On 30 September 2012 04:37, Alan Gauld <[email protected]> wrote:
> <off topic rant> > One of the things that makes math hard for people to grasp is its insistence > on abstracting functions/values to single letter names etc. (especially when > those names are in a foreign language/symbology, > like Greek!) Of course, the abstraction is powerful in its own right because > it can then be applied in multiple domains, but that abstraction is often > the barrier to people understanding the > principle. Those that are "good at math" are often really those > who are "good at abstraction". > </off topic> Hi Alan and all, While I think I see what you mean here, Alan, I cannot quite resist and, as this thread long since got hopelessly off-topic :-) I feel no need for restraint. To a first approximation, mathematics can reasonably be thought of as the science of abstraction. So, to say (with a hint of complaint) that those who are good at math are often those who are good at abstraction seems a bit like complaining that it is those with good spatial reasoning and a sense of direction that are good at navigation. While it is indeed possible for mathematical presentation to devolve into unhelpful abstraction (it is this that I suspect Alan intended to target), abstraction is of the essence to the enterprise; nothing that still counts as maths could be easily understood by those without the ability to think abstractly. Having posted twice in a half-hour, I resume my lurk-cloak. Best to all, Brian vdB _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
