[Edited on Feb 13, 2005 by mat8drb]

Didn't we discuss sarcasm yesterday, and how it is the poor man's wit? I was giving him the benefit of one doubt (not resorting to sarcasm) anyway.

I failed math twice last year and am terrified to take it again. I almost failed it numerous times in high school. The highest grade I ever got was a C-.

Considering the difference between a degree in Computer Science and a degree in Mathematics is the Computer Science major has to take computer classes too; I'd say yeah, I was kidding.

And Al is totally gonna kill me for saying that.

Also dem, you can refer to the Autism Spectrum thread for my answer to your original questions.

Well, if you program, then you've surely come across the "software engineer" who has very little math background, very little computer theory background, and is basically good at making blackbox modules to meet specifications. I have met people like this (though we don't hire them) who honestly claim that they don't need to know math.

As for the math degree, I was not required to take any analysis courses for my CS degree. The math degree required complex, real, and algebra analysis. It also allowed me to take field theory and some other grad-level courses that a computer science degree alone would not have.

I still feel dumb, but at least I didn't resort to the poor man's wit