Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (Full Version)

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dcnovice -> Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 8:26:33 AM)

Friends ---

I'm a math phobe who loved geometry. At first, I thought it was because my geometry teacher was way better than my other math teachers. But I've met a fair number of people who had the same experience. I've also met a fair number of people who liked math but disliked geometry.

I'm curious to see if this rough pattern continues with CM folk. If you liked math, did you dislike geometry? If you disliked math, did you like geometry?

If the pattern holds for you (or not), any theories why?

Cheers,

DC




NeedToUseYou -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 8:28:23 AM)

I liked trig and geometry. I hate calculus. Literally hate it. 




stella41b -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 8:43:40 AM)

I understand trigonometry... I understand geometry...

.. I also understand that 4 + 4 = 8.. that 2 - 1 = 1, and so on.

What I don't understand is how x + y = z

I'm sorry, but I never managed to learn the 'w' times table.

I mean, it's hardly relevant in life. I mean, you wouldn't go into your bank and order them to pay someone 3x - 4y would you now?

You get a high phone bill. You can't exactly call them and say that you will pay ther bill off at the rate of 7x to the power of 'p' squared by 8z can you now?

Imagine going to your boss and telling him that you want a raise and from next month you expect to be paid 4x + 3y - 2z dollars? He'd think you're nuts.

My Maths teacher once asked me to explain 4x + 2y = 36 and I told him it was 'complete gibberish'. I got detention. But I'm right.

I mean, you're sitting there, trying to understand the basic principle of BDSM and this person says to you "Now, if we assume the Dominant is x with a value of 3, and the submissive is....' Go away! I don't want to know!

Which is why I failed my Math exam.




Alumbrado -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 8:44:18 AM)

Loved geometry... didn't need to study, it just made perfect sense to me.

Regression analysis on the other hand, liked to kill me...numbers are too devious...[:D]




popeye1250 -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 8:49:02 AM)

Yeah, I liked geometry too.
But, from the very first day I couldn't understand aljebra.
The teacher just started writing stuff on the board and just kept going without explaining any of it!
I was like, "what the fuck is this guy trying to say?"
There must have been about a thousand "rules" to follow in aljebra and he just went from one to the next to the next in rapid succession because; "we have a lot of material to cover."
I think that's the wrong way to teach. By the end of the class the blackboards would be full of numbers and equations and everyone would be looking at each other with that "WTF" look on their faces.
Then, on tests I'd solve the problems using simple math and he'd mark my answers wrong because I didn't use "aljebra."
Geometry was different because I could "see" what the teacher was talking about on the board.
Males are more spacially oriented so Geometry is easier and more interesting to us.
I could imagine being an Engineer and using geometry to build a bridge for example.




philosophy -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 9:40:17 AM)

actually i liked both math and geometry........and i am fond of algebra too.........damn, i'm a deviant....lol




IrishMist -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 9:42:44 AM)

I always loved math...algebra, geometry, trig, calc...the problem was that I was HORRIBLE at anything resembling a word problem...they could be asking me to do no more than add 2 and 2, and my mind would go completly blank.

Really sucked lol




velvetears -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 10:43:23 AM)

i think if i were being raised now, instead of during a time where it wasn't thought that girls could do well in math and there was an atmosphere of fear surrounding it, that i would have done much better and gone further with it.  Case in point... i took a test beginning of HS and scored 2nd highest in my class for math. They wanted to put me in the accelerated program but i declined convinced i wouldn't do well. They promised me i would pass with flying colors and would be bored with the slower paced class i opted for.  They were right, and that was algebra.  Two years later i took geometry and failed - not sure if it was that i struggled with the concepts as much as it was simply life circumstances at the time.  Had to pass statistics to get my degree and signed up and dropped it 3 times before i finally got it..... oh the frustration.

Math phobia is quite common in girls and teachers are taught to watch out that they don't play into it - ways to prevent it are when you ask a question simply make it a point to ask - boy - girl - boy - girl etc. They found that teachers tend to favor the boys when asking questions during math, thus  perpetuating the myth.




CuriousLord -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 11:20:49 AM)

Up to (and counting) Calculus I is highschool-level Math now.

So, starting at 12th-grade Math, geometry and algebra are inseperable, as Calculus relies extensively on both.

