Calculus Boredom: Is It Common in Undergrad Math?

[JFo]

Actually i found calc 2 way more interesting than calc 1 but that's bacause i knew a lot about calculus before I took it. I recommend you download the fermat's last theorem proven by Wiles and knock yourself out.

I downloaded it... It might as well have been written in hyroglyphics (sp?). In all of about 100 pages, I could only recognize a Ker(V) here and there, but of coarse had no clue what was going on. It was kind of interesting just to see what terminology is out there, since I think this paper uses just about all of it.

 

[matt grime]

The proof of FLT is only one very tiny aspect of one part of mathematics. However, it is an interesting thing to learn the circumstances under which it was proven, the conjectures involved and the time it took. I doubt anyone here would understand the proof, but they could learn about how mathematics gets done, though there are those who dislike the secretive approach he took. But that's just another interesting facet in the story. There are plenty of accounts of it out there for people to look up.

(it's hiero, not hyro, i think)

 

[JFo]

It is very interesting... I've read parts of the book by Simon Singh, and it was fascinating to see how a real mathematician works. When you say there are those who dislike his secretive approach, do you mean that people think he should have opened his work as he was doing it, rather than hiding it till he was completely finished with the theorem? I'm curious what you think. Do you think mathematicians have a responsibilty to disclose results as they discover them?

by the way, your right, it is hiero - thanks for the correction.

 

[mathwonk]

anyone with the ability to do what wiles did is pretty much granted leave to do it in any fashion that suits him.

when it takes 350 years for someone to prove something that interests pretty much every high school student, we usually do not place further restrictions on how publicly they should prove it.

 

[Gza]

But I think the way the media covered it, made it seem to support the notion of the mathematician as being a fragmented individual; hunched over in his basement, scribbling incoherent symbols on paper, with no contact with the outside world. Math as far as I know, is never created within a vacuum, and I'm pretty sure he had to be soaking up ideas from outside sources.

 

[matt grime]

Mathematicians certainly do not have any responsibility to disclose what they do. It is generally considered a good idea to discuss things so that other people can help, and you can help them and so on. And in many places publication determines funding and salary. I can't recall which of the talking heads it was on the TV show who found his style against their tastes, but I think it was more than just "not discussing what he's doing to solve problem X" it was that he didn't tell people he was working on problem X. Personally, I don't care, but if you struggle to prove something in private for 20 years that could have been done in a week with collaboration then that's your fault.

 

[waht]

re

The longest I worked on a single problem was about 2 days nonstop. When eventually I arrived at the solution I had one hell of a satisfaction. Imagine trying to solve a problem for seven years especially one of importance to math. So, I don't think Wile's wanted to get famous (for the most part) but he wanted that satisfaction. It's equavalent of rolling a joint.

 

[Icebreaker]

It's equavalent of rolling a joint.

No way. Proving something like FLT beats any artificial high up the ying yang.

 

[matt grime]

So, I don't think Wile's wanted to get famous (for the most part) but he wanted that satisfaction.

He already was famous.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Wiles.html

this is not the biography of someone who happened to "get lucky" with a guess and move from obscurity to the lime light.

 

[Gza]

It's equavalent of rolling a joint

7 years? That'd have to be one phat joint.

 

[tyutyu fait le train]

"In cacl I, it was really fun. Quite mind blowing when I was first exposed to it a little over a year ago. I decided I wanted to major in mathematics. I took calc 2 concurrently with "matrix theory and linear algebra". calc 2 was boring, just techniques of integration, highly mechanical. matrix theory was alright, completely different, and i don't think i could appreciate it until calc 3.

i'm in cacl 3 right now. at first, it was pretty cool. i like how we are doing stuff in 3d, but, it is still so mechanical. for every question it's an easy solution, just figure out if you need to use a graidient, or what you need the volume of. there isn't much creativity involved.

Is this common? Is it because I'm at medium sized school (10,000 or so undergrad) and so it's more about "job training" than really learning stuff? is it because there is very little class discussion (everyone, myself included, is just very quiet, very passive... i wish i could talk more, but, i just don't ever see anywhere to diverge)

i'm taking abstract algebra next fall, and I'm hoping that is going to be more interesting. lots of stuff related to solving puzzles. I'm also thinkign about taking an independant study course to nurture my love for mathematics that i first felt in cacl1

thoughts?"

Motivation, skills an pleasure are the 3 key-words, whatever you expect to do!