If Man A says his tool is 10 inches and Man B says his tool is 9 inches, what is the real total length of both tools combined.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
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1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

you have not told us how tall they are....

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I'm a mechanical engineer and my girlfriend is a physicist. Our mathematical aptitudes are probably very similar...

If I ever get another graduate degree, it'd probably be applied mathematics. Math is always useful

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
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It might have more to do with Right Brain Left Brain dominance. I am a right brainer and good with spacial relationships relating to the arts. I had one heck of a time with math growing up....I don't have too much of a problem with it now as long as I can "make a picture out of it."

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I'm not sure how anyone can learn math (as opposed to arithmetic) in american secondary schools. Based on my kids classes, they only teach techniques for solving specific types of problem and are very weak on the underlying theory. Even undergrad engineering math seems to be taught from a cookbook point of view. I was in grad school before I really understood some of the math that I had been using for the previous 10 years. I don't know why some people "get it" and others don't; some people can see through all the mechanics of solving equations and see what's underneath and others just learn how to follow the steps. I think one of my daughters actually "gets it."

I think they need both approaches. It helps me to get the theory and also do problems step-by-step. After a while, I will see the theory through the problem. I do see you point of view. I do a lot of social dancing. I see to much of complicated moves being taught. Not enough fundamentals. I see it mainly being taught as rote for rote. Some people pick it up, others are labeled stupid or such. I'm sure most here have been around the block a few times. Its always a pleasure to be taught by a true teacher. Its hard at time for me to see the difference in what exactly is different in what and why is being taught between an excellent teacher and others. Still, you know the results.
Tom

Three points here:

Point 1. I think women have long shown themselves to be very adept at math, but we men didn't notice the applications, or disregarded them.

Women have for years done sewing, cooking in various quantities; food preparation; creation of home products like soap and candles; calculated feed; handled all the bills and accounts.

These are all practical, necessary and highly IMPORTANT applications of arithmetic, geometry, trig and algebra, if the men are willing to think a little outside the box.

Point 2: The American school system makes the learning of any complex system virtually impossible without lots of practuice on the outside. Think you can excel in a HS band if you only practice during class time? The same with foreign languages, applied sciences, and of course, math. Besides, I have serious doubts that many of our HS teachers do more than repeat the book and coillect their pay, they don't, except in private schools I've visited, force the kind of intellectual effort that leads to development. They aren't focused on being centers of learning to the degree I'd like. If you want to excel in an academic topic in a public school, you have to be willing to go your own way, ignore some of the peer pressure and be motivated to succeed for your own reasons and desires.

Point 3: We are always glad to hear from Mistress and Bodhi. I wouldn't call them inexplicable anomalies, but rather, women with highly particular and refined taste -- coupled with a sense of adventure

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I do some social dances. One thing I do notice, is that guys usually do OK with the patters. For some reason, when the music is played, they go kind of haywire. I notice it in myself to. With women, I se the opposite. They stress over patterns, but when music is played, they seem to calm down.
Now usually, guys have to lead, and that adds another layer, fold or difficulty to dance. Also, there are different points in a pattern that a lead needs to be initialized, depending on what type of dance.
Now, this somewhat related to math. In latin dances, you are usually on a 4 or 8 count pattern. The patterns must start on the 1 or 5 beat of music. I found this a bit more difficult initially than swing dance. Swing can be started on any odd or down beat. The probelm with swing dances is they are usually a 6-count pattern or a mixture of 6-count and 8-count patterns. At a certain level of competition, you need to be accenting the 1 (major ogopic) and the 5 (minor ogopic), all the while doing a mixture of 6 counts and 8 count patterns or even extended patterns. I'm musically challanged, so just to keep on time is good enough for me.
Tom

Recently it was reported that females have more of the ability to use both hemispheres of the brain at once, while males tend to uni-task. I would guess that there are advantages and disadvantages for either sex.

I believe you meant "Math and sex," there would be no correlation between "Math and gender."

That said, if there's any studies done on the subject of math and sex, I'd sure like to read them. I believe there to be no definable difference in one's sex, as pertains to math skills - but that's just my observation over the decades.

The most recent math major professional (a Harvard math major graduate) I've had to deal with in business for 20 years now - doesn't think too clearly in the field of business - however, she keeps coming up with mathematical formulae to keep my annual cash bonuses coming in most years.

Works for me.......

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If this is true - which I believe it to be, on average men make better drivers and pilots than women. I prefer my plane's captain be a male. That's my opinion - not a slam, BTW.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

There are all sorts of variables. Most US commercial captains I've seen around airports look like they're one cheeseburger short of a coronary, while I have yet to see a "chubby" female captain, but that just could be a result of senority.

Craig,

I totally agree. I didn't fully understand a lot of what went into solving differential equations (other than, oh, this solution works) from undergrad math. When I took a graduate course that covered a lot more technical problems - I really started to understand it. It also helps to have a very good professor.

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

There seems to be a problem in undergrad engineering school because incoming students don't have advanced math skills from high school (maybe one calculus class). As result the math skills end up being taught in the engineering classes from a "problem solving" point of view. Most students don't even learn the basics of complex calculus until 300 level classes. It's hard to apply these skills to new problems unless/until you "really" understand them. At this point, I'm not sure a BS in engineering should be a 4 year degree. I suspect physics students have the same issues.

Lemme tell you, I felt pretty damn useless with math after graduating with a BS (mechanical). This really hit me when I when I enrolled in a math intensive fluid dynamics course, and after the first class I realized that I could not teach the math to myself fast enough.

Multivariable / vector calculus should really be required at the undergraduate level, but it wasn't part of my requirements, so I never took the classes.

Cookbook math just sucks... For calculus 1 and 2, we had to do these stupid computer calculus problems (derivatives for calc 1, and integrals for calc 2) in order to be eligible for certain grade levels. They were a major pain and all that happened was that we learned how to solve textbook problems of certain forms.

When I got into differential equations, I went to every lecture and took tons of notes, but it really didn't register. The professor tried a more theoretical basis for showing how the methods were derived...but, for a large amount of information and a wide audience (probably a lecture of 200+ students), it just didn't work. I simply decided to "teach myself" how to solve the problems through repetition, but I really didn't understand what I was doing...

I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only person who's had this experience. It seems awfully common nowadays.

Math is the language of the sciences and engineering - you'd think graduating students would be fluent in it, but it doesn't seem to work like that.


Personally, I think the best math courses are the ones with a small class size and where the course curriculum is dependent on the classe's understanding of the fundamental principles. Don't teach to have students pass a test, teach to provide understanding.

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting