Math subjects you hate - Like /sci/, but on KF

[FuckedUp]

I just started my second semester of linear algebra, and for whatever reason I've been having a really hard time with it. I've done fine in all my other math classes (differential equations, stats, discrete math), but for some reason it takes like twice as long for me to pick up linear algebra concepts. It's not proof-based, so I really don't know why it's so hard for me. And this is supposed to be the CS class

 

[HeyYou]

I hated Geometry back in high school, it's where I learned proofs. On the flip side, as much as I suck at math, I kinda liked Calculus.

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

I hate differential equations with the heat of a billion suns.

 

[FuckedUp]

I hated Geometry back in high school, it's where I learned proofs. On the flip side, as much as I suck at math, I kinda liked Calculus.

Did you go to school in America?

 

[Liber Pater]

I have always loved stats and data science, but never really enjoyed geometry.
Calculus was ok.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I never understood the concept of "imaginary numbers".

It always sounded pointless and dumb to me.

 

[FuckedUp]

I never understood the concept of "imaginary numbers".

It always sounded pointless and dumb to me.

It's actually used for something in differential equations.

 

[HeyYou]

Did you go to school in America?

Yes, it usually goes Algebra -> Geometry -> Algebra II/Trigonometry -> Pre-Calculus in high school. I did Algebra in middle school and then did Geometry/Trigonometry -> Algebra II -> Pre-Calculus -> Calculus.

 

[Botchy Galoop]

I couldn't wrap my head around algebra. It was the letters mixed in with the numbers. I sat for 3 weeks in Alg2 until I asked the teach "who decided that "e" should be "e".? He excused me from Alg2 and I took an extra Lit class. I however loved Geometry. It was visual and made sense to me. Plus I was able to build a set of stairs with Geometry. I found it useful for my life. Algebra, not so much.

 

[FuckedUp]

Yes, it usually goes Algebra -> Geometry -> Algebra II/Trigonometry -> Pre-Calculus in high school. I did Algebra in middle school and then did Geometry/Trigonometry -> Algebra II -> Pre-Calculus -> Calculus.

I know that's normal, it's just that proofs are a college thing.

 

[Otis Boi]

I always fucking hated Trig and Geomotry and now that all i deal with every day its like my personal hell. I do like calculus and statistics

 

[snailslime]

geometry can die in a fire

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

I was pretty good student in math, but I feel like I have complete forgotten linear algebra, compared to calculus.

 

[FuckedUp]

I was pretty good student in math, but I feel like I have complete forgotten linear algebra, compared to calculus.

I can remember everything from calculus I and II, but only partial differentiation and integration from III, which is weird because I found III the easiest.

 

[Neko GF]

The worst thing I can remember doing in maths was probably the Quadratic Formula. Unecessarly tedious and completely useless outside of school.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Fucking hated topology. Awful shit.

Differential equations sucked, but in hindsight I think it was mostly the professor.

I couldn't wrap my head around algebra. It was the letters mixed in with the numbers. I sat for 3 weeks in Alg2 until I asked the teach "who decided that "e" should be "e".? He excused me from Alg2 and I took an extra Lit class. I however loved Geometry. It was visual and made sense to me. Plus I was able to build a set of stairs with Geometry. I found it useful for my life. Algebra, not so much.

e stands for “Euler,” the man who found the number, you stupid Laker

 

[Botchy Galoop]

e stands for “Euler,” the man who found the number, you stupid Laker

I'm not a Laker, I'm a Knicker.

 

[Un Platano]

Linear algebra is 50% really cool shit and 50% completely useless shit. The annoying part about learning it is that most new concepts are introduced as a set of axioms that don't immediately seem very useful. Lots of topics like vector spaces, inner product spaces, and eigenvectors fall under this category where they don't seem useful until they're utilized much later for an unexpected purpose. One of my personal favorite standard topics in linear algebra is where you can develop a Fourier series for any function by showing that sin(kx) is an orthogonal set. It's a completely unexpected and beautiful use of concepts which are taught much earlier in the course.

There's a lot of bullshit in the class too though. QR factorizations are a standard topic in the class, and are used later in numerical analysis for their purported use of solving equations. For all they talk up their usefulness though I've never once seen a situation where a QR factorization seemed like a good solution to a problem. Your mileage may vary with this because it seemed like something that pairs very well with computers. Making people do it by hand is exceptional and counterproductive, especially iterations of it.

Differential equations wasn't that bad for me, but I immediately forgot everything it teaches. What I took out of that class is that Laplace transforms are good and everything else is black magic. I took that before I took linear algebra and I utterly regret that decision. There's a lot from linear algebra that can be applied to diff eqs, but hardly anything from diff eqs can be applied to linear algebra. Matrices are like training wheels for solving differential equations, but once you've learned diff eqs before matrices it doesn't help at all.

 

[Lone MacReady]

Is math actually needed? Never use it in my daily life, and what little I would need it for can be handled by a fuckbutt TI calculator. Unless you are going into engineering or banking and the like, having it be required coursework for an art degree is exceptional

 

[Un Platano]

I never understood the concept of "imaginary numbers".

It always sounded pointless and dumb to me.

As they're introduced in typical high school math class they are indeed pointless and dumb. They don't actually utilize them in any introductory course, they just give you some basic definitions and properties and then move on. In reality imaginary numbers have lots of theoretical and applied uses. They're fundamental to many proofs in higher subjects of math, and are used to model lots of real world phenomena, such as power factor in electrical systems (side note: fuck phasors and fuck electrical engineering)

In a lot of ways I think students would be better off ignoring the concept of imaginary numbers until much later on, because until you learn why they're useful they just serve to cloud your mind. The only reason they're taught is because the subjects that do use them will assume you already know the properties of imaginary numbers just as you do those of polynomials, angles, and shapes. They don't want to give you a rundown on imaginary numbers in every single class you take.

Is math actually needed? Never use it in my daily life, and what little I would need it for can be handled by a fuckbutt TI calculator. Unless you are going into engineering or banking and the like, having it be required coursework for an art degree is exceptional

There is math everywhere around you, in everything you see and hear and feel and every other sense you have, but you'll never find it if you don't want to look for it. It's a lot like how humans can be illiterate and still be fine.