Why is mathematics boring/difficult to/for many people?

[frob2900]

I've often heard people say "Ooh, math's is not my thing" or "Ooh, my brain can't handle that" about mathematics, whereas the same people would often choose other statement if some other difficult subject such as biology or the playing the piano came up.

I have reached the conclusion that the correct translation of the above statements might be "I find the subject boring and I do not wish to spend any time on it". Is that a correct translation?

If so, why is it boring to many people? Certainly other abstract subjects like aesthetics or art are not considered so, so why math?

If not, why is mathematics so difficult? From experience I know that the discipline needed to learn math is certainly no larger than that needed to learn to draw well, or, I guess, learn woodworking?

Why is a subject which is arguably as important as spelling considered a pariah in our modern world?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Maths is art. 'Nuff said.

Some people have mathematical brains and some people don't I guess. I'm useless at languages (except C/C++ and other computer programming languages).

I do like to correct people's mathematical falsehoods though. I am the prophet of common fractions. And the random nonsense generator.

Gamedev.net has a good forum for maths people.

 

[CaptainF]

Boring as hell.

At least other "arts" are more interesting and aesthetic.

 

[Ansar]

I ask myself the same question.

Why is Math so hard for you people? It's really simple! It's only numbers!

EDIT: So it's not that it's hard, it's that it's boring?

 

[CaptainF]

I ask myself the same question.

Why is Math so hard for you people? It's really simple! It's only numbers!

Yeah it is simple when it's only numbers. Throw in all this algrebraic, calculus nonsense and it's a whole lotta flunked math tests.

 

[Catharsis]

I think some people have a misunderstanding of what mathematics is: they see it as something that is hard, whereas in reality it is a tool to make things easier.

 

[mrt144]

I think some people have a misunderstanding of what mathematics is: they see it as something that is hard, whereas in reality it is a tool to make things easier.

quoted for truth!

 

[Ansar]

Yeah it is simple when it's only numbers. Throw in all this algrebraic, calculus nonsense and it's a whole lotta flunked math tests.

Ok fine.

It's numbers AND letters...

I assume you find part of science boring too? Because science, especially Physics (if what I've seen is true), has formulas and you have to do math there too.

 

[Shadylookin]

because words like algebra trigonometry and calculus sound scary so they never try

 

[Ansar]

I do agree that trigonometry sounds scary, but you always have to be brave!

 

[Masquerouge]

Bad marketing.

Plus math usually does not allow you to bluff, fake or lazy your way through it...

 

[admiral-bell]

Math, especially the high sort, if often very abstract. My father was a computer programmer. The highest math he ever used, in a very math intensive field, was Trigonometry.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

When I think about it, my aversion towards math and the like stems from my resolve to not care for it at a young age. Back then I liked history and rhetorical subjects better and always did better in those a classes as a result; which seems good because now I'm pursuing history and rhetorical based subjects for a career. But even now, my math skills are terrible. I honestly can't even add anything "complex" without a calculator. Hence, why I stay away from all math classes or math topics even with a ten foot pole.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Numbers? You'll be lucky to see any numbers at all if you study maths at higher levels. It's all Greek letters most of the time (well, maybe you get to see a zero or a 1 or maybe a square root of 2 if you are really lucky).

If maths is so boring how come Archimedes was so engrossed with his mathematical drawing in the sand that he didn't notice the Roman soldier who killed him? Huh?

If it is so boring how come Evariste Galois spent the whole night writing his theories down instead of getting a good nights kip to prepare for the duel at dawn that killed him aged just 20?

 

[Irish Caesar]

I assume you find part of science boring too? Because science, especially Physics (if what I've seen is true), has formulas and you have to do math there too.

Ah, but physics is the application of all these formulas in describing the universe. The formulas in themselves may not be overly exciting, but the fact that they can describe all that stuff is cool.

Math without that application is, perhaps, what is boring. It doesn't really click until you have to use it for some reason.

 

[CaptainF]

Delete this!!

 

[frob2900]

Boring as hell.

At least other "arts" are more interesting and aesthetic.

Interesting! So it's the lack of aesthetics that puts you off math?

I would remind you, though, that some fields of mathematics produce graphs that supposedly have great aesthetic value (complex analysis, especially, which gives many well known fractal patterns).

Also, there is supposedly great aesthetic appeal in many of the more complicated complex analytical functions, such as their singularity structure.

[EDIT]

Yeah it is simple when it's only numbers. Throw in all this algrebraic, calculus nonsense and it's a whole lotta flunked math tests.

Real and complex algebra is just numbers. The variables are merely placeholders for numbers.

Calculus is actually a very interesting way of modelling real-life phenomena. Absolutely essential for knowing how to predict how a huge number of phenomena in the world work. Take gravity for example. While Newtonian gravity can essentially be described with geometry (Newton did this in "Principia"), you really do want calculus in that case, since it makes the calculations so much simpler.

 

[Ansar]

Yeah it is simple when it's only numbers. Throw in all this algrebraic, calculus nonsense and it's a whole lotta flunked math tests.

You posted the same thing 6 minutes ago...

 

[Catharsis]

You posted the same thing 6 minutes ago...

He goes in cycles, like a sin graph. In 6 minutes he'll post the same thing again.

EDIT: Of course, I am assuming he's on the crest or trough of the sin wave.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Maths without application is what makes it an art.

Lots of stuff we use today had no apparent use when it was invented. Poincarre discovered fractals long before anyone could draw them using computers. You can use them to compress computer data these days.

Abstract number theory had no real use until cryptography found uses for it (which is what allows you to use your credit card over the web securely).

EDIT: And a Mobius strip was just a curious surface with only one side and edge until someone realised that conveyor belts would last twice as long that way.