How far were you into studying math before you realized you were retarded? Not trolling, I'm genuinely curious. I'm in the process of realizing it now.
>>7642842
When I lost interest in any type of human interaction. It just seems, irrelevant.
I got an A in Calc II and a C in Finite math so I don't know. Luckily I don't have to take any more math.
Triple Integrals
>>7642842
I wish I was able to just stay away from humans and keep my sanity at the same time,but I tried for the first couple weeks of school and my grades actually went down about 25%.This was most likely do to the amount of depression I felt from the experience.
>>7642842
Not realizing what it meant to "cancel out" when it came to multiplication/division until AP Calc
Honours set theory at a top 10 uni. I'm dumber than a bag of rocks. It's a weird feeling. In basically any room I'd be seen as "omg math genius," but I'm genuinely retarded compared to my peers now. Just gonna drop out senpai.
>>7642865
Honors set theory.. ROFL..
I have an idea:
Why don't you people quit bitching about being retarded and give some effort?
>>7642872
It's crushing, to be honest. I'm at babby level shit and I'm getting fucked already. I don't even know how one "studies" math. I've never been able to do it properly. I'll probably just become an engineer.
>>7642855
Sometimes it makes me so happy I'm a schizo misanthrope
When for my calc III final, we were allowed to have a small cheat sheet. So what I did was I put all types of numerical examples to use. The test came and was pretty much entirely trig functions. I didn't put any identities on my sheet. If I had done well, would of had an A- maybe. Ended up dropping my grade to a C.
>>7642865
>at a top 10
>>7642877
Okay. Now I feel like an asshole.
The trick is you have to realize that math is a language. Why do languages exist? To describe things that we experience. Languages have rules. You learn the basics and slowly learn to describe more complex things.
The beauty in math is that it strips the language of anything unessential. The things you're learning-- definitions, theorems, etc-- are the result of years and years of careful thought. This stripping process makes everything seem unnecessarily abstract, and the fact that you're presented most of it without any historical context makes it all the worse.
If you're unfortunate enough to have a professor that believes pure-math is a god send and needs no motivation, then it's left to you to figure out why all of this is important.
Certainly, there are going to be people who are naturally more apt than you at math, but I can assure you that EVERYBODY hits a wall sooner or later. If this weren't the case, then we'd have the answers to everything.
If you have a reason to learn math, and you really enjoy and care about it, then you'll work until you get it. If you don't, then it's always going to be torturous.
One trend I've noticed is that a lot of the people that are naturally gifted in the maths and sciences-- the ones who zip through everything and get it immediately-- are usually challenged in other facets of life. Some have strange speech impediments, are physically inept, can't communicate well with others, etc.. Math skills aren't necessary for success in life.. they can help, but unless you're like Terry Tao, the ability to network will get you much farther than having above average skills in math.
>>7642946
Isn't this an extremely Platonistic view of math? Not trying to start shit, just asking.
Great timing for this thread, maybe you guys will be able to help me out...
I've always had trouble learning mathematics from year 8 onwards, I wasn't a devoted / bright student and my math teachers pretty much gave up on me, etc... I'm 21 now and haven't attended university/college because all the relevant fields that interest me require some form of mathematics, now I find myself trying to overcome my fear and my quitter attitude when mathematics are involved, but I do not know where to start or what to search for.. Are there any reliable (free) learning tools online that may be useful for people like me? Also looking for math games and things of the sorts that I can toy around on my time off?
>>7643002
I would just start reading math books. Start at whatever level you're comfortable with. Work your way up to higher mathematics. Read the entire book, do most of the problems without looking at the solutions.
>>7642863
...pls explain
>>7642877
I may not go through the manly shit until grad school (current CS fag) but the babby shit is easy. Calc 2 and probability is nothing while Calc 3 and linear algebra look fucking easy.
>>7642946
I really like your way of thinking, thanks anon.
>>7643002
learning math and doing math is like working out
you have to read and re read and then practice practice practice, this builds up your brains power
always look for the literal things you are doing when computing all those symbols so you understand the concepts better
>>7642975
Somewhat. I was hoping this wouldn't devolve into a philosophical discussion, but I guess it has.
Based on what it means to be platonistic, I'm gonna have to disagree; nothing I said seems to be platonic to me. I don't know whether or not the reality I'm experiencing is "true," nor do I care. Math is merely something used to describe what I'm experiencing. As new experiences arise, so does new math, and somehow, someway, following the logical consequences of the math may lead to new physical discoveries. It's weird, and it's difficult to have a conversation about this on 4chan, let alone unprepared.
