Like I'm taught that it becomes a positive yeah but like why tho??? Pls explain as simply as you can because even chat gpt is frying my brain trying to explain it.

I’m 27. My dad is a PHD Mathematician and I only mention that because at times he intimidated me growing up because I simply could not keep up with the mathematical thinking and would get frustrated with me.

I also never really learned well in math classes. Always feeling behind. And so I would instinctively avoid math and consequently almost all sciences.

And now as a 27 year old in my current field of geography and geospatial science I started to try and learn math again from the art of problem solving books.

And something struck me, I’m actually enjoying doing the problems. But it also made me mad at myself in ways because I feel as though I’ve overlooked and misunderstood this subject for all my life.

It is in everything and seems to be a main bottle neck for me as I try to pivot careers into something more science related and hands on, knowing that for a true career change I may need to take a lot more classes at college to get to the level I need.

Talking to people around me many mainly have a basic understanding of algebra (at least the people in my group) and nobody seems too interested in going further.

So my question is, is math truly overlooked by so many people (for many different reasons I’m assuming)? Would learn math help people through many bottlenecks in life?

And if so how would you hope more people approach math so they may have a better relationship with it?

Hey, guys. Unfortunately a doctor once diagnosed an intellectual disability for me because I struggle with daily living skills and because he administered an IQ test and it was below 70; both are the sole requirements to receive the diagnosis of an intellectual disability. Also, everyone calls me stupid, which further reinforces the fact that I am disabled most likely. The problem herein is that in September I will start my math B. Sc degree at my local university in Germany, and I will have to successfully pass the difficult modules Analysis 1-2 and lin alg 1-2, all of which have a failure rate of >50%. Could I pass them all if i study dilligently from Monday to Sunday? At another university I aced four engineering math exams with ease, but that was due to practicing a lot, not due to a supposed high intelligence. Could I realistically do it?

For 2^x the derivative has an extra constant of about 0.693, and for 3^x it's about 1.099. So somewhere between 2 and 3 there has to be a base where that constant is exactly 1, and that's e. Honestly this made way more sense to me than just "it's 2.718 and it shows up everywhere." Is this how you were taught it, or did it click differently for you?

Excuse my ignorance but by the way I understand it, why is 'nothingness' raise to 'nothing' equates to 'something'?

Can someone explain why that is? It'd help if you can explain it like I'm 5 lol

I’m in precalc and my professor told the class how usually 50% of his classes will drop and around 20ish% of the 50% pass. He also stated he’s never given out an A… I feel like precalc shouldn’t be this difficult. I could POSSIBLY squeeze by with a C but even then i dont know if I would have picked up enough to not die calc 1. I’m a first year Industrial engineering student that’ll have to take calc 3 eventually, should I just take a W in the class and retake next semester to learn more?

Does having a high IQ really make someone naturally better at mathematics?

Or can someone with average intelligence become very good at math through practice, problem-solving, and learning how to manipulate equations?

I’m curious about what actually matters more in the long run.

Not homework just a question

My wife is taking calculus/trig in college and she’s struggling immensely. She spends hours on one question and sometimes doesn’t answer it fully. She claims that her math fundamentals are her biggest detriment and wants to drop out of her class and spend the next few months just doing practice worksheets on fundamentals. She has asked me to be her aid which I’ve accepted daily (of course she’s my wife.) The issue is I’m having to learn all this stuff with her and at times I’m just as confused as she is. She wants me to teach her things that I pick up easily but when I try she doesn’t understand. For example, last night I had to explain to her similar triangles and we spent 2 hours for her to finally understand. I’m not a teacher and I encouraged her to have a tutor that I’d pay for but she feels a lot of shame with that and refuses. I’ve also wanted her to work with a professional because I have poor patience and get often frustrated. She yells at me when I’m not explaining the answer well enough; I try a million ways to teach it but nothing seems to work. What doesn’t help is that her professor is poor at explaining her work and assumes her students are reading her mind.

My question is: How do I help my wife with math? It feels wrong to just throw our hands up and have her drop out but she’s really pushing for it.

I've struggled with math for years, and sometimes I feel like my foundations are way weaker than they should be.

For those of you who used to be really bad at math but eventually improved a lot, what did you do differently? Did you start over from the basics, change your study habits, or approach the subject differently?

I'd love to hear your experiences and what actually worked for you.

I am pretty avg at math. I dont find word problems easy. My high school didn’t really focus much on real world situations into problems so that is something I struggle with…

I actually enjoy the straightforward side of math the part that involves a lot of calculations. I can do calculus questions reasonably well although I wouldn’t say Im particularly good at harder maths qs that require problem solving skills

What I find fascinating about mathematics is how much of the world it can describe. Mathematics is used in computer, physics, astronomy, engineering and so on. The idea that you can take something that seems unrelated to numbers express it

mathematically and then use that maths to understand or predict how it behaves is really fascinating to me. This makes me want to learn it beyond what I need for my degree even if I am not naturally good at math
I am actually considering picking up some undergraduate level mathematics books and teaching myself mathematics alongside my degree..

So my questions are:
1. Do you think someone who is avg at math but interested in it can cope with university level maths and eventually become good at it?

1. How important is being good at word problems and problem solving before starting an undergraduate degree in it?

2. What mathematics books would you recommend for someone who wants to self study undergraduate level mathematics?
   I am particularly interested in building a foundation, in maths rather than just learning formulas and techniques

Just saw a MythBusters video on the Monty Hall problem.

The video revealed the statistical advantage to switching after a wrong door was removed. But it doesn’t make sense in my peanut brain.

I understand that having three options being that every choice has a different 1/3 chance of being the correct answer. But I don’t understand how removing a wrong answer forces the switched choice to be a higher percentage of getting it correct. How was removing a wrong answer any different from the initial game only having two options?

