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If you are innumerrate, you're going to have trouble with your bills and interest rates and such; if you can't apply logic then you'll have trouble holding a jo
by Tycho 14y ago
If you are innumerrate, you're going to have trouble with your bills and interest rates and such; if you can't apply logic then you'll have trouble holding a job where you have to make a lot of decisions; but geometry? How many people are concerned with geometry beyond the most rudimentary concepts like interpreting a street map. I just think statements like 'you can't live without geometry' further the 'disconnect' (as they say in America) between the people who 'get' maths and the people who don't. It's almost like a religious person telling you that 'you need Jesus in your life' or something - it doesn't actually persuade in any way, just signals that this person maintains some sort of alien, abstract belief system which they cannot relate to the lives of ordinary people.
- 001sky 14y agoThere is quite a bit more to condsider, even just In the examples you provided. E.g. the abstraction of numeracy. http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi Also, Physics: The arch. A triangular truss. A lever. Also, Architecture: Lines, planes, volumes. These are some very basic (perhaps 'unremarkable') everyday uses of geometry. I don't think at all the fact that they are rudimentary is a problem. Because they are so pervasive, it is all the more important to have mastery of the subject. IMHO.