- #36
PowerIso
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In that case, find the limit of (1 + 1/n)^n as n approaches infinity.mathwonk said:why is this thread tolerated? there is no math in it.
=-o
=-o Math!
In that case, find the limit of (1 + 1/n)^n as n approaches infinity.mathwonk said:why is this thread tolerated? there is no math in it.
There might not be an x, or a y, or a root symbol, but it's a question about math in a sub-forum entitled "Math".mathwonk said:why is this thread tolerated? there is no math in it.
I don't think my teacher thought I asserted anything against her. It was a very light-hearted discussion. She seemed to welcome my comment as it allowed her to explain the other point of view, a point of view I've never really thought about before. Her response was enlightening. 10 minutes later, we passed each other in the hall, smiled and waved.matt grime said:You are the person who chose to argue a position, one in which you presmably believe, one that you were prepared to assert against your teacher.
Please show me where. It was phrased as a question, and I never rebutted any of the responses.matt grime said:Well, you did argue it.
If it's such a stupid question, why did Timothy Gowers choose to devote an entire key-note speech to the subject, as seen in links in Morphism's reply? Gowers states: "If I fail to convince you that mathamatics is important and wortwhile, I will be letting down the mathamatics community... Unfortunately, if one surveys in a superficial way the vast activities of mathamaticians around the world, it is easy to come away with the impression that mathamatics is not actually that important."matt grime said:My response to a stupid question is not going to be nice.
A question is not a position. I light-heartedly phrased it as an "off-the-top-of-my-head" position to my teacher in response to her deciding to skip an application section. Her rebuttal was very interesting. It dealt with the history of math, and gave me some insight into the minds of those who enjoy math. But her time was limited. So I posted it here, along with some of the reasons I question its importance, as a question, hoping for more insight. I'm mostly happy with responses. I got a lot of insight, unfortunately, along with some attitude.matt grime said:I have no patience with people who hold patently idiotic positions, especially those that are prepared to air them in public. Sorry.
This topic has now been discussed generally enough; but your question can be restated like this:Cookie_1993 said:when the teacher tells you tht so-on-so is the stuff.. u get the theory but i hardly understand it unless she puts it on a good practicle example!
sometimes techers just say," u need it to pass the examination!" well.. what is much of use learning it, if u use it only for the tests.. where does this part of fundamental thinking help me!? (simple question i asked all my math teachers!)
tony873004 said:Are significant figures used much in non-applied math? Thus far I have seen them come into play in applied-math word problems. For example, questions containing: "The Earth is 150 million km from the Sun, how fast..." pretty much limits the answer to 2 significant figures. But how about in non-applied math? I don't even see decimal numbers appearing that often in Calc class, so I would guess it's not nearly as common.
MaWM said:Right now I'm doing exterior forms algebra, some of the most abstract math I've studied.. and wow is it ever useful!
CRGreathouse said:How do you find them useful?
mathwonk said:please kill this thread. it makes us look stupid as a forum.
Gib Z said:Pure mathematics is not exactly useless just because it has no applications.
Rather paradoxial when you consider that the main classification is pure mathematics and applied mathematics
I must first offer a reluctant apology that I believed women in mathematics was a bad idea from the outset
What makes you think we haven't? Some of us have, some of us haven't.If anyone really bothered to read 'A Mathematician's apology' by Hardy
No matter how uninteresting your trivial mathematics may be we still need the majority to go with it, for the sake of the survival of pure mathematics if nothing else.
Applied mathematics is all too often an uninteresting and dismissable consequence of our efforts in pure mathematics
yasiru89 said:And it is as good as a fact that 'Applied mathematics is all too often an uninteresting and dismissable consequence of our efforts in pure mathematics', why? Because nowadays the most important applications are derived from the most abstract of branches of mathematics, some people on this thread have agreed with this to some extent too.
I take it OP is the original poster, he summarises that while he gains some pleasure from mathematics the uses are what he is really after(the applied bit)
So on the intellectual context that I am addressing the matter applied mathematics is indeed trivial and uninteresting. Yet I do not relegate the originators opinion quite the way that I am accused of doing. I simply assert that applied mathematics fulfils its usefulness mainly in acting as a catalyst for pure mathematics and secondarily to bring about the simple conveniences of life.