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Good analogy to a maths degree

Popa Dom

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

BJack

The first thing I thought was: could those Brussels sprouts be more densely packed?

Reply 2

LH123

TL;DR version: Maths is ****, avoid it. :borat:

Reply 3

JoMo1

Well this is depressing for someone starting maths at Uni next year...

Reply 4

harr

JoMo1

Well this is depressing for someone starting maths at Uni next year...

I've got through two terms with feelings pretty much unchanged. I don't know whether I'll get disillusioned at a later point, but I don't think you should worry about it yet.

Reply 5

JoMo1

harr

I've got through two terms with feelings pretty much unchanged. I don't know whether I'll get disillusioned at a later point, but I don't think you should worry about it yet.

Which University?

Reply 6

henryt

JoMo1

Well this is depressing for someone starting maths at Uni next year...

I wouldn't worry about it. 1st year was a bit miserable, just because it was so much like that puzzle, and also not having any choice in what you study is a little depressing too, but then you only have to pass the exams at the end of the year, so you can have fun! I'm coming to the end of my 2nd year now, which has been SO much better - a choice in what to study and you get better at doing the jigsaw (even if only slightly!).

JoMo1

Which University?

Cambridge.

Reply 9

MrShifty

JoMo1

Well this is depressing for someone starting maths at Uni next year...

To echo the advice of others, don't worry about it too much. The first year is always tough, because you're not just learning new material, but also getting used to an entirely different way of thinking. It'll take a bit of time to adjust and get into the swing of things, and whilst things can get a little hectic, that's not to say it's not also fun!

Reply 10

Simplicity

Uni maths looks easy. Saying for someone who hasen't studied it but going to this year and only read some stuff about it in my spare time, it looks easy. Proofs take some work but you get the hang off it and the skill needed to do applied stuff is not that stressfull. I probably know about half of the stuff I need to know in the first year and it seems easy.

By the end of the summer holiday I would probably know all the stuff during the first year except stats as I will probably not study that during the summer holiday. Note uni maths is really fun espically something called set theory which is the greatest thing ever, plus you get to do crazy stuff with infinity.

Yeah, uni maths looks easy so don't be afraid.

P.S. Maths is easy and linear algebra is easy with some practice.
P.S.S. I must spend every moment of the day thinking about maths. I think thats the only way to learn it.
P.S.S.S. I think that a poor analogy. Anyway, analogies shouldn't really be used to understand something as it blinds you from the truth.

Reply 11

Jingers

Maths is the only subject where people research just to test others.

Reply 12

Ashley. P

Simplicity

ive seen it so many times, and for so many years ive never bothered asking, but what does P.S. actually stand for? :rolleyes:

Reply 13

RichE

Ashley. P

ive seen it so many times, and for so many years ive never bothered asking, but what does P.S. actually stand for? :rolleyes:

post scriptum

Reply 14

Shayke

Yeah, and it's P.P.S, not P.S.S

Sorry to nitpick :tongue:

post post-script. Not post script script...

Reply 15

henryt

Simplicity

Surely, if you can learn the entire year's work in just a couple of months, it either says something about the standard of the First year course, or your opinion of your mathematical ability? Not to put you off - but I'd just be careful - it might surprise you how dense and abstract some of the Maths can get (indeed, half the enjoyment is conquering this!); if it doesn't, then perhaps they're easing you in slowly?!

Reply 16

Alive

RichE

post scriptum

What do you think of the analogy? I would be interested to hear your opinion.

It's a pretty funny quote, but if I was and absolute geek and I was going to try and think of a better one, I might compare it to this kind of puzzle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BRIDGE-PUZZLE-Pop-Out-World/dp/B000QDHF68/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1239574782&sr=8-1

The first year is basically boring as hell, all the pieces seem the same once you've done lots of hard work, you are basically where you've already been (building the bottom layer of the jigsaw, ldo), but once you get on from that things get a lot more interesting.

Reply 17

RichE

Alive

What do you think of the analogy? I would be interested to hear your opinion.

I think the brussels sprouts jigsaw is a pretty poor analogy - I think yours is better, and not just because it is kinder to mathematics.

If early undergraduate mathematics does boil down to being a jigsaw, then in each exercise posed there are only a few pieces. They are pretty hard to put together as the edges can appear close to fractal in their complexity. But in due course you get used to precisely how they line up. It can be a rather boring, but it's a mindset you need to get into, and students seem to enjoy later years a lot more.

I find it the sprouts jigsaw particularly poor, because I don't see maths as an amorphous blob, which seems to be what the metaphor is saying. If you can't fine-tune your thinking to deal differently with geometric, probablistic, algebraic, physical and analytical problems then it will be hard to progress on such different fronts.

Reply 18

MrShifty

RichE

I find it the sprouts jigsaw particularly poor, because I don't see maths as an amorphous blob, which seems to be what the metaphor is saying.

I can sympathise with that view. In the early years of a maths degree the material can seem pretty disjoint and lacking in form. It's only towards the later stages that you really start to get a practical idea of mathematics as a coherent discipline. The only downside being that when that happens you really start to wish you'd paid more attention during, say, ring theory :wink:

Reply 19

KAISER_MOLE

A Maths degree takes apart the vague wooden shed of mathematics and then builds separate rooms of a luxury mansion before sticking them all together. Initially the rooms all seem to be being made on their own, but after a while you can see doors to different rooms and how you can walk between them.

The bathroom is functional. You have to use it every day no matter what you are doing it seems, and without it you are a bit buggered! (I analogise this with a grounding in Linear Algebra) The bedroom is the more exotic :wink: