Word association: Math

[mix]

What comes to mind?

Personally, I have always had math anxieties which I have challenged myself to get over during the last few years since I need it for what I do.

[Boojatta]

1. Size...

... and that could be how many ("cardinality") or how much ("measure").

[mix]

2. Cardinality and measure, why does that sound like poetry nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Cardinals and pleasure

the less said on this topic, the better.

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. My first thought is "Woo hoo!!!" and then my brain gets excited and I get a good feeling inside.

But then, I've always loved math, so it's all good memories for me.

[Deep13]

5. meth nt

[CTyankee]

6. not much. But say "algebra" and I am once again 14 years old sitting

in my 9th grade algebra class, panic rising in my chest, certain that I was the only one in the room who didn't know what was going on.

I actually felt that same panic when I went back to school 40 YEARS later and took a "brush up" course in algebra. I was finally able to take my panic in hand and get through the algebra course that was a requisite for my degree...I even made an A!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Integral.

[TZ]

8. EEEEEEK!

Pretty math phobic though I love science and they kind of go hand in hand. I did however pick the LEAST mathematically orientated science in biology for a reason...Sorry Dr. Strange....

[pokerfan]

9. mostly fun

The thing is that everyone experiences math anxiety. I'm currently listening to a series of lectures by Paul Zeitz and he points out that when it comes to math, we're all stupid: "The bad news is it's true. You are stupid. Let's get this out of the way. You are stupid... because you are human and humans are just not that smart. We didn't evolved to solve mathematical problems. Even the most gifted of us have very few great ideas over the course of entire lifetime and we spend most of our time making mistakes and bumbling around."

[mix]

10. great post, thanks lol nt

[pokerfan]

12. My terrible, awful, no-good brain

PZ Myers on the human brain...

Here we go again, another creationist who doesn't understand the evolution side of the argument at all. He's criticizing the argument from bad design in a kind of backwards way.

I've never heard a Darwinist complain that the mind they use is the result of lousy design, that their mind is the result of a mindless, purposeless process and thus fundamentally untrustworthy as a reality-processor. (Would you want to buy a "word-processor" made by a random, purposeless process? Would you trust it?)

I've never heard a Darwinist complain they've been given a crappy brain never designed for abstract thought, or, indeed for thought at all. And yet, according to the self-same Darwinist, the brain is not designed for anything, just like the heart is not designed, the knee is not designed, the eye is not designed, etc. They all just popped out of the ooze, on their own, for no purpose, and if you've got problems with that, you're not very Bright™!

I'll complain! I have a very bad brain for the purposes I want to use it for. It's pretty good, but prone to awkward mistakes, for deciphering behavioral cues and inferring intent in my conspecifics, which is still a useful skill, but other functions, like the ability to search out fruit and tubers, or to coordinate a hunting party, or to detect predators lying in wait, I've let slide out of a lack of utility. I'd like a brain that could hold more than half a dozen numbers at once in my head, or that wasn't prone to perceptual errors, or that could process written information a bit more efficiently than this linear, one-word-or-phrase-at-a-time parsing. I wish I had a memory that could accurately record events and scenes, rather than storing a few key hints and reconstructing the rest. I'd like a brain that was actually evolved for doing mathematics naturally, rather than requiring years of discipline and training to acquire the skill artificially.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/my_terrible_awful_no-good_brai.php">Read the rest

[rurallib]

11. universal language

was thinking about that while driving and listening to science friday.

[IcyPeas]

13. Arithmetic - A rat in Tom's house.....

Pythagoras' Theorem
Hypotenuse

I don't remember what these mean at all. but using big words like that make me seem smart.

also

A rat in tom's house might eat tom's ice cream (that was how we remembered how to spell it back in the day

A
R-at
I-n
T-om's
H-ouse
M-ight
E-at
T-om's
I-ce
C-ream