Thread: What good is math?

Originally Posted by 1611ed

What I find the most useful branch of math(ematics) is Set Theory. I didn't even study any of it until College back in 1967.

Interesting. I went to college in 1968. Our school adopted new math textbooks starting when I was in 8th grade I think, and the followups were rolled out as we progressed through high school. So, we were the first class to experience it, and the teachers were always new to it too, each year.

Originally Posted by Wayne Bruinekool

Math is only one of many ways to understand physics, although many confuse math with physics and objective reality. E.g. String Theory. Math can describe many things that do not have corollaries in objectve reality.

What we need to do is e.g. through all the other ways to understand physics, to maybe get a handle on how limited they are. Do you mean, like Newton's first law, a body remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force? No numbers, like that? Are there more than two options (math, and "no numbers")?

Originally Posted by grapes

Interesting. I went to college in 1968. Our school adopted new math textbooks starting when I was in 8th grade I think, and the followups were rolled out as we progressed through high school. So, we were the first class to experience it, and the teachers were always new to it too, each year.

Ugh!

My favorite math text is one I found in an antique book store. My edition (3rd, I think) was printed in 1951 by an educational consortium designed to help those who'd served in WWII catch up on what they missed. This single text takes you from basic addition and subtraction through algebra, geometry, trig, calculus (integrals, partials), statistics, diffy-q's, and transforms -- basically from 1st grade through one's last year of math associated with aero engineering or physics.

And that's just the first 2/3 of the book! The last third of the book covers applications like finance, engineering, and physics.

I'll never part with it. And as it's the "old math," it's highly understandable. Personally, I think the only reason they went with the new math forty years ago was to keep educators in business.