I hope this makes sense.

Imagine signing up for what you think is a $16 a month learning trial only to wake up to a sudden $218 charge on your card.
That exact nightmare happened to me with Brilliant.org. The signup page made it look like a free trial of 30 days and afterwards a regular monthly plan. But the second my free trial ended my card got slapped with an $218 fee.
Panicked I logged in immediately to cancel. But their website trapped me in an endless glitch loop. The cancellation page literally would not work.
I messaged support within 24 hours explaining their own site broke. They did not care. They hid behind robotic script templates claiming payments are non refundable and only offered a partial refund.
I felt so cheated and helpless.

Hi, I’m in my 30’s and I have been trying to start a degree on mathematics. At this age, responsibilities are everywhere and the schedule is tight. I have been doing some research to accommodate my studies in my schedule. First I went for a night program, very few unis offer it, then weekends programs, just to find even fewer options, and lastly online programs. After all the research, I came across Open University and uniDistance, but it’s really frustrating not having accessible options.

I’m not going to deceive myself, I know math isn’t the most popular degree and that throughout the course there is a high percentage of dropouts, but are there any other reasons why colleges do not offer online pure and applied math programs? Oxford and the MIT make their courses resources already public, it makes me wonder

I've been self-studying math using books with solutions manual in it.\ Every time I get stuck on a problem for 2-3 hours I checked the solution.\ Turns out, almost always the solution is something I overlooked, even though it is so simple.

I like math but learning it is so depressing for me. It makes me feel like a failure for not solving something so elementary.\ I know that math is all about hardwork and perseverance but at the same time I don't feel like improving at all.\ I still look at solutions, get the answers wrong again and again even though they are solved using the same technique in the solutions manual.

I know that I'm not a genius, but repeated practice should makes me feel like I got better, right?\ I'm just stuck at the same level for years.\ I don't know man, I really want to continue learning but at the same time it feels so hard to continue and really tempting to quit.

Log has never made any sense to me. Every explanation I’ve ever got was just circular: log base h of x equals y, and b ^y equals x. I’ve never intuitively understood what the log operation did.

In some notes I was reading I was skimming over some explanation of binary search, and it stated:

Log base 2 of X indicates the number of divisions needed to divide X by 2 to reach 1

Annnnnd now I get it. This is wonderful. I immediately googled log base 10 of 100 to confirm, and was ecstatic to see it is indeed 2 haha.

Feeling quite stupid for never seeing this, but I guess better late than never.

Wanted to share cause I recently found this sub, as I’ve started to actually enjoy math in my masters, as opposed to it being a necessary evil in studying computer science. I enjoy the topics I see here a lot.

Edit: currently studying for an exam, so sorry if I can’t respond to everyone but there’s some cool stuff being shared and I appreciate it!

they're the exact same with the exception of 0

Thinking about how Claude AI solved an 80 year old conjecture. I can barely understand the conjecture and a robot solved it. Pretty soon AI will be used for big questions like the Riemann hypothesis. Think about where we were 10 years ago and where we could be 10 years from now.

I could relax by doing art but AI is doing all the painting and music composing now too. I feel like what's the point of even trying to do something challenging now...

As the title suggests , I want to know how we are even keeping track of all the mathematical knowledge that humanity has ever produced.

New mathematical idea's emerge all around the globe so how does mathematicians keep track of everything? For the purpose of preservation of knowledge.

I mean there are a lot of very niche fields with very few experts so , is it possible that one mathematical knowledge gets lost at some time period?

How do we even know if 1 or the rest of the numbers exist if there are infinite numbers between 0 and 1!? This question just randomly popped up in my head while I was watching a documentary. I’m really dumb so pls make the explanation really simple😭😭😭. Plus how can infinity start when it doesn’t even end

I've always excelled in mathematics, but I never thought and paused to know why we solve something the way it is or what does our work mean. I had a teacher in the 5th grade who always spoke on the "whys" and it got me second guessing.

Fast forward to geometry and I'm still good at it, but I tend to be slow sometimes. Especially when learning a new topic, I'll zone out and try to connect the dots, rather than just going by what's laid out. It gets to the point that I know how to solve the answer, but me not understanding WHY I got the answer bugs me out more than how I got it. I need the clarity and without it the material never sticks, hence that I become slow sometimes and I tend to need a refresher.

I've seen the way people explain certain problems in a matter of seconds, but they never seem to dwell into it like my brain does. It goes like this; you know 2+2 is 4 and how you got it was by adding 2 and 2, but why you got it is because you know two of anything adds to 4. My brain is constantly like that, and instead of snatching what is learned and rolling with it, I overthink until I get confused.

Is this a thing other fellow math students go through?

I've seen tons of people who can solve problems in a blink of an eye without any problem. I'm curious on how you can keep a consistent practice of improving while still loving the subject itself. Like how can you achieve that level of understanding? not just repetition that'll just soonly lead to memorization, but actually understanding why the answer is the answer.

I'm no where near that level, but i want to learn from the people who reached that level, or what youre doing to reach it?

If the smaller the denominator is the higher the number gets is true wouldn't dividing by 0 be infinity. if we say d is the denominator and x is the answer and were dividing by 1(1/d=x). as d -> 0 x would be approaching infinity so why cant stuff divided by 0 be infinity.

Why do we classify numbers as rational vs. irrational rather than by whether their base-10 expansion terminates?

Suppose we fixed base 10 and classified numbers as terminating vs. non-terminating. What would we lose or have to change mathematically? Like hypothetically what diff will it make?

I know termination depends on the base but what if we fix a base say base 10? Guess what i am asking is why do we care so much about ratios and rationality when we can have other ways to classify numbers?