5 ms·

Another fun game you can play in traffic[0] is to factor the license plates of the cars ahead of you. Weirdly, I found that doing this sort of practice made me

by clickok 11y ago

Another fun game you can play in traffic[0] is to factor the license plates of the cars ahead of you. Weirdly, I found that doing this sort of practice made me better at abstract mathematics. I used to think that Gauss, Euler and von Neumann being excellent mental calculators was a side effect of their talent, but I wonder now if this sort of practice actually amplified it instead. --- 0. In your car-- on foot it's surprisingly dangerous.

heinrich5991 11y ago
Why is it more dangerous on foot than in your car? I'd have expected it to be the other way around.
- dalke 11y ago
  I think the joke is that being on foot in [car] traffic is more dangerous than being in a car.
  - clickok 11y ago
    Yeah. There's a related XKCD[0], but let's just have an irony free moment of total seriousness for the following: be alert when walking places, getting hit by a car is extremely unpleasant. -- 0. https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
effie 11y ago
That's surprising. Mathematicians generally are not very good at calculations and it always seemed to me that doing calculations fast is quite different from mathematicians do and need.
- Someone 11y ago
  Back in the time of Gauss, mathematicians needed logarithm tables, and the only ones they trusted making them where mathematicians. So, mathematicians computed logarithms 'in their spare time' For example, Gauss actually spent time to write a review of a table of logarithms (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1851AN.....32..181G/0000095.000.html http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1851AN.....32..181G...). He also had to compute prime numbers so that he could study their properties. (http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithmetic/Primes/Primes.html http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithme... claims he extended a table listing all primes up to 10,009 but never got as far as a million, but he must have spent lots of time on calculations we now call mundane
- reagency 11y ago
  This is a myth. Mathematicians are excellent at calculations, relative to the general population. They know many algorithms and notice patterns (like "Common core"). They just aren't usually the savants that multiply many diot numbers. Much of advanced mathematics does involved laborious calculations. They are just on more sophisticated domains than integer arithmetic.

by clickok 11y ago

heinrich5991 11y ago

Why is it more dangerous on foot than in your car? I'd have expected it to be the other way around.

dalke 11y ago
I think the joke is that being on foot in [car] traffic is more dangerous than being in a car.
- clickok 11y ago
  Yeah. There's a related XKCD[0], but let's just have an irony free moment of total seriousness for the following: be alert when walking places, getting hit by a car is extremely unpleasant. -- 0. https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/

effie 11y ago

That's surprising. Mathematicians generally are not very good at calculations and it always seemed to me that doing calculations fast is quite different from mathematicians do and need.

Someone 11y ago
Back in the time of Gauss, mathematicians needed logarithm tables, and the only ones they trusted making them where mathematicians. So, mathematicians computed logarithms 'in their spare time' For example, Gauss actually spent time to write a review of a table of logarithms (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1851AN.....32..181G/0000095.000.html http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1851AN.....32..181G...). He also had to compute prime numbers so that he could study their properties. (http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithmetic/Primes/Primes.html http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithme... claims he extended a table listing all primes up to 10,009 but never got as far as a million, but he must have spent lots of time on calculations we now call mundane
reagency 11y ago
This is a myth. Mathematicians are excellent at calculations, relative to the general population. They know many algorithms and notice patterns (like "Common core"). They just aren't usually the savants that multiply many diot numbers. Much of advanced mathematics does involved laborious calculations. They are just on more sophisticated domains than integer arithmetic.