Which subject did you hate most at school? Maths is one popular (unpopular?) candidate. Transatlantic note: We Brits add a terminal s to maths; the US doesn’t. Doesn’t dare, possibly from lack of confidence. Discuss.
Why might maths be so hateful? Well, it’s a language and very precise. When we speak English we don’t always get it right first time. We resort to “er” and “um”. There are none of these in maths. There’s only the right way.
But, if my experience is anything to go by, there is one form of maths that’s slightly more congenial - geometry. You can see why. Algebra, for instance, is all numerical theory whereas geometry is lines, angles, circles. Things we can recognise and draw. More reassuring.
Which brings me to wristwatches. VR bought me an elegant (and expensive) Longines for a birthday thirty years ago. I love it. Alas, my family responsibilities have recently grown and I now need to tell time at night in the dark. The Longines can’t do this and thus I wear a cheapo Casio-type with a light feature.
A major difference: the Longines expresses time with hands and a clockface (ie, analogue display), the cheapo with numbers (ie, digital display).
Shelving the Longines has deprived me of more than elegance. For me analogue time is often more immediate; I recognise analogue time via the disposition of the hands. In effect, by the shape they form,. Digital time requires my mind to do a sort of calculation.
Shapes are meat and drink to geometry. To which, it seems, I’m more responsive.
Do shapes instinctively mean more to you than numbers?
Interesting question. I do like the nonverbal immediacy of the traditional clock face. One knows the time without thinking, you are right about that. Knowing the time by shapes is a fun idea. I like that. However, I find the digital display to be immediate, too, just in a different way. I'm not sure one means more to me than the other.
ReplyDeleteWe do say mathematics, but then only math. I'm not sure why we don't add the s. Considering the glorious complexity and endless truths of mathematics, I would think the additional s at the end of math would make more sense.
Colette: This wasn't an entirely serious post (When am I ever?) but I flatter myself that the concept - relating clock time to a geometrical shape - hasn't been touched on anywhere else to my knowledge. I may therefore make a timid claim to have written something original. Given the self-imposed restrictions on Tone Deaf's subject matter (See News Flash above) I shall have to search out more original stuff. Occasional Speeder was here for the evening and was shocked to the core when I mentioned there would be no more about singing lesson. Truth to tell, once the initial burst of interest was over (quite a few years ago), it wasn't a topic that interested many readers.
DeleteIn fact, math is the logical abbreviation and maths could be considered an invention. For me, "math" was awkward to say.
My family and my doctor have introduced me to a Fitbit last summer which has a lot of fancy features incl. time visible in the dark in too many versions for me to choose from.
ReplyDeleteMaths had been a mystery all my life, closely followed by chemistry. But my worst subject in school was English. I have been living with a maths and chemistry and science teacher for 40+ years and have edited and translated science papers for 20+ years. Still figuring it out.
Sabine: At school I never regarded English as a subject, any more than taking lessons in breathing. When O-levels rolled around (I left long before A-levels) I did badly although - astonishingly - I got maths. My general knowledge and, for that matter, my outlook on life was transformed by National Service in the RAF with an 8½-month course on electronics, including quite a lot of maths. Later, in the USA, I found myself editing seriously technical papers from professors at such places as MIT and UCLA and turning them into articles for a magazine devoted to instrumentation and control systems. All this was good preparation for my final and favourite job: eleven years as editor of a monthly mag on logistics. Like you I'm still trying to figure out science. And with undiminished enthusiasm.
DeleteMy comment disappeared into spam.
ReplyDeleteRachel Phillips: I searched all the alternative destinations, but no sign. How then did you manage to successfully send the one-liner above?
DeleteWhat do you mean "how then did you manage to successfully send the one-liner above"? I sent it in the normal way of course just as I did the first one which published and for a while was there on its own until Colette's comment appeared and then there were two. Later when I looked there were two comments but this time it was Colette and Sabine. I assumed mine had been removed by the AI Google bot into Spam because this happens a lot with all bloggers. Did you check the Spam folder in your comments?
DeleteRachel Phillips: Did you try sending the comment again? As I said, I checked all alternative destinations including spam. No go. Nor can I trace any removal by AI Google
ReplyDeleteOh well. One of the mysteries of blogger. No I didn't send it again. Why would I have a copy? I couldn't be bothered to type it again.
DeleteIt strikes me that you do not read or comment on many blogs or you would be familiar with the brief exchanges about comments disappearing into the ether. And by the way, there is no need to formally address me as Rachel Phillips each time, I am well known around blogs as just Rachel and find that perfectly acceptable.
DeleteRP (shorter still): You make me sound like a techno-defective or some other form of under-achiever. Be that as it may what am I supposed to do about it?
ReplyDelete