I think math is a human construct, and doesn't exists in some pure sense outside of the mind. It's a tool that happens to be a language.
I also believe that reality and experience provide the inspiration for all ideas in mathematics. No matter how abstract the theory, I'd be willing to bet it can always traced back to some idea based on experience. When a theory finds success, whether in physics or in a pure sense, it drives mathematicians to develop the theory even further, making it seem far-removed from reality.
I mean, hell, just consider the big branches of math: Analysis, Algebra, Topology&Geometry, Foundations&Logic.. Think about what they are used to describe in the most general sense
Measurements, symmetry, shape, reasoning. Of the group, I'd argue that foundations and logic are the most abstract because logic is kind of this thing that we just have that works well enough for us to trust it.
Anyway, since the ideas are based upon experience, it's only obvious that there has to be a dependency between the experience and the math.
There's a reason why quantum mechanics seem to be so weird, and that's because we are unable to directly experience the ideas that we think govern it.
Blah.. This could go on forever about all kinds of things..
>>7643118
Responding to myself here:
Credentials: 4thyearGradFag
My strong-suit is analysis, and my speciality is probability and statistics. I'm more interested in the immediate applications of math than the pursuit of math purely, though my bachelor's and master's are in "pure" math.
I have a strong appreciation for pure math; it'd be foolish to try and be an applied mathematician without understand how all of your tools work.
>>7642842
Around stoke's thorem
calc 1
>>7642842
Always thought i was retarded. Thought everything was easy 99% of the time, and that other people were idiots for not getting, then 1% i didn't get so i must be an idiot 2
>>7642842
when I tried to take a course on general topology as a sophomore because my calculus classes were too easy
i thought i was smart because i was getting 100s on every calc 1-3 test while class average was a C
it turns out most people are just REALLY stupid
i got rekt by proofs and switched my major to engineering/physics double major (from math)
currently junior
fucking love this shit
>>7642946
Very nicely said anon.
>>7642855
Anonymous is cringe worthy.
Algebraic Geometry.
>>7642842
ITT: honest retards
>>7642842
What are some things one should consider if they are looking at a majoring in maths? Is there a way to gauge how well one might do in rigorous maths?
So far I've only taken baby maths as a MechEng major (calc 2 right now, A in maths is all I got going for me right now)
>>7643127
question for ya since you seem to know a thing or two:
I'm in intermediate calculus right now (2nd year first term calc), we had our first midterm today and I am betting on me getting mid 90's on the test, I did it with ease but made a a pretty crucial error based on Factorial expansion.
I can plug and chug all day in Calculus with no issues, but when confronted with a question on what exactly I'm doing I fail to explain it. For instance, today was mostly playing with infinite series, Taylor and Maclaurin, convergence/divergence, all that shit. I can play with those easily, but I don't even know what they are, I understand they are an addition of terms in a specific sequence (at least I think so) but I wouldn't even know how to use them in a scientific setting.
I'm also in Linear Algebra 1, and that so far is the hardest math course I've had, mostly cause it forces you to actual KNOW what you're doing, and explain it in words, which I find much more difficult.
So TL;DR, am I fucked for future math?
the second day of class...
ITT
>>7643243
Physics and Medicine are STEM (Medicine is applied science, i.e. technology)
>>7642865
you're that kid that prolly says
'I didnt study anything im gonna have an F'
>All As
fuck you faggot
>statistical mechanics and solveable lattice models
>realise I don't have the eye for the identities and transforms required
turns out I didn't actually learn anything in undergrad and when it is all required (and I mean all the little tricks) I just sit there staring at the equations I've derived.
Learning this in grad school is great.
>>7642842
Pre calc to be honest
I managed to get all the way to PDEs in college though, I just got straight Bs since pre calc
>>7642842
The development of, not quite intuition, but the coordinate recognizance matrixing of the the relation of the patterns of mathematical formulas can be said to be the correspondence of the state of charge of your cells, this can be noted as what the permeation of the boundary of the chemical to cellular barrier as the implications of the atomic resurgence in the wave platforms reconstruction in the micro state of the waves, referring to the charge and spin, abilities to demonstrate itself in a state that is both comprehensive and stable to the point of that the information of the elements in question are that the information being transferred from in the coherence of the initial vibratory state makes the next cell shell act as just that in translating the information.
>pic related
>>7643209
If you have a function and you want to represent it as a taylor series, all you need to thing about is that you take the value of the function at some point, and then get the slope at that point, then the rate of change of the slope, and so on. If you keep doing this you get a function that mimics the behavior of your function.
>>7643243
Why do the Med, Finances, and Physics majors look like EVE from WALL-E....Oh right, because all those jobs will be automated.
