People aren't surprised when I tell them there are 13,000 Covid-19 cases outside China, or when I tell them this number doubles every 3 days. But when I tell them that if growth continues at this rate, we'll have 1.7 million cases in 3 weeks, they're astonished.
-
-
It's worth noting that Euler memorized the first thirty or so powers of the first five natural numbers, and used logarithm tables constantly (as did Gauss, whose first logarithm table remained throughout his long life a prized possession.) People once had all this in their bones.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Different perspective (psych background): some people (a majority) are semantic thinkers and others are more intuitive. Semantic thinkers may be more drawn to careers in math because the way it's taught (in the US at least) is heavily weighted towards bottom-up understanding.
-
Ex: The kids in math class who got the right answer but couldn't show their work or articulate a set of steps they took to reach their answer - those were intuitive thinkers (i am one). We tend to not pursue math because teachers think we "don't really get it" or are cheating.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.