On 12/05/12 01:01, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
Well that's funny, here in europe we've learned to use 'x' since junior school so that's more intuitive for us. :)
Dangerous to speak for a whole group, I've met plenty of Europeans terrified of mathematical notation.
Some people -- maybe even most people -- automatically freeze up when confronted with a notation that they associate with difficult stuff, or stuff that was too hard (or humiliating) for them at some point in the past. Maths-phobia is very common in a lot of people who are able to solve the exact same problems if they're not presented in "maths-y" clothing. By contrast look at how some mathematically gifted people freeze up in social situations!
I saw a violin-playing friend in school freeze up once when she was asked to sightread a short piece with chords in it. She was adamant that she wasn't skilled enough to play chords properly. Yet a few seconds' calm examination of the notes on the page would have revealed that all she had to do was draw the bow across a pair of open strings, which is something that just about every violinist, even a beginner, does every day without even thinking about it. She couldn't see it, because "Oh my God!! Chords!!" got in the way of even trying to consider the problem.
