tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post346025581796245700..comments2024-02-29T03:29:52.934-05:00Comments on A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago: Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02113168955236758821noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-4555570927382995412012-06-04T18:56:50.777-04:002012-06-04T18:56:50.777-04:00It's not you; calculus is that hard. I posted ...It's not you; calculus is that hard. I posted something similar above, but in terms of both abstraction and complexity, calculus is a big leap over algebra (which is, itself, a bit of a jump from arithmetic). There are so many concepts that most students won't have seen before: real numbers, limits, epsilon-delta (which tends to also be the introduction to mathematical proof), continuity, combination and composition of functions... and that's before we even get to the derivative. By the time you reach the Mean Value Theorem and the Fundamental Theorem (my favorite theorem, despite my distaste for the discipline), most students have, as spacewoman puts it, decided to be a lawyer.J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-15190831711609220222012-06-04T13:14:09.713-04:002012-06-04T13:14:09.713-04:00I would like to start referring to the "Barbi...I would like to start referring to the "Barbie theory of math" on a daily basis. Not, of course, as something young women should subscribe to, but just as a wonderful turn of phrase. Thanks, Meghan! bella wilfernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-33710915733788449642012-06-04T13:12:46.894-04:002012-06-04T13:12:46.894-04:00Genevieve & spacewoman, I am right there with ...Genevieve & spacewoman, I am right there with you. I was fine in BC Calc - for some reason the visualizations there didn't give me a hard time - but then freshman year in college (at Isaac's alma mater, BOO HARVARD) I made the mistake of taking Astro 220, which was Astronomy with actual math involved rather than Astronomy for Poets or whatever they called the easy one that my friends with better foresight took. I just could not for the life of me deal with graphing in three dimensions - I went to every single office hours my Prof held (yes, I'm that girl...) and just COULD NOT GET IT. It was infuriating to hit up against something my brain just could not comprehend, but there it was. My incredibly kind (super caustic in lectures but then really nice when I came into his office week after week, confidence completely shot, to explain that I yet again did not understand the problem set) Prof basically took pity on me, gave me hints to the answers on the final exam (ethical? probably not. but he could tell how hard I was freaking trying...), and I ended up with a B+. It was both the worst and best class I took in 4 years of college, if only because it gave me some much-needed humility. YMMV on the aforementioned ethics of the Professor's pity on me and whether or not me being the only girl (seriously) in the class had anything to do with it. Frankly, I think he just didn't know what to do with someone who absolutely could not get it on her own.bella wilfernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-60823078773882695602012-06-04T12:49:58.726-04:002012-06-04T12:49:58.726-04:00I'm right there with you. I was all about mat...I'm right there with you. I was all about math in junior high; I loved all those Girls in Math programs and competitions and whatnot. And then there was calculus, which was when I decided to be a lawyer.spacewomannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-80239940257294209292012-06-04T12:39:25.326-04:002012-06-04T12:39:25.326-04:00Thanks, Adam!Thanks, Adam!spacewomannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-47168948905989647862012-06-04T11:38:56.450-04:002012-06-04T11:38:56.450-04:00And we had quite a good teacher, who also taught u...And we had quite a good teacher, who also taught us Algebra II/Trig and I had no trouble with that at all. So it wasn't his fault.Genevievenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-37598371220196765712012-06-04T11:37:58.075-04:002012-06-04T11:37:58.075-04:00I sailed along in math with one exception until I ...I sailed along in math with one exception until I was generally befuddled by calculus. Geometry was the exception, and over time I started to think that the link between that and calculus was spatial thinking and spatial visualization, which was my mathematical weakness. Geology strengthened that belief, as I had no trouble in that class until it came time to make drawings showing what was under the earth based on what we saw on the surface. <br /><br />This may be my particular idiosyncrasy, or it may be why some people struggle in calculus. I could not for the life of me do things like visualize spheres within other three-dimensional shapes and calculate the volume between the two (I think that's what we did in AB or BC that killed me - eventually I dropped back to AB and was happier). I made it through Geometry with a very hard-fought mix of Bs and As, but BC Calculus was my Waterloo.<br /><br />I was very relieved that my school didn't have distribution requirements so I didn't have to take any post-calculus math, though I did take Statistics and econ.Genevievenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-39805989116790088442012-06-04T10:22:25.153-04:002012-06-04T10:22:25.153-04:00And those jeans don't make her butt look big e...And those jeans don't make her butt look big either.Mike Schmelzernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-35730314035968208082012-06-04T10:04:00.829-04:002012-06-04T10:04:00.829-04:00I don't remember being generally befuddled by ...I don't remember being generally befuddled by calculus (notwithstanding the near lack of recall I have for it today), but I do remember having to work a LOT harder in AB and BC than I had in any previous math course. Now, I did have a very good teacher (at least that was my perception - it was a fairly demanding private school and he's still there 20+ years later, last I checked, so he's likely doing something right). So I think there's a whole lot of (a) calculus is hard, yo, at play, though (b) probably has a seat at the table in specific circumstances.Adam C.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-69043623420828487922012-06-04T09:14:08.742-04:002012-06-04T09:14:08.742-04:00So here's a question: I feel like I am far fr...So here's a question: I feel like I am far from the only person in the world who sailed along in math before being generally befuddled by calculus. (For background - full on mathlete, did ok in calculus, but only because of a friend who taught me the "how tos" before every test, which I promptly forgot thereafter.) I have heard similar stories many times. Is this because (a) calculus is hard, yo, or is it possible that (b) calculus is sufficiently harder than "regular" math that your average high school math teacher isn't necessarily capable of bringing the degree of teaching skill required to get the students fully onboard? Or alternatively (c), this wasn't others' experience and my own mathematical abilities were more limited than they seemed to be during grades K-11. (Maybe this should be a post rather than a comment, but it's a little more QDay than ALOTT5MA.)KCosmonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-66985161836050461792012-06-03T22:47:41.586-04:002012-06-03T22:47:41.586-04:00Heh. The w's degree is in statistics. A condit...Heh. The w's degree is in statistics. A condition of her agreeing to marry me was that I stop insisting it wasn't "real math."J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-49787594359278341222012-06-03T20:38:44.694-04:002012-06-03T20:38:44.694-04:00Kim, your experience and mine were similar, albeit...Kim, your experience and mine were similar, albeit with different acceptance letters. Having placed out of any college math requirement, I managed to avoid math and math-related courses for four years, even as an undergrad business major, with a handful of exceptions in the core curriculum (Stat101, Econ 1 and 2, Fin101 and 102). I regret that more than a bit now, and I realize there's no way I'll remember enough calculus to help my kids if they get there in high school. But I still enjoy helping them now, and I'm looking forward to working through those challenges with them over the coming years. Once a mathlete, always a mathlete, I guess.Adam C.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-8914238565820628542012-06-03T17:02:37.986-04:002012-06-03T17:02:37.986-04:00This was awesome to read. I know nothing about ma...This was awesome to read. I know nothing about math beyond the high school level -- ironically, the day I got my acceptance letter from the school being discussed in this post, I happily told my calculus teacher later that day that I would no longer spend any time stressing about his class, as Harvard didn't have a math requirement. But I did like math until that year, and I have always wondered about Math 55 as a conceptual matter. So, again: this was awesome to read!KCosmonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-79243403227008906942012-06-03T16:05:06.160-04:002012-06-03T16:05:06.160-04:00Done. Spacewoman, is your Yahoo account the curren...Done. Spacewoman, is your Yahoo account the current one? Because that's where I sent it.<span> </span>Adamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-78716019169346878142012-06-03T15:37:17.301-04:002012-06-03T15:37:17.301-04:00As a side note: If you head over to the Harvard Ma...As a side note: If you head over to the Harvard Math homepage (the "second-best math department" link), you'll see that Evan O'Dorney was on Harvard's Putnam-winning team this year. The Putnam is a big math competition for undergrads. There are twelve questions, each worth 10 points, 3-4000 people take it each year (I never did), and the median score is usually 1 point. It's difficult.<br />O'Dorney was, in fact, a Putnam Fellow, which means he was one of the top five scores in the competition. This is the sort of guy who makes me feel like a fraud for telling people I have a PhD in math.J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-45464533932807849982012-06-03T15:19:03.207-04:002012-06-03T15:19:03.207-04:00What comes after calculus is somebody sitting arou...What comes after calculus is somebody sitting around thinking, "How can we make this harder?"<br />Calculus, I think, is really the top of the heap in terms of both the discipline and attention to detail required to perform the computations, and the intuition necessary to understand <i>why</i> you're doing what you're doing, so that you can solve the next problem. Disciplines beyond that generally either move into ever-more-complex computation (DiffEq, finite element theory, linear algebra), or more layers of theory and abstraction (modern algebra, topology), but not both.<br /><br />Anyway, feel free to email. I trust that you have access to someone who has access to the blog email account, and thus my address, so I don't have to type it here?J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-90713756708244519962012-06-03T15:05:58.753-04:002012-06-03T15:05:58.753-04:00I forgot about Lesley, though I did take the time ...I forgot about Lesley, though I did take the time to verify that Bunker Hill CC wasn't in Cambridge.J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-51744996662286386552012-06-03T15:02:58.608-04:002012-06-03T15:02:58.608-04:00I'm a little too busy with 6.002x to download ...I'm a little too busy with 6.002x to download the course material for this class, but... yes.J. Bowmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-16408027728237188442012-06-03T09:53:33.665-04:002012-06-03T09:53:33.665-04:00I was a serious math geek until I switched to phys...I was a serious math geek until I switched to physics because I wanted more practical application. What do I do now? C programming.gtv2000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-53947363350103930182012-06-02T21:32:51.019-04:002012-06-02T21:32:51.019-04:00I subscribed to the Barbie theory of math early on...I subscribed to the Barbie theory of math early on and, in my post-schooling days, came to regret it. Sometimes I wonder what I could have done with it if I'd given it the same amount of attention I gave literature and the social sciences. <br /><br />Pretty sure I could never have done this. Math IS hard.Meghannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-65318868278847557332012-06-02T18:22:23.752-04:002012-06-02T18:22:23.752-04:00 My undergraduate degree comes from the other scho...<em> My undergraduate degree comes from the other school in </em><em>Cambridge</em><br /><br />I hovered over the link to verify you indeed were talking about that safety school down the river. Just wanted to let you know not to put it like this with a Lesley grad in the room, they have fearsome right hooks.sconstantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-12776021656896735112012-06-02T17:32:30.782-04:002012-06-02T17:32:30.782-04:00If you can do math, you can do anything you want. ...If you can do math, you can do anything you want. Damn, I am jealous of people who can do math.Nupurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-20199764038222642192012-06-02T15:08:05.174-04:002012-06-02T15:08:05.174-04:00I barely scraped through Math for Non-Science Majo...I barely scraped through Math for Non-Science Majors (heh) and still have nightmares about it nineteen years later. Math = not my thing. I wish it was. This is like a whole world I can never visit.reallymadcownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-53993575853562361842012-06-02T14:51:56.511-04:002012-06-02T14:51:56.511-04:00I bow to you all. The last math class I took was a...I bow to you all. The last math class I took was a statistics class commonly referred to as "math for trees". lisasednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3953654.post-44922433166421066412012-06-02T14:42:18.750-04:002012-06-02T14:42:18.750-04:00Reading this makes me very glad I switched my majo...Reading this makes me very glad I switched my major from math to history halfway through my sophmore year.Devin McCullennoreply@blogger.com