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Breaking into the Church of Math

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday June 11 2023, @02:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-to-learn-mathematical-thinking dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Technology Review is running an unusual book review -- books about learning math, pure math, not applied math, https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/24/1071371/book-reviews-math-education/
The author admits to being adrift,

As a graduate student in physics, I have seen the work that goes into conducting delicate experiments, but the daily grind of mathematical discovery is a ritual altogether foreign to me. And this feeling is only reinforced by popular books on math, which often take the tone of a pastor dispensing sermons to the faithful.

An initial attempt led to a MasterClass by a "living legend of contemporary math", but the master is seated in a white armchair with no blackboards, pens or paper and does not enlighten.

A side story covers a writer for the New Yorker who plans a year to go back and learn the high school algebra/geometry/calculus that escaped him, but mostly fails. For backup he has a niece who is a math professor...but after months without getting it, he complains. Her answer?

"For a moment, think of it as a monastic discipline. You have to take on faith what I tell you." Where his niece and others see patterns and order, he perceives only "incoherence, obfuscation, and chaos"; he feels like a monk who sees lesser angels than everybody around him.

I won't spoil the end, but the author does make some progress with books by mathematician and concert pianist Eugenia Cheng, starting with "Cakes, Custard and Category Theory", where each chapter starts with an analogy to baking.

Unfortunately, for the SN audience, the article does not include any car analogies...

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Monday June 12 2023, @09:11PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) on Monday June 12 2023, @09:11PM (#1311163) Journal

    Yes. And that's why I said "they follow from a certain set of assumptions". I'm not denying that they *do* follow from those assumptions, just that the assumptions properly describe the universe. (They do come pretty close, though.)

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Tuesday June 13 2023, @01:48AM

    by hendrikboom (1125) on Tuesday June 13 2023, @01:48AM (#1311202) Homepage Journal

    they follow from a certain set of assumptions". I'm not denying that they *do* follow from those assumptions, just that the assumptions properly describe the universe.

    And that's the difference between math and physics.

    They do come pretty close, though.

    And that's why physicists still use math.