

Why I Don't Like Math - edw519
http://funcall.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-i-dont-like-math.html

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blacktastic
I didn't realize I liked math until I worked with computers and programming.
That's when I suddenly began to understand the concepts of math and its
beauty. The language of computers expresses mathematical ideas much better
than traditional mathematical symbols, for my particular brain.

Whenever I see a difficult math equation or proof, I look for its expression
in a computer language. Maybe this is poor form (I should be trying to
understand the language of math) but I save myself a lot of frustration.

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tokenadult
A lot of mathematicians (Paul Halmos is one example) say that one way to make
sure you understand your math is to see if you can re-express it in a
different notation. So any time you try to rewrite a math problem to fit the
notation you know best, you are aiding your understanding.

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shaunxcode
That's one thing that I love about working through project euler -
formal/classic math meets code. I've probably bought 6 or 7 books on
particular aspects of math just so that I could properly understand/solve some
of the problems too.

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travisjeffery
So basically because you don't understand it.

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mgreenbe
I think his point is more subtle than that. Informal paper math doesn't always
neatly line up with formal, computer-processed math---such as numerical
processing or theorem proving. This disconnect can be extremely frustrating: I
_want_ to believe paper proofs, but simply writing down the theorem statement
in a rigorous way can require significant changes. It's the frustration of
understanding something on the surface but then realizing that in fact it
makes no sense.

