Math Lessons: A Waste Of Time??

[Bunjiweb]

Maths isn't a waste of time but i generally think a lot of the wrong type of maths is taught to kids far too early on. Kids need to understand the basics fully and properly and how to add up WITHOUT using a calculator before they start doing much harder stuff like algebra etc.

Ben

[Zak33]

I have waited YEARS for this thread...YEARS

I did O level -"A" pass, piece of cake, no revision....how simple?...you gotta be stoopid to mess that up (I mention now that WAS my opinion as a stupid child)

I did A Level - Un graded....what a flaming nightmare...therefore I WAS the stoopid one now,..hatred built

What a CONTRAST.......what a creation of evil......a deliberate attempt to manipulate numbers purely for the sake of doing it.


BUT:

.....I would hate to live in a world without Pythag's theorem....it is usable on a regular basis....even just in working out how long a sofa can be, in a shop before I buy it, when I realise I know how long my walls are but no idea how much diagonal space I have....lets face it.....the 3,4,5 triangle is a perfect thing. Nothing in Space/Time meets its perfection and simplicity.

A world without Pi would be horrific....just try calculating a gearbox ratio and a new set of tyres on bigger alloys without Pi ..you can ACCURATELY measure the diameter and you know the tyre walls, as a percentage of the width, but to ACCURATELY measure AROUND a tyre is damn hard.

I loved Trig (not you Trig....triganometry) and I loved the ability to work out algebra.....I could see it and still CAN see it...

But to deliberately miss use and abuse numbers for no reasonable target OTHER than to prove a useless point....god no


Lets go back to 1940

I....however....am not expected to solve the Enigma Coded Messages that the Germans are using to target and kill thousands of our sailors and to sink millions of tons of our supplies and therefore starve my family and endanger their freedom...and WITHOUT complex Mathematics, Mr Turing and his colleagues would have got no where...and we might all be under Nazi rule.

What a sticky situation....to DESPISE a subject at a high level but to love it at a lower level....

Thats the dilema of being a Zak

[mike_w]

Like floppybootstomp, I think it shows that you can apply yourself and have the inteeligence to do those sorts of things.

Secondly, at that age, since so many things involve Maths and you don't know what you're going to do yet, it keeps a lot of options open for you.

Mike

[Swafe]

in half my a2 maths lessons i think WHY do i need this

were integrating the equation of an ellipse, with all sin, tans and cos's flying everything

and im thinking why, its pointless, ive learned all i need, i can problem solve and do simultaneous equations, i can work out anything i require, but half the stuff they teach is jibber jabber, like i, if it doesnt exist, why do we need to know it :S

[Twigman]

well stats moduels are obviously useful and so are mechanics, so that only really leaves pure modules.
Mos tof that has ben explained...so maths is useful.

[Sair33]

I agree that Maths is HUGELY important in EVERYTHING we do... I won't go on about it anymore as it's already been said by numerous people but there are hundreds of examples where maths, both basic and more advanced, are used everyday, sometimes without you realising.

[luke313]

What a sticky situation....to DESPISE a subject at a high level but to love it at a lower level....

Thats the dilema of being a Zak

That sounds just like my Spitfire....

[shiato storm]

i think some maths is important depending where you go in life, some scientists use lots of stats [uuurgh] but others use logrithms. some use strange equations and some use simple stuff but above all that I could never understand the one about the two trains coming from opposite directions one at 40kmh the other at 60kmh and meeting somewhere in the middle...perhaps if they taught this more in today's society we'd have less train crashes??

Now there's a thought.

[shiato storm]

p.s. i did maths A-level (back when they were harder and meant something) and got an E...strangely I got a high A in GCSEs...i blamed the teacher who we often corrected when he made mistakes during working things out in front of the class. but now after 2 degrees its fair to say it doesn't really matter now...
oh and I use various stats things for what I've done but nothing very adventurous, matrices and vector algorthims too. fairly basic logic stuff...

[TomWilko]

GCSE Maths is much more straightforward than the A-Level. What you learn at GCSE is the 'practical' things like circumnference of circles, diameters, Pythag...u know the sort of thing!

A-Level starts to bring in the heavy stuff, but, doing a Business orientated degree and I more than thankful for doing the subject! By doing A-Level, you cover statistics, which is a complete module in my first year of degree.

Has Maths been worth it for me? Yep....every second