Practicing Math

I spent my study time today on more algebra review, encompassing both reading and exercises. I also derived the quadratic formula, which was fun.

I don’t have any mathematical insights to share, but I did spend some time thinking about the ways in which doing math is like a sport or perhaps a martial art. For me right now, the most immediate similarities are the importance of practice to any kind of success and the way advanced skills build on more elementary ones. There is also the fact that watching someone do math and doing it oneself are very different experiences. (These are both something students often miss. Teachers usually make math look easy, but when the students try it themselves, they struggle. Rather than concluding that math requires practice, the students conclude that they are just not good at it.) Math is also something that has applications, but is often done for its own sake, something that has a long history through which it has been transmitted from teacher to pupil, and something that formalizes thought as a physical art might formalize movement.