>>7642865
I love it when nerds like you realize they "ain't worth shit" and your whole reason for existing disappears before your very eyes.
A in Calc 2, D in Calc 3
Taking Calc 3 again and I have a B currently, but only because of perfect homework grades. I don't know if I can become an engineer anymore, and it's making me anxious.
>>7643324
Could you say something not completely retarded and unintelligible for once, literally a n y t h i n g?
>>7642946
Math, logic, science. These things seem to click to me and im able to digest them at speeds my peers aren't able to keep up in. But i keep making mistaken connections between things and some of my theories are quite disconnected.
Probably because I'm psychotic.
But none the less I see this as an advantage because I'm able to delve into the abstract without the shock factor of "wtf this makes no sense." It's more of a "how can i change this thought pattern to be more efficient."
I dunno anon. I think as if there's no box at all to think inside/outside of.
>>7644211
You sound like you don't know shit about math, logic or science and you just like to talk about them spewing bullshit popsci-tier "theories"
>>7644211
I cringed.
>>7643209
If you want to gauge how well you'll do in more "abstract" math, you'll need to try your university's introductory theoretical math courses.
The content will vary from university to university, but I believe any decent introductory real analysis course will cover at the least some basic set theory, set theoretic properties of functions, and then sequences, series, etc..
A more advanced course may discuss the topological properties of the real numbers using the standard metric, (absolute value), sequences, series, limits of functions, continuity, differentiation, integration, sequences and series of functions, blah blah.
An even more advanced intro course would do the above in full generality.
Again, I can't tell you how deeply your university will cover the material or what you'll cover, but there are certain fundamentals that it should.
As you take more physics you'll find out where they have their use.. I recall learning series representations of lots of things in undergrad physics courses. For example, in special relativity I learned that you may represent the relativistic kinetic energy of an object by an infinite series. You find that when the velocity is much less than c, that KE~~.5mv^2; that is, the rest of the terms in the series are negligible for small velocities.
I don't know what you mean by future math. If you're only doing computational stuff and no theory, you may find it very difficult and non-intuitive. If you learn some theory--basic abstract algebra, and basic real analysis, you'll find that a lot of what you're doing is simple application of these things, and you'll understand the thought processes that lead to them. It can be tough work, and if you want to succeed you'll have to stop using things like, "oh my IQ is too low," as crutches. Just do the damn work and learn that there is nothing wrong with struggling.
Hasn't happened yet, I'm good at everything up to complex analysis. We'll see how it goes with abstract algebra, but I'm not worried.
>>7643243
Engineer is by far the wisest and most practically cynical here. Also:
>internships are a waste of time
is completely true except to build your CV. Cool, 50 quality assurance tests per day, I'm glad I'm learning about the real world.
>>7643209
One last thing to you. I'm going to be very honest:
Half the stuff you're learning is super baby material. In practice, ideas that are much more complicated will be used, and you'll most likely use software that implements them.
How do you think your calculator computes things like e^x, sin(x), and other complicated expressions? It doesn't have infinite memory to compute infinite series. It most likely does, for example: e^x = S(x)+r(x) where r--> 0 is some remainder/ error, and S(x) is a finite sum.
Think about it.. What is the sqrt(2) or pi?
What does it mean to be infinite or infinitesimal? As far as we can tell, everything is finite. They're abstractions and don't have a real physical counterpart. What they allow us to do, however, is be precise in speaking of limiting behaviors of various things.
The further you go, and the more you think, the quicker you realize all of our academic disciplines are essentially philosophy with varying degrees of ''rigor''--whatever that means..
>>7644211
I'm OP, and for the record, this sperglord is not me.
But to the guy who replied with lots of helpful advice, thanks man. I've heard the language analogy lots, but you really got it across well. Thanks again.
>major'd in mathematics
>went to 30% of all math lectures
>took 3 fourth year physics courses (QM 4, QFT, GR) without doing any prerequisites
>went to 0 physics lectures
>first easily, start writing paper
>building on ``Esquisse d'un Programme''
>send few conjectures to professors asking whether they are strong enough to get published
>they say of course but that they are impossible to prove
>the paper is finished in next few days
>gonna get published before I'm 23
>shit is so good it could win me a prize
u jelly /sci/?
>>7644797
Write an autobiography and sell it to Hollywood, you'll make millions.
>>7644824
>only friends are drug dealers and normies who hate math
>dysfunctional parents
>possible detachment disorder inherited from psychotic mother
>told at an early age that I wouldn't even be able to read and write
>have to spend most my time looking after dying relative
It'd just be a rip off of Good Will Hunting.
