“Actually I don’t like maths much.”
“Hm mm,” I said and tried to be like a thoughtful professor, U don’t like it much or you don’t understand a few things and so you don’t like it yet?“Maths can be fun you know?
‘Fun?’ she said with a disgusted expression.
‘Ye’
She sat up straight and shook her head ‘Let me make myself clear. I positively hate maths. For me it occupies a place right there with cockroaches and lizards. I get disgusted, nauseated and depressed by it. Between an electric shock or a maths test, I will choose the former. I heard some people have to walk two miles to get water in Rajasthan. I would trade my maths problems for that walk, everyday. Maths is the worst thing ever invented by man. What were they thinking.? language is too easy, so let’s ,make up some creepy symbols and manipulate them to haunt every generations of kids. Who cares is sin theta is different from cos theta? What wants to know the expansion of the sum of cubes?’
Math at times is the bane of one’s existence, the thorn in heel, and the frustration that keeps one awakes at night. Or, it may simply be that pestering little course one must take in order to graduate from high school and complete college degree. People have a love-hate relationship with math, a favorite school subject for some but just a bad memory for many others, especially women. A quarter of adults said maths used to make them wake up in a cold sweat, with PE, French and physics close behind. Few reasons why people hate Maths:
- Same reason a lot of people hate spinach or vegetable. They’ve been forced to have it because, they are told, “it’s good for you”, but they can neither see nor perceive those benefits, and it is being served by mostly uninspired cooks who don’t much care for its taste either.
- In math, there is a definitive answer Your answer is either right or wrong. You will never be caught in the subjective world wondering why. If you make one mistake in your calculations, even if you do everything else right, the problem is, you guessed it, WRONG! You have to be precise with Math and this is a problem for unorganized people like myself. Said one “Honestly? Because I can’t bullshit my way through a math class like I can other classes”
- I think a lot of people who might enjoy it are put off because the introduction is arithmetic, one of the most boring bits of maths, albeit very useful in everyday life. If you went to a restaurant and the only starter was dry toast, would you go in, even if the other coursed were marvelous? But that is the way maths is taught.
- There is also a kind of stigma attached to maths – the argument that ”logic” is pitted against creativity, the left side of the brain versus the right, mathematically capable as opposed to musically or artistically gifted. Of course, this argument does not stand up when one considers the level of maths used in painting – Renaissance artists used precise calculations to work out perspective and proportions in their work. Architecture, sculpture and design are all artistic areas highly dependant on numbers and logic. Indeed, music too has long been associated with maths. Greek philosopher Pythagoras is quoted as saying “There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres”. The famous mathematician Gottfried Leibniz once said “Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting”.
Note that the same may be said about reading. A lot of people hate reading; the idea of reading a book for fun, or in order to learn something, is a terrible chore to be avoided if possible. And even those who may enjoy some reading will often recoil at the idea of reading Dickens, Tolstoi, Jane Austen, Cervantes, or Milton; let us not even consider Shakespeare which, was not meant to be read but rather seen performed.
What is Math? math isn’t just about counting and crunching numbers. It isn’t about arithmetic or memorizing formulas. It’s about problem-solving, deducing truth, and exploring the concepts of change, quantity and structure. It’s about exploring the properties of shapes,patterns, logic, algorithms, programs, and the relationships between all of these things. It’s about finding elegant and beautiful connections that naturally exist both in the real world and in the perfect mathematical one. It’s full ofpuzzles and mysteries. And it’s—no joke—full of really fun stuff! The astronomer Galileo Galilei observed in 1623 that the entire universe “is written in the language of mathematics“. Math relates to music, art, architecture, business, science, and even philosophy.
How much maths do we need for our daily lives..not much actually thanks to technology. Shopkeepers have calculators , malls give computerized bills, our mobiles also have calculators. For investing purposes little bit of Percentage, Interest-Simple and Compound and Basic arithmetic. There are calculators on net for everything and excel to help one out. But yet we find people especially women saying that as they are scared of numbers, hate maths, they are interested in money, finance. Need to write another post on Why Maths is fun and Maths for investment.
Do you hate maths? Why do so many people hate math? What are your experiences with learning math? Does math scare you to take financial control of your life.
