Are you good at math...........?

by vitty 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  vitty

  Is there a secret to becomming good at math? Or is it a matter of having a special talent and if youve got it your blessed and if you havent your stuffed.

  Like an artist who is naturally gifted, goes off and produces a brilliant picture without a lesson in his life. And the person who really , really loves art and would like to paint and has dozens of lessons and produces crap.

  I know when I worked in a place where we had to add up in our heads, I got really good, but when I left so did my ability to add up quickly and accurately.

  If there is anyone out there with any good tips, id like to know
• 

  Effervescent

  I've actually never ever been good at math, probably not helped by the fact I despised the subject in school. Give me sentances to diagram any day...

  I got worse at math after working at in the accounting department of a bank for many years. We were forbidden from adding stuff up in our heads... so now if I want to add more than 2-1 digit numbers together, I need my 10 key.

  I would think though, if you were inclined enough, and with enough practice, you could get really good with figures... although... I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to that!
• 

  Stealth453

  I bought a cell phone with a calculator function.

  I'm as dumb as iguana crap when it comes to math.
• 

  tijkmo

  im good at math ..and i love it..

  i once got 99% for a math test in high school (they took off 1% because i had the decimal point in the wrong place in the workings even though i had got the final calculation correct)

  i also love music theory...and i have only just realised that music theory is all about the math.

  i suppose that it is possible to becaome good at anything by study and perseverence but im not sure if you ever fully enjoy it if it is that much hard work.

  so am i good at math because i have an ear for music ...or do i have an ear for music because i am good at math..that is the question

  dont know..dont care..love em both
• 

  Fe2O3Girl

  Leibniz once said that "music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that is counting".

  http://plus.maths.org/issue28/features/sautoy/

  I was good at maths. I haven't done maths for years, but I am still fairly good at arithmetic.
• 

  Fe2O3Girl

  Furthermore..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060525.shtml

  In Our Time, BBC R4, 25th May 2006 The seventeenth century philosopher Gottfried Leibniz wrote: 'Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting'. Mathematical structures have always provided the bare bones around which musicians compose music and have been vital to the very practical considerations of performance such as fingering and tempo.
  
  But there is a more complex area in the relationship between maths and music which is to do with the physics of sound: how pitch is determined by force or weight; how the complex arrangement of notes in relation to each other produces a scale; and how frequency determines the harmonics of sound.
  
  How were mathematical formulations used to create early music? Why do we in the West hear twelve notes in the octave when the Chinese hear fifty-three? What is the mathematical sequence that produces the so-called 'golden section'? And why was there a resurgence of the use of mathematics in composition in the twentieth century?

  You can listen to the programme from a link on the page.
• 

  Caedes

  I suppose it depends on what exactly you are talking about, if its mental arithmatic then I would say I am as good as the next person. Mathematics as in Algebra, trigonometry and calculus now you're talking, although I suppose my strength is in applied mathematics rather than pure.
• 

  gwyneth

  I love math. Not always that good at it, but I would prefer math over almost any subject. (I took 4 math classes to get my AA--only 2 were required. Used up my electives for them.)

  Although I believe there is some proclivity for certain people to be left-brain (logical, sequential) or right-brain (creative, holisitc) thinkers, I think attitude is the key. If you go in with a defeatist attitude, "I will never get this problem," then you never will get the problem. If you go in with a attitude that math is a challenge, "OK, I know what "a" and the hypotenuse are, and I know the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem, so now I can find "b". And if my calculator doesn't have the square root function, there's a formula to find that out by hand, too!" For me, getting a math answer gives the same thrill as fitting a tricky piece in a jigsaw puzzle. I get a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction ..maybe that's why I like it so much.
• 

  JH

  I was quite good at math. But for everyday living, you don't need much maths, just the basics.
• 

  Twitch

  math and music eh?

  I've heard about the correlation before and am inclined to agree. I was good at math in school but not especially. I did teach myself a different method of basic math that worked for me in my head better than the methods used on paper, a mental "bubble sort" kinda like mneumonics

  I've always had melodies and beats running through my head since i