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I feel like his sister. I've been trained to solve math problems using formulas, but I don't know the why. Some day, in a math class, the teacher was talking ab

I feel like his sister. I've been trained to solve math problems using formulas, but I don't know the why. Some day, in a math class, the teacher was talking about how to solve derivatives - and it required to know what infinite means. I asked to all my classmates to put their hand up if they knew what infinite means. Nobody did. But the teacher went on, omitting that basic concept. I have just finished high school and I feel like I don't know why 2 + 2 = 4

akjetma 13y ago
I feel the same way, despite being 'good at math' and having completed the math curriculum for an engineering degree. I know how to use everything, I understand what is being represented and the general structure of the tools I use, but I feel like something is missing. Math used to 'flow' for me when I was in grade school, but somewhere along the way, I think I lost the plot and no longer think mathematically. I am quick to look up formulas rather than intuiting them. I have moments where I completely understand gradient descent for multi-dimensional logistic regression, but they are fleeting and pass with some retarded thought like why does 2 + 2 = 4? I then give up and just implement the parts of the algorithm without keeping track of the broad picture and it feels... dirty. Guh.
- primelens 13y ago
  I feel exactly this way as I am trying to teach myself some more involved statistics. There are moments of clarity but the broad picture is too fuzzy. And there was a time I could get really excited about math - still love the experience of (re)learning it but it seems like several years of formula grinding with the sole intent of passing entrance exams has taken its toll in the worst possible way by diminishing some of the intuition and feel I seemed to have.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
munin 13y ago
> I have just finished high school and I feel like I don't know why 2 + 2 = 4 To be fair, axiomatizing integer arithmetic has been attempted (unsuccessfully) by intellectual titans like Godel, Russel, and Whitehead, and is nowadays considered "too hard" by research mathematicians, so you probably shouldn't be so hard on your schoolteachers ;)
- luisivan 13y ago
  Didn't know, it was just an example, but good to know anyway!
- baby-premouse 13y ago
  > To be fair, axiomatizing integer arithmetic has been attempted (unsuccessfully) by intellectual titans like Godel, Russel, and Whitehead, and is nowadays considered "too hard" by research mathematicians That is just not true in any interesting sense. The Peano axioms[1] have been around since the 1880s. Gentzen showed in the 1930s how to prove their consistency given transfinite induction up to a sufficient height. There are certainly hard open problems in the areas of mathematics surrounding theories of arithmetic, but to say it's a problem that mathematicians have thrown up their hands and given up on is false. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_arithmetic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_arithmetic

akjetma 13y ago

I feel the same way, despite being 'good at math' and having completed the math curriculum for an engineering degree. I know how to use everything, I understand what is being represented and the general structure of the tools I use, but I feel like something is missing. Math used to 'flow' for me when I was in grade school, but somewhere along the way, I think I lost the plot and no longer think mathematically. I am quick to look up formulas rather than intuiting them. I have moments where I completely understand gradient descent for multi-dimensional logistic regression, but they are fleeting and pass with some retarded thought like why does 2 + 2 = 4? I then give up and just implement the parts of the algorithm without keeping track of the broad picture and it feels... dirty. Guh.

primelens 13y ago
I feel exactly this way as I am trying to teach myself some more involved statistics. There are moments of clarity but the broad picture is too fuzzy. And there was a time I could get really excited about math - still love the experience of (re)learning it but it seems like several years of formula grinding with the sole intent of passing entrance exams has taken its toll in the worst possible way by diminishing some of the intuition and feel I seemed to have.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

munin 13y ago

> I have just finished high school and I feel like I don't know why 2 + 2 = 4 To be fair, axiomatizing integer arithmetic has been attempted (unsuccessfully) by intellectual titans like Godel, Russel, and Whitehead, and is nowadays considered "too hard" by research mathematicians, so you probably shouldn't be so hard on your schoolteachers ;)

luisivan 13y ago
Didn't know, it was just an example, but good to know anyway!
baby-premouse 13y ago
> To be fair, axiomatizing integer arithmetic has been attempted (unsuccessfully) by intellectual titans like Godel, Russel, and Whitehead, and is nowadays considered "too hard" by research mathematicians That is just not true in any interesting sense. The Peano axioms[1] have been around since the 1880s. Gentzen showed in the 1930s how to prove their consistency given transfinite induction up to a sufficient height. There are certainly hard open problems in the areas of mathematics surrounding theories of arithmetic, but to say it's a problem that mathematicians have thrown up their hands and given up on is false. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_arithmetic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_arithmetic