
The Unplanned Impact of Mathematics (2011) - fanf2
https://www.nature.com/articles/475166a
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MindGods
This is a duplicate:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23735236](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23735236)

I'm guessing this post was put into the second chance system.

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dang
Looks like that, yes. It's on our list to fix.

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HeOfLittleBrain
This is ironic coming from such a math-phobic publication that regards complex
numbers and "higher degree polynomials" as too befuddling for its readership:

[http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/mumford/blog/2014/Grothendie...](http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/mumford/blog/2014/Grothendieck.html)

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tkeAmarktinClss
Speaking of math phobic, does it seem like people go into medical because they
can make lots of money without having to do math?

I've gathered this set of ancedotal data from my experiences in high school,
talking to my wife's co-doctors, and talking to my high school aged cousins.

It seems there's this expectation that they won't have to do math, but they
will make money. Other professions that come up are lawyer and sales.

I guess my point, I'm not sure why people are math phobic. I imagine it's
related to math related trauma in school. Even as an engineer, I find the
hardest math I do is basic calc 1, and it's rare. Not to mention, doing
algebra is a pretty rare event in general. Everything else we have calculators
for.

It's also concerning to hear life saving jobs are primarily held by people who
can't do math. If you can't do math, is it even science?

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pps43
> I'm not sure why people are math phobic

Some people. There is a wide range of people's natural aptitudes. Some people
are tone deaf, others can't wrap their mind around programming concepts like
pointers, so no wonder some have trouble with math. Especially with abstract
math.

> If you can't do math, is it even science?

Depends on your definition of math.

If you mean the difference between a quantitative field that deals with
numbers and a qualitative field that doesn't, then doctors do plenty of math.

If you mean higher level math like number theory, there's plenty of science
and engineering that can be done without it. I have an engineering book that
avoids using calculus altogether.

