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How come we have to learn boring maths?

By Murray Bourne, 05 Dec 2007

A reader of my Interactive Mathematics site recently wrote:

How come we have to learn how to do maths? IT IS BORING

I replied with the following.

Hi Terry [name changed]

Thanks for your question.

Is it mathematics that's boring or is there more to your question?

One of the big problems is that math teachers have a lot of content to get through and don't have much chance to make things exciting.

I know I can't convince you that mathematics can be interesting in one letter, but let me point out some of the stuff I enjoy in mathematics:

Math of Beauty

Music and Trigonometry

Music and Fourier Series

Fractals

Fractal tattoos

You may also find Danica McKellar's work (and book) interesting:

Actually, if we expect something to be boring - it will be. If we approach things looking for the fun side, that's what we are more likely to find.

Good luck with your studies and I hope it is not too boring 🙂

Regards

I'm not sure if it helped since I didn't get a reply from her.

See the 2 Comments below.

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Comment Preview

HTML: You can use simple tags like <b>, <a href="...">, etc.

To enter math, you can can either:

  1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
    `a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)`
    (See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
  2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with \( and \).
    \( \int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}} \)
    (This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

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