www.ted.com Someone always asks the math teacher, “Am I going to use calculus in real life?” And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck …
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
but i love calculus
hahaha
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Not in every province. In Ontario, calculus and vectors is at the top of this pyramid of math education with data and stats left largely as an optional course.
Calculus is simply more valuable to more subjects (science, engineering, commerce, economics). This is why it is and should be favoured over stats.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
thats awesome
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Ha!
I’m not! The zeitgeist ‘resource based economy’ is even worse in that respect.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
This is just my opinion.
There is no such thing : “Analog mathematics”. And there is no relation between statistics and discrete mathematics. You can call by discrete mathematics combinatorics, graph theory, numbers theory, groups theory and my be some more areas but not statistics.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
we do statistics in grade 12 in canada, and calculus is left as an optional course. fuck yeah.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
thanks, zeitgeist faggot!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
In the curriculum here in Alberta (curriculum is decided by the province) we get a bit of combinatorics and statistics at the gr. 12 level, though calculus is also an optional subject.
In response to saying that calculus isn’t used, I think about rates of change all the time. I think of the interrelations between one object’s flow or movement and another object flow or movement.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
What is “Significant” to some, is useless to others.
I think your oblivious to the “significance” of culture. Which gives a meaningless existence meaning.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
psh..
‘we’ (meaning YOU and the other morons) wouldn’t be in this economic crisis if we understood fundamentally the existing despotic institutions effects on economic calculation!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
i think that was less than a formula and more of a rant
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
what a clever and insightful argument you make. really thought provoking
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
agreed
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
“Every time you throw a ball, or drive a car, or deal with movement or change of any kind… you are using the concepts taught through calculus: it is a very prevalent subject.”
There is a difference between doing things that can be explained by calculus, and actually using calculus itself.
People use statistics almost everyday. Most people, even those who have been taught it, never use calculus in their daily lives.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
and not just calculus… linear algebra is also required for a lot of very basic stats. Stats courses that are taught without requiring prerequisites in both linear algebra and calc, are basically a waste of time. There is some introductory combinatorics which could be taught without prerequisites… but no few people have the mind for that stuff.
Stats isn’t taught in low level studies because it is complicated. A watered down version of the subject would be a waste of everyone’s time.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
What you have to understand about math is that it is the concepts (not the computations) that will stick with people: No one is going to be calculating the standard deviation on their expected income over the next forty years to asses the risk of a mortgage. They will use the concept of risk to help make decisions.
Every time you throw a ball, or drive a car, or deal with movement or change of any kind… you are using the concepts taught through calculus: it is a very prevalent subject.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
How many complex calculations do you need compared to the number of randoms or statistics? Not many, they’re so far away from most ppls lifes (exept for students of who most don’t understand the topic anyway).
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I am not agree with this. “Moving from analog to discrete mathematics” – I haven’t heard more stupid thing ever. And this man claims to be professor of mathematics …
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
If you’re going into engineering, phyisics, economics and such maths oriented subjects, then you need more knowledge of calculus than statistics.
If you’re going into business, medicine, law, politics, social studies etc, then you need a lot more knowledge of statistics than calculus.
Guess there should be an extra special maths class for students who wanna do engineering, physics, economics etc, to teach them more calculus.
But most others would never use calculus in their life!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Makes sense.
I was thinking bout this the other day actually. I have pretty much forgotten everything i learnt in my maths class in high school cuz i don’t use it and need it anymore. I was in the top 10% of my maths class but now i barely remember anything from calculus cuz in medschool you don’t need it.
But next year i have to study statistics and probability in med school, which it would have had helped me a lot if my maths class would have thought me more of statistics than calculus!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Stats in general are more interesting than calculus. But the problem is that statistics is very easy to pick up whereas calculus is not. So you should have more foundations to do calculus problems otherwise who is going to be the engineer / economist / scientist?
Why would you want to suggest evading a difficult subject and replace it instead with a simpler one and in the process give up on calculus that is so crucial for so many different jobs.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I completely agree that statistics is the most rewarding mathematical material… It’s the most used but not given enough nurturing…
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Bravo. I would suggest adding two other key mathematical components to Mr. Benjamin’s pyramid:
A: sound, practical instruction in the positive & negative power of compound interest and
B: the ability to critically examine numerical information when used to promote an agenda, as in advertising & politics.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Statistics and probability? I agree, that’s one of the concepts the human mind has problems grasping, and it will have applications in everyday life. Also, I believe the basic math people would have to learn would be the math behind finance and money matters.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I am a structural and material engineer for building envelope design. The glass/aluminum/precast high rises you see in cities has a team of designers and regulators that design the skins of the buildings that we work and play in. Structural engineering relies heavily on beam/column theory which utilizes differential equations (calculus). Materials such as Glass are non-ductile and are limited by statistical studies of breakage based on sizes and design pressures (statistics). Etc…