Hi Erin, you’re more than welcome, that’s awesome to hear! I really think the “math is language” metaphor works – we need to focus on the message being communicated, not the grammar rules! Of course grammar is necessary – but it’s not the focus, what’s the big idea?
Mathematics is very important subject in our life.Math makes you feel small, either that, or mathematical knowledge feels so insignifigant or unimportant that you’d wonder, “have I been wasting my time doing it”.Good one Kalid. I would go for the latter one – reality might be an approximation of math!
As for Mark’s comment on nothing, let us think about the Big Bang. The theory goes that there was nothing – no space, no matter and no energy before the event. If it was ‘something’ then it has to be ‘nothing’! And everything that is today is out of that ‘nothing’. Even the word ‘before’ can’t be defined in the context, its like zero time (as is zero Kelvin). So, the universe came out of ‘nothing’ as 1 and -1 come out of zero! Wow! satisfying example of ‘reality being an approximation of math’ :)Even non living things are ruled by mathematics. If you look around and see nature itself shows how important mathematical equations are. We throw a stone and its governed by the equation of parabola! And who does not know the amazing occurrence of Fibonacci series in nature!
Thanks, and I do like the sunset metaphor. (I consider seeing the sunset to be eternal gratification just because it’s so relaxing and calming and you can look at almost like forever if that’s even possible)
PS: Even number theory, E = mc^2 and fermat’s last theorem have hidden signifigance?
If you tell me that
profit = revenue - expense
and
profitability = profit / expense
and stuff like that, I can see how useful they are but for something as abstract as H’s uncertainty principle, I don’t see it’s use.
Hi Brian, I think it depends on your perspective. I actually like feeling small and insignificant compared to the ideas, the same feeling you might get when looking at the stars or a sunset. It’s something cool to be experienced! (And therefore rarely a waste of time :)).
Kalid…I have been teaching Developmental Math at the community college level for 13 years. My approach has always been to teach from a viewpoint that math is a language. ALL of my presentations springboard from the vocabulary used in that topic. What a delight to read this article written by YOU, Kalid! Thank you!
I understand that there are things which we don’t understand yet, we call them noise, because we cannot process them. It is such a wonderful thought that we’ve not yet known and bred in our bone what the concept is, but I wish we could be reminded of it every time we balk on finding a contradiction instead of vehemently denying it.
For example, when you said that ‘How could the universe come from nothing? Well, how can 0 be split into 1 and -1?’, I was like, ‘aha! There’s the catch, WE made up zero to represent nothingness and -1 and 1 as quantities for something, maybe matter and anti-matter. It is a mathematical manipulation, a convenient one albeit’.
It doesn’t strike me in the first instance when my instincts are reacting that maybe somewhere someone just just the same thing with universe, which we don’t understand. Until we find out, I guess we’ll never know. But yes, maths is not to be feared, for it is a tool to express things that we observe.
Cheers,
Blasphemous Aesthete
What would have happened if we had not studied mathematics?
DO NOT GIVE ANY INFORMATION LIKE THIS
As a thinker and a math teacher, so glad I ran across this article and blog.
Very nice articles!
Thanks so much for sharing this article, and this website. Your idea of sharing mathematical ideas through assessing their basic relation to human intuition is the style of learning that I’ve been looking for all my life. I’ve never really been satisfied with building upon principles I don’t understand: finally a website that makes intuitive sense! Thanks Kaled!
Thanks W E-G, glad the approach resonates!
If only you were my math teacher all those years back in school!
Very neat post! 
The something from nothing comment made me wonder. If that’s the case then an infinite number of worlds exist because ie -2 and 2 or -0.7 and 0.7 etc come from nothing. However it doesn’t seem to make sense since we cannot have a true infinite number of things in the material sense, otherwise it would be countable?
Secondly I’d love to hear your thoughts on: Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of…: http://youtu.be/TbNymweHW4E
@Paranthaman, @KevinG: Thanks!
@Roger: Ha – yep, I love it.
@Tia: Awesome, glad to hear it’s helping!
Thanks for this great website - I plan to send undergraduate students in a community health class here to help them become familiar with “basics” before they begin applying them to understand how our physical environments shape our health. Thank you!
Excellent explanation
Now i started to love math
Hi Kalid, I just put my figures together into your calculator and they worked, but now I have got plenty of theory to get me up to scratch. So thanks for everything, KevinG
Your insights and intuitive explanations are phenomenal. You’re truly a philomath. Thank you!
cash money in the bank bill gates makin’ stacks for days and he got poo for days and my teacher is making me read this it better teach me because i am not here to preach.