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A comment on How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math. Parent comment

Re:How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math by aidos on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:20PM (#6729367)
Ah yes - I used to love reading Euclid's proofs [1]. Wonderful descriptions. He used such poetic phrases too - things like describing a line as 'a length without breadth.'

As wonderful as it is, mathematics needs notation, and lots of it. You can express incredibly complex ideas in mathematics, totally unambiguously, through a collection of symbols. Not to mention that they're universally recognised.

The reality is that mathematics is 100% about thought. You'll struggle to put together the concepts in your mind long before the notation is the real issue. Once you have a clear picture of the abstract space you can use the notation you've learned to communicate the world you've created to others. What could be more wonderful?

[1] http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookVI/propVI...

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Re:How I faced my fears and learned to be good at math by upquark on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @08:00PM (#6729826)
Agreed. Plus, the current notation is a result of multiple iterations by some brilliant people. If you look at older attempts at formal mathematical notation, some of it is laughably bad in comparison. We are standing on the shoulder of giants :)
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