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I can search the words. I can ask people what the words mean. If don’t even know what the symbols are called then how do I begin? I had this problem when I sta

I can search the words. I can ask people what the words mean. If don’t even know what the symbols are called then how do I begin? I had this problem when I started higher level maths and the Greek alphabet was used. I couldn’t ask what a symbol meant when I couldn’t say what the symbol was. I couldn’t write down a symbol whose name was read out when I didn’t know what it should look like. I tried learning the Greek alphabet but flash cards and spaced repetition didn’t work for my ADHD brain and I just had to stop doing maths, which was a shame, because up to that point I was good at it.

gjulianm 5y ago
> I can search the words. I can ask people what the words mean. If don’t even know what the symbols are called then how do I begin? Usually by looking at the words that surround the equation. Most math texts will introduce notation in words, and it's common to repeat something in words and notation (e.g. 'let the field extension L/k...'). I have studied math for five years and I don't think I ever had the problem of not knowing how to search for something. The only problem I had with notation was finding the LaTeX code for a specific symbol, but other than that the bigger problem were the concepts. There are also glossaries at the end of books and in some specialized pages too (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_mathematical_symbo...) > I couldn’t ask what a symbol meant when I couldn’t say what the symbol was. I couldn’t write down a symbol whose name was read out when I didn’t know what it should look like. In my classes these problems were usually solved by asking "what's that wiggly thingy" or "how do you write 'alpha'". And the greek alphabet is not used because mathematicians like to annoy people. There are certain customs for how objects are notated. x,y,z for unknowns/variables; f,g,h for variables; α,β for angles; A,B for matrices; G, H for groups... They are used because, even though they might be harder for beginners, they aren't harder than the concepts they're describing and help a lot in reducing the cognitive load when reading things.
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  Great to hear you didn’t find these things a problem and that they aren’t really that hard to understand.
  - zazen 5y ago
    Not sure whether you're being sarcastic, but in case you are: The internet, including this forum, is chock-full of people making useless comments like "well I like it" or "it works for me", just asserting their views or experiences while advancing no argument and offering no discussion. The post you just replied to is not doing that. The poster you replied to is taking the time to describe and explain his experiences and their implications. He's contributed a lot more to the conversation than you have, and doesn't deserve sarcasm.
    - tokamak-teapot 5y ago
      You weren't sure whether I was being sarcastic, yet you /are/ sure that the post I sarcastically responded to was written in the spirit of contribution, and was not itself insincere.
      - BeetleB 5y ago
        Sincerity doesn't matter when the commenter is correct. I've taken plenty of math classes, and everything he describes is accurate.
bigbillheck 5y ago
There's only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, and any given piece of math doesn't use more than a few of them at a time. You're clearly capable of learning at least one alphabet, why was the second so much harder?
- brimble 5y ago
  First one probably took hundreds of hours or practice and a ton of exposure, to be fair.
  - BeetleB 5y ago
    > First one probably took hundreds of hours or practice and a ton of exposure, to be fair. Learning the Greek alphabet shouldn't take more than 10 hours. Not that one needs to. I never did. However, in a given discipline, practitioners tend to be consistent on which Greek letters they use for which concepts. As long as you spend time on a given topic, the Greek symbols should become ingrained - just as knowing how to write a for loop in C would become if you do it often enough. And I would hope people studying math spend a lot more than hundreds of hours on it. If someone came and complained about the arcane syntax used in programming languages and hadn't spent, say, 100 hours programming, I don't think you would give much weight to their views.

gjulianm 5y ago

> I can search the words. I can ask people what the words mean. If don’t even know what the symbols are called then how do I begin? Usually by looking at the words that surround the equation. Most math texts will introduce notation in words, and it's common to repeat something in words and notation (e.g. 'let the field extension L/k...'). I have studied math for five years and I don't think I ever had the problem of not knowing how to search for something. The only problem I had with notation was finding the LaTeX code for a specific symbol, but other than that the bigger problem were the concepts. There are also glossaries at the end of books and in some specialized pages too (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_mathematical_symbo...) > I couldn’t ask what a symbol meant when I couldn’t say what the symbol was. I couldn’t write down a symbol whose name was read out when I didn’t know what it should look like. In my classes these problems were usually solved by asking "what's that wiggly thingy" or "how do you write 'alpha'". And the greek alphabet is not used because mathematicians like to annoy people. There are certain customs for how objects are notated. x,y,z for unknowns/variables; f,g,h for variables; α,β for angles; A,B for matrices; G, H for groups... They are used because, even though they might be harder for beginners, they aren't harder than the concepts they're describing and help a lot in reducing the cognitive load when reading things.

tokamak-teapot 5y ago
Great to hear you didn’t find these things a problem and that they aren’t really that hard to understand.
- zazen 5y ago
  Not sure whether you're being sarcastic, but in case you are: The internet, including this forum, is chock-full of people making useless comments like "well I like it" or "it works for me", just asserting their views or experiences while advancing no argument and offering no discussion. The post you just replied to is not doing that. The poster you replied to is taking the time to describe and explain his experiences and their implications. He's contributed a lot more to the conversation than you have, and doesn't deserve sarcasm.
  - tokamak-teapot 5y ago
    You weren't sure whether I was being sarcastic, yet you /are/ sure that the post I sarcastically responded to was written in the spirit of contribution, and was not itself insincere.
    - BeetleB 5y ago
      Sincerity doesn't matter when the commenter is correct. I've taken plenty of math classes, and everything he describes is accurate.

bigbillheck 5y ago

There's only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, and any given piece of math doesn't use more than a few of them at a time. You're clearly capable of learning at least one alphabet, why was the second so much harder?

brimble 5y ago
First one probably took hundreds of hours or practice and a ton of exposure, to be fair.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  > First one probably took hundreds of hours or practice and a ton of exposure, to be fair. Learning the Greek alphabet shouldn't take more than 10 hours. Not that one needs to. I never did. However, in a given discipline, practitioners tend to be consistent on which Greek letters they use for which concepts. As long as you spend time on a given topic, the Greek symbols should become ingrained - just as knowing how to write a for loop in C would become if you do it often enough. And I would hope people studying math spend a lot more than hundreds of hours on it. If someone came and complained about the arcane syntax used in programming languages and hadn't spent, say, 100 hours programming, I don't think you would give much weight to their views.