>>7644131
>projecting this hard on /sci/ on a Saturday night
>>7644936
You are an insufferable self absorbed faggot though, Hollywood loves your type
>>7645083
>>7643965
>he things jobs will be automated
>he dosent understand that people will retaliate against employers who automate
I realized I wasn't very smart in high school.
Still got good grades but stopped trying, and never really went back to trying.
It's conceited, but the joy of learning disappeared when I learned the limits of my mental capacity.
Got my BS and MS faster than average so I didn't spend much extra tuition.
Lazily looking for a job.
Multivariable calc. I realized that I was horribly average in a class full of engineers and druggies.
>>7644797
i'm genuinely happy for you
>>7642842
I thought this happened a few times but it turned out my teachers were just shit. Linear Algebra based classes were the worst with nomenclature bombs being presented axiomatically with no relation to relevance/why they are used/what do the mean physically.
>>7642842
Calc 2.
Still got a B though
>>7642847
[code]
for(int i = ...
for(int j = ...
for(int k = ...
[/code]
Just run F(...) in all loops, something like that
>>7642863
Nigger who let you take AP calc when you didn't know what division was
>>7643324
HAHAHA this board just got a full retard crackpot richer. It even looks as if he believes his own mumbo jumb.
>>7642842
I've realized we're all retarded...
does that count?
>>7642842
The end of Calc 2. Can't even conceive of Laplace transforms. What are they? How are they useful? When should I use them? and most importantly why can I not use them myself?
I'm now studying biology, there's more girls in my classes so there is that.
>>7643965
How could the study of physics be automated?
>>7643243
>studying Finance.
GET THE FUCK OUT
>>7643243
>grades don't matter
>internships don't matter
but they do.
>>7642842
what is your reference to judge retardation?
calculus 1
>>7645095
Why do you think people are jelly of you? No one honestly gives a shit after 3 seconds.
Raise your low self-esteem by working out for them endorphins and testosterone and shit.
>>7642842
When I started looking at Putnam exams and learned there are people who score perfect on those tests.
>>7643161
Proofs are easy if you take the right mindframe into them. I mean, jumping from calc to a proof based class would be a shock for sure.
My ability to do advanced mathematics seems to be inversely related to my ability to do simple arithmetic.
Want me to prove that every coefficient of a Taylor series is a rational number? No problem.
Wanna know what 37+55 is? Fuck if I know.
Humbling one's self is healthy. Good job OP.
>>7642842
When I got my math degree. I also forgot 95% of the stuff I learned in class. It feels like I got a degree in nothing. I'm trying to relearn some of it and maybe focus on just one branch of math. Something applied too...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
>>7643002
Khan Academy. It's a great place to learn Maths.
Differential topology.
I have terrible geometric intuition combined with the awful notation used in the subject. It's a nightmare for me to try to prove even basic things in this subject while others seem to find it quite simple.
Grad school in general has been pretty humbling since I was top of my class in undergrad.
>>7642842
When it took me four times to pass calculus 1. Then again I found calc 2 and 3 to be alot easier than calc 1.
>>7647245
>implying I don't lift
>1.5/2.5/3/4
Not great but getting there
I did poorly in math in highschool. Then I took math in CC starting from algebra and got up through pre-calc with As. Then I took calculus 1 with a shit teacher and got a C. Now I'm in calculus II and i'm failing, already registered to take it again in the spring because I know I have no chance of passing it this time around. I know I'm retarded at math but I also know that I can do it if I have enough time to absorb the material. It's just too fast for me this semester so I'm going to have to take it again and hopefully having gone through the material once, the second time I should be able to understand it more and know what to focus on. Honestly plenty of people fail classes and end up fine, don't let the memesters on this board get you down.
>>7644211
>>7642842
Second year of preparatory class. Still early undergrad, but everything you learn you're supposed to become technically proeficient with in less than one week.
And getting your ass busted by someone 2 years older than you and who didn't even sleep before the test is rather depressing.
>>7647184
>not studying finance
It's like you don't want to live a good life.
>>7649590
Half them are just as retarded as us anyway
>>7649594
Bottom left hand corner. University name is mostly covered by the crop. However, you can see a suspicious D and a V. The spacing leads me to believe the name of his university is in the format:
D-V---.
>mfw people go to for-profit universities right out of high school
>or at all for that matter
>>7642842
Highschool trigenometry
Cheated a shitload with wolfram alpha then I graduated and said fuck you I'm using a computer for this shit. I.Q. 115 at the time. My autism genes made me do so well on the finals I wasn't required to take a college level course I was covered.
