Over at Samizdata, Brian Micklethwait asks "What use is maths?" - to which Tim Worstall has provided this helpful and interesting reply:
There’s two things that statistics are extremely useful for. The first is to teach you how to gamble: that’s the root of the whole subject anyway. Seriously, it really started with people trying to work out how to win at cards and dice. Things like the Fibonacci series, which explains things as varied as the placing of petals on a flower and possibly the curling of a wave, also explain the liklihood of throwing a 4, 5 or any other number with a pair of dice. From that we derive ! and so on.
But the second thing it’s extremely useful for is politics. The standard intro by some pantywaist who wants to steal your liberty, livelihood and freedoms is "research has shown that….". Statistics enables you to evaluate whether research actually has shown (the death rate from Ebola is 80% so yes, clamping down on movements and civil liberties during an outbreak can be justified) or not shown ("the part time pay gap for women is 40%", no, it isn’t, that’s comparing the wages per hour of part time women against full time men. Comparing part time women against part time men gives us 11%.) the point that the speaker is trying to make.
If there is one area of my education that I'd like to improve, it's my maths.
My family had a tape of the times table set to music, which my brother and I would listen to as kids. At secondary school I achieved a D (nearly a C) in statistics and C at maths. Statistical analysis was normally interesting and I remember quite enjoying stuff like algebra.
But to this day I struggle to do basic arithmetic off the top of my head. I don't struggle much, admittedly, but it's far from automatic - even something as simple as 5x6 apparently requires my brain to switch, awkwardly, into a different gear. Actually, we don't even need to get into multiplication - ask me what 7+3 is and I'll be able to tell you, but they'll always be that element of doubt at the back of my mind: That is right, isn't it? It's like my brain still needs to go through all the steps each time.
I wouldn't say I'm innumerate - but if my reading skills were on the same level as my maths I'd definitely be one of those people who have to trace the words on the page with their finger.
I'd like to blame genetics, but my brother's an accountant.
Damnit.
6 comments:
Matt,
Interesting post, which more or less reflects my own experiences: hence I am now doing A Level Maths by distance learning and doing equations when I should be preparing lessons. It's early doors but I _really_ want to get rid of this millstone, a lifelong uselessness at this vast area of intellectual endeavour.
Also - I'm hoping to get a badge for mathematical excellence (geddit?).
Plus, becoming a primary teacher did wonders for my mental maths - with practice, you do better quite quickly.
eight nines! come on boy!!
Ermmmm.... lemme think... 90 minus 18... so that's... 80 minus 8...
72.
Hold on a second...
[Counts on fingers]
Yep: 72.
I like the idea of equations in theory: x(x − 1) = x2 − x and all that... it's just the actual arithmetic that trips me up.
tsk. too slow!
I like algebra too but the negative numbers are doing my head in!
You don't want to know how long it took for me to work out. Gimme a pencil and bit of paper and I'm fine. Off the top of my head...
Couple of years back I switched my field of study and had to relearn calculus. Hell, it soon became apparent that my trig and geometry was pretty bloody shaky as well (Duh? Err... Ah, Sohcahtoa!). Maths is a subject that doesn't sit in my memory to well. It's fine if I'm using it a lot, but give it a year with no reinforcement and it all leaks out of my brain and I'm back to square one. Or one squared.
I've done away with Sudoku now, and do problems instead (I like factoring, it's very cathartic). Apparently it might stave off Alzheimer's, so who knows...
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