
Ridiculous-Sounding Math Classes Currently Offered at Liberal-Arts Colleges - MotorMouths
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/10/math_classes_for_people_who_ca.html
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tshtf
"This is why Asia is winning, by the way?"

The first in the list is Topology, and as stated in the course catalog
([http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/study/science-
mathematics/m...](http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/study/science-
mathematics/mathematics/courses.html)) it has calculus and instructor
permission as prerequisites. I'm fairly certain Topology is considered
advanced math in Asia too.

Some of the other ones in the list seem bogus, however.

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CWuestefeld
_Topology: The Nature of Shape and Space_

This is real, serious mathematics. I think that painting this as nonsense
shows that the writer doesn't have the strongest background in mathematics.

~~~
maxawaytoolong
All except 2 of the classes listed are actual math classes offered by the math
department. One of them in the list (the origami one) is offered as part of a
high school summer program.

If you major in pure math, a lot of it does fit more in with liberal arts than
it does with, say, electrical engineering. At least one great mathematician of
the past boasted about how his work had no practical value. (G.H. Hardy)

At these smaller liberal arts schools, math majors are often preparing to be
math teachers, so learning how mathematics ties in with history, theatre, art
and literature can be very helpful as a teaching aide in the future.

The other thing is students at these institutions have to take a required
number of "liberal arts" credits. The school will offer courses like this so
that the math majors can pick up these credits from the math department,
instead of the math majors having to take Theatre 101 or whatever.

All that said, I thought the course titles sounded quite interesting.

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aphyr
Asia might be "winning" because the author fails to recognize that topology is
a fantastically complicated topic in mathematics, just as worthy of
exploration as real analysis or abstract algebra. :-(

