I am so grateful for a husband with a head for accounting. Being mathematically challenged, I would be totally abandoned on the backside of a desert planet without him.
basic maths (those that deal with concrete numbers and integers) are simple for me. what I can’s accomplish are the higher maths, those which deal with abstracts, such as algebra and calculus.
I never could “do” abstracts.
James Watson wrote a memoir of finding the structure of DNA called “The Double Helix.” Watson was principally interested in birds as an undergrad biologist, so didn’t learn any serious math. At one point Francis Crick, co-discovereer of the structure with Watson, found a solution for (as I recall the story, going from memory) mathematically describing the x-ray diffraction from crystals of a substance having a helical structure. Crick thought the math so simple, Watson wrote, that Crick thought of writing it up under the title of “Fourier Transforms for the Birdwatcher.”
When I was in school, the teacher’s thought I was either stupid or just to stuborn to do my work. I had a learning disorder that wasn’t discovered till I was long out of school. I could do the math in my head and write down the answers, but I couldn’t show my work. When I tried the numbers would often be backwards or upside down so they figured I was just cheating since the answers would be correct but the work wouldn’t match. So basically I never got past fractions in school, let alone higher math.
My kids had the same issue, my oldest girls math teacher refused to believe that she could do the math in her head but not on paper and threatened to flunk her and hold her back till she stopped cheating. My oldest girl is rather punk and has quite the attitude which didn’t help her with an a-hole of a teacher.
It took an explaination of the learning disorder and Becka still had to switch classes because the teacher in question even after having it explained refused to let her turn in her math without the work on paper. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to “try” to teach children.
Robert… I am not offended. The attitude exists… I do not say it is right… I say it exists. I am a recorder of things. One time I got a rather “spirited” letter from a fella who ranted on the fact that Junk Food is making us fat and the glorification of junk food is wrong… i.e. Pop’n Tarts and such… I agreed with him. But Randie having a healthy good-for-you diet isn’t very funny. Besides, it builds a story… perhaps one day Randie will have to deal with issues resulting from her diet… which is a lot like life… as is eating junk food.
Pasha… Yes… I do believe that math is taught to a particular set of thinkers. I am an extreme right-brainer… and math, taught as it is, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It is not that I am stupid. It is that I havent’ been taught math in the way my brain understands it well. I think a good many righties have this issue… and we then say “I’m not good at math.”
Learning disabilities… I would venture to say that your brain works differently … not disabilitied. We tend to label things incorrectly in our society, yes?
Math is not my best subject for sure.
I would be asking for help to figure out the canvas as well.
Math is not simple, nor is it easy.
I have a friend who begs off with the comment “Math makes my head hurt.”
Explains the condition of her checkbook, eh? 😀
“Uh … balanced? Huh? It’s flat on the table!”
No, Randie …
squid man… I do math the artist person way… I draw as many pictures as possible to support whatever it is I am trying to accomplish.
Beetles… I would say that I agree.
Grey… Ha… yah… her checkbook has lots of erasures, and arrows and scribbles…. and it is flat, yes…
2 + 2 = 4. That’s all I got! Thank you! Good Night!
I am so grateful for a husband with a head for accounting. Being mathematically challenged, I would be totally abandoned on the backside of a desert planet without him.
Artists CAN do math, as long as you don’t mind the ten thousand doodles in the sidelines of the paper.
Jack… uh, are you sure about that?
EofO… another artists weighs in… yes, behind every artist is a competent math doer (if they are so lucky!).
Dada… So YOU TOO, paid the fines for the littered with art math books (at the end of the year). Dang artists…
basic maths (those that deal with concrete numbers and integers) are simple for me. what I can’s accomplish are the higher maths, those which deal with abstracts, such as algebra and calculus.
I never could “do” abstracts.
In the words of Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford: “It was my understanding that there would be no math….”
firedome… uh… I’m confused.
uwg… CLASSIC! I love that quip… great SNL!
It’s not that I can’t write English, it’s just that I avoid it whenever possible.
Bah! Why is innumeracy acceptable even sometimes, as here, celebrated where illiteracy never would be?
This does all of society a disservice.
Robert
Sorry Brig,
Not aimed at you in particular. Just a general complaint. It really does do society a disservice though.
Robert
James Watson wrote a memoir of finding the structure of DNA called “The Double Helix.” Watson was principally interested in birds as an undergrad biologist, so didn’t learn any serious math. At one point Francis Crick, co-discovereer of the structure with Watson, found a solution for (as I recall the story, going from memory) mathematically describing the x-ray diffraction from crystals of a substance having a helical structure. Crick thought the math so simple, Watson wrote, that Crick thought of writing it up under the title of “Fourier Transforms for the Birdwatcher.”
Heh… I am soooo on Randie’s side with this one. I can do math, I just prefer to avoid it as much as possible.
When I was in school, the teacher’s thought I was either stupid or just to stuborn to do my work. I had a learning disorder that wasn’t discovered till I was long out of school. I could do the math in my head and write down the answers, but I couldn’t show my work. When I tried the numbers would often be backwards or upside down so they figured I was just cheating since the answers would be correct but the work wouldn’t match. So basically I never got past fractions in school, let alone higher math.
My kids had the same issue, my oldest girls math teacher refused to believe that she could do the math in her head but not on paper and threatened to flunk her and hold her back till she stopped cheating. My oldest girl is rather punk and has quite the attitude which didn’t help her with an a-hole of a teacher.
It took an explaination of the learning disorder and Becka still had to switch classes because the teacher in question even after having it explained refused to let her turn in her math without the work on paper. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to “try” to teach children.
Robert… I am not offended. The attitude exists… I do not say it is right… I say it exists. I am a recorder of things. One time I got a rather “spirited” letter from a fella who ranted on the fact that Junk Food is making us fat and the glorification of junk food is wrong… i.e. Pop’n Tarts and such… I agreed with him. But Randie having a healthy good-for-you diet isn’t very funny. Besides, it builds a story… perhaps one day Randie will have to deal with issues resulting from her diet… which is a lot like life… as is eating junk food.
Pasha… Yes… I do believe that math is taught to a particular set of thinkers. I am an extreme right-brainer… and math, taught as it is, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It is not that I am stupid. It is that I havent’ been taught math in the way my brain understands it well. I think a good many righties have this issue… and we then say “I’m not good at math.”
Learning disabilities… I would venture to say that your brain works differently … not disabilitied. We tend to label things incorrectly in our society, yes?