Calculus is a pain in the ass in polar et al. cordinates with respect to position and its derivative vectors.  Diffy Q has a lot of memorization that never really did it for me until the S-transforms.  Linear's easy, but I haven't had much use of it outside balancing stochemetrics.  I haven't gotten to Abstract yet.  Stat's rather vulgar.





luckydog1 -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 11:34:07 AM)

I found geometry to be incredibly easy, Algebra hard and Pre Cal/Trig left me utterly confused.   I ofund the same type thing in science.  Chemistry was very easy to  me, I could visualise the reactions of the atoms, while physics was much harder relying mostly on the math.

Popeye, I would prefer my bridges be put up with Physics, not geometry.




dcnovice -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 12:05:16 PM)

quote:

I found geometry to be incredibly easy, Algebra hard and Pre Cal/Trig left me utterly confused.  


Exactly my experience!




chellekitty -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 4:11:29 PM)

loved algebra, hated geometry - failed the first semester, passed the class with a B+...it wasn't that i couldn't do the work...just didn't want to, never went any further than that....finished math in 9th grade in highschool...was more into art and music and english in college...just because you're good at it doesn't mean you have to do more than necessary...does it?

chelle




DomKen -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 4:11:47 PM)

My degree is in mathematics so I'm probably not representative. Geometry is a basic underlying fundamental of all math.that usually isn't taught until so late that many people who would easily grasp the relationship of equations to shapes and curves are so convinced they don't get math that they have given up.

If you really 'get' geometry you can learn trig and calculus. They are simply ways of analyzing or representing shapes/curves in mathematic symbols.

If geometry is a mystery to you I really don't see how you could make serious progress into the higher maths.

BTW just as further encouragement to those who like geometry, the standard text on higher math for most of the last thousand plus years was Euclid's "Elements" which is mostly geometric in its approach to math.




Aneirin -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:00:24 PM)

Hated math for the sake of math, now applied math, that was easy and I enjoyed it, Loved trigonometry and geometry,perhaps it is in the seeing of what is going on is the key to it all.

Algebra, er, I could do it, but it was difficult,I could see the use of it, but have never used it, not once and I have been in engineering all my life.

Calculus, aaarrrrrggghhh, the very word brings back yukky memories.




CuriousLord -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:12:02 PM)

I wonder if anyone would be interested in a Math instructional thread?  :P

Hell, if you know Abstract or Ring, I'd be interested in that.




CuriousLord -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:18:16 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Algebra, er, I could do it, but it was difficult,I could see the use of it, but have never used it, not once and I have been in engineering all my life.


Not to pry, but out of curiousity.. what sort of Engineering are you in that you've never had to use Algebra in?




kyraofMists -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:20:41 PM)

I love math, geometry, algebra, trig, calculus, number theory, differential equations and even the very introductory level of fractals that I took.  Physics and thermodynamics are also something that I enjoyed.

I essentially enjoy problem solving.

Knight's Kyra




KyttynTheMynx -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:25:18 PM)

Math in any form is not my friend.  Mainly because it just doesnt hold an interest with me like English, or History or Science did.  Throw in the fact that you gotta use letters in math and I freaked.  Geometry was ok for me, but it just took forever for me to grasp a hold of, until my tutor took me out to shoot pool and made me use Geometry before every shot.  Its still a challenge for me to do it and all the fluff that goes along, but my pool game is soooo awesome!




IrishMist -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:28:13 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: CuriousLord

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Algebra, er, I could do it, but it was difficult,I could see the use of it, but have never used it, not once and I have been in engineering all my life.


Not to pry, but out of curiousity.. what sort of Engineering are you in that you've never had to use Algebra in?

curiosity is taking over...




hands0n0knees -> RE: Liked Math? Disliked Geometry? Or Vice Versa? (11/22/2007 5:42:33 PM)

quote:

Math phobia is quite common in girls and teachers are taught to watch out that they don't play into it - ways to prevent it are when you ask a question simply make it a point to ask - boy - girl - boy - girl etc. They found that teachers tend to favor the boys when asking questions during math, thus  perpetuating the myth.


I never had a male teacher for maths; and girls do better in maths exams than boys, at least in this country.  But there's still a lot of extra programmes to help girls overcome this awful oppression.

I've written a few chapters of a book on Isaac Newton, but I'm only passable at mathematics, and only the pure sort at that.  Any sort of connection to the real world just turns me off.




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