/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1048934]

Greetings /sci/ducks, I/m very determined start college next year, and I'm aiming for an undergrad in Physics. My goal is to be an astronomer you see. However, my math skills are completely fucking shit. How hard is the math when applied in classes? Calculus and what have you. Think I can do it with enough studying and remedial math courses, or are some people just naturally bad at math? And for any Physics majors out there, what the fuck am I getting myself in to?

[Anonymous No.1048939]

>i suck at math
>i wanna be a physicist

>i'm either a total moron or a troll

[Anonymous No.1048951]

If you ENJOY math, you can take the summer to brush up on your algebra and then take early calculus classes during your semester.

If you don't ENJOY math, pick another major.

[Anonymous No.1048956]

>or are some people just naturally bad at math?
Some faggots will say so, don't listen to them.

[Anonymous No.1048958]

>>1048951

I enjoy math very much when I know what I'm doing lol.

[Anonymous No.1048962]

All lower-division math courses are exercises in plugging numbers. You can't be naturally bad at something so simple.

[Anonymous No.1048992]

>>1048962
You can't be naturally bad at maths at all, and the people perpetuating this myth are cancer.

[Anonymous No.1049023]

>>1048962
This is one of the problems. Many lower-division math courses have been oversimplified to the point that they become meaningless. They teach you to plug numbers, but never even attempt to get you to understand what you're doing. This gives people the idea that math is much more difficult than it really is.

The first thing we need to do with math education in the US is stop convincing everybody that math is hard before they even try.

[Anonymous No.1049031]

>>1048962
>>1048992
>>1049023
Intelligent /sci/ons, let us discuss education the "math myth". Why is math perceived as somehting inherently challenging?

[Anonymous No.1049083]

>>1049031
Because bad teachers never tell their students to visualize (hence the students stick to raw textual formulations), and because the students don't realize that they only need more concentration efforts to get along with maths (concentration works like a muscle, not an innate ability)

[Anonymous No.1049100]

>>1049031

Because it's hard to teach well. Really, I think a lot of it is a vicious cycle sort of thing: people think math is hard so they don't take math courses and then some of those people teach elementary school and pass their own fear of math on to their students. It's really sad that when kids are at the peak of their ability to learn abstract concepts they're usually being taught by people who have no idea what's going on. You can't really blame the teacher themselves, though; the whole system is broken.

Personally, I would really like to see an elementary school bring in some expert math teachers and teach kids axiomatic set theory. The concepts aren't particularly complex, the only reason people struggle with them later on is because they're so abstract. If you can give kids a solid understanding of the true foundations of mathematics at an early age, everything else will follow from there. It might not work out, but I really think it's worth a shot.

Related: I recently read an interesting article about why Asians do so well at math and science. The general feeling among white Americans seems to be that Asians are just naturally better at those subjects, but if you ask the Asians themselves they'll tell you that's it's all about hard work.

[Anonymous No.1049102]

>>1049031
My guess is it's because math requires a different way of thinking. It's challenging in that it requires a concerted effort an a fair amount of practice. That's different from the idea that math is difficult in a way that's unlearnable.

[Anonymous No.1049135]

>>1049100 The general feeling among white Americans seems to be that Asians are just naturally better at those subjects, but if you ask the Asians themselves they'll tell you that's it's all about hard work.
It's pretty clear that it's all about the hard work, but their system has its own problems. They emphasize hard work over all else. Nobody even considers the teacher's ability to teach or the way things are introduced. The emphasis is just on the students sitting down and learning everything through brute force. I don't think you'd ever be able to sell that idea in the US, and I sure as hell would never subject my children to an Asian education system.

[Anonymous No.1049217]

>>1049031
Kids can't grasp what math is good for, it seems pointless to a lot of them.

This is talking from having tutored a bunch of foster kits, most of whom suck at math.

I had a 17 year old girl that had no concept of what "area" and "perimeter" of a shape meant, what they were, why there were different. To her, it was just some weird process of taking numbers on the paper and add multiply or subtract them to get another number that's "special" for some reason, but who knows why.

BTW, her goal after graduating from high school (maybe) was to go into law enforcement... I'm still not quite sure how I should/do feel about this.

[Anonymous No.1049337]

>>1049031
There's a cultural aspect, certainly. Hollywood and advertising have long pushed the idea that math is boring, difficult, and only understood by less than beautiful people. This has been happening long enough that many parents pass this view on to children. If you're old enough, you may remember the talking Barbie doll "Math is hard!" shitstorm.

And, unbelievably, many early math teachers present their own material as difficult. I remember an elementary school teacher presenting word problems as "uh-oh" difficult before she even explained what they were. I don't think she realized what an idiot move that was, and did it for years. I don't think she was unique.

I'd say that American public schools do a good job of teaching students a variety of maths, and not just the "balance your checkbook" rubbish. However, it is often poorly motivated, and so many students see even geometry as a school hurdle that they'll never ever use again.

[Anonymous No.1049342]

>>1049337
[continued]

Finally, math in the US is so lifeless. I remember in the early grades, we'd have these daily godawful sheets of 100 sums or products, and we were graded on speed and accuracy. Maths here, even the higher maths, relies so much on rote. And the interesting part of maths, the puzzle, is rarely taught. At certain stages of school, people who have a flair for math are quietly encouraged to join some separate group to pursue the puzzle aspects of mathematics. That's really the only context where students are encouraged to look for patterns and find their own explanations. So most aren't even properly exposed to the best parts. I should also add that this rote process even turns off students who would be terrific mathematicians, and not all teachers appreciate that. Some do, happily. I remember my algebra teacher handed me a compass and ruler at the beginning of one class, and challenged me to do a few constructions. I got a fair grasp of the material early, and knew I'd be cryingly bored of the repetition by the end of the year. I was so grateful for the puzzle. I couldn't do most of them, but I learned a bunch of geometry just by trying. And most importantly, I wasn't bored during math class. Sadly, he wasn't representative of all my teachers.