25 responses to “Maths -I hate you!”
It’s difficult to see the beauty. People tell you that relativity is the most beautiful theory in physics. You try to read up, and the math is really advanced and complicated. It’s easy to get lost. You wonder where the beauty really lies. But it’s there, all the time. You need to have an eye out for it, and not get lost in the letters. So often we don’t really try to understand the idea behind the subject and get lost in the x,y and square roots. I think it’s a similar reason why people often don’t like modern art, they don’t really get to see the beauty behind the abstract colours.
Beauty lies in eyes of beholder…and a lot depends on how the subject is taught. Thanks for sharing your feelings -we appreciate it a lot!
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I am one of those who hate maths. I would say I have a phobia for it, rather than hate it. Last September, I had written a tribute to my maths teachers in A Teachers’ Day Tribute, for tolerating me for so many years through school.
You are not alone..in school most of our choice of subjects is dictated by whether we like the teacher or not..
I am sure if you would found a great teacher you would have loved maths..Now is also not late..Give it a try..
Good blog post, nice efforts. It couldn’t appear to have been penned any better. Reading this article piece of writing reminds me about my old boss! He usually kept babbling about this. I will email this post to him. Pretty confident he will probably have a high-quality read. Appreciate your posting!
Thanks for your comments. I hope ur boss liked it 🙂
It’s a nice blog you have over here! It’s very usefull information for me and I just want to thank you for that! If you post more threads as this one, I’ll follow your blog active!
Thanks u liked it. Our attempt is to have interesting stuff. Hope you keep on reading.!!
disagree with Galileo…maths is the language of our brains…brains are programmed that way…the universe is more than that…I HATE maths…Why? I am a geologist, what else do you expect? :p
nice post…
Cheer!
SUB
khonjtheeternalsearch.blogspot.com
Thanks. You have full right to disagree with not only Galileo but me too..
Geologist wow..!!
I had love-hate relationship with many subjects. Social sciences figured prominently in the hate-list during school. Maths started figuring there during my graduate studies. The immediate reaction then was to ignore the subject with excuses like ‘not required’ and ‘no use in life’.
But it is only later in life that I re-discovered my love for them, or rather a curiosity for them again. Now a days, when I miss what I neglected then, I go back and study them again. Unlike in the past, now the motivation is from within, and hence stronger.
You are very right when you mentioned that we need to also understand the usefulness of things when we learn them. All the best for your future posts. I’ll be following you!
Thanks Tan. Yes somehow school comes in the way of learning and it boils down to scoring marks.
Oh you are right even I dont like maths when I was in school……
Thanks Seema for your comment. Lot of people share the feeling..especially creative people like you
Maths and me were best foes…we always used to hang each other….I achieved a superficial score of -20 marks in this subject, a rare valor and a lifetime achievement! 😛
Piyush lot of people share ur feeling. But you write great poems !
Thanks for the generous appreciation buddy 🙂
I always loved Geometry… loved the shapes and forms and lines and curves… no no don’t get any wrong ideas 😉
And hated Algebra… why do we need a -ve number under a root and say that its a complex number ‘i’???
There is definitely a beauty to MATH.. and it does help us understand the ‘un-understandable’.. appreciate the un-fathomable!!
Warm regards,
Wow you loved geometry-lines and curves (and I am not getting the wrong ideas) Yes there is beauty to Maths but then it lies in the eyes of beholder. Thanks for your comments
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I never really understood Maths. Once I see numerics my brain automatically goes into sleep mode. Passed my 10th grade & swore never to cross paths with it again. Surprisingly I loved doing Costing & Accounts in Commerce. I guess a mix of words & numerical s are an over dose for my brain.
Thanks Rituparna. Good to know that though you hated Maths you love Costings and Accounts.
Numbers tell a story by themselves .
oh i absolutely totally completely hated maths too. i was always “just pass” in maths :)) i didnt like algebra – it hada life of its own & always escaped me
thank god for calculators! and i am good with money.
my maths ignorance or hatred didnt hamper my financial intelligence.
great post Kirti
Thanks Sujata your comments mean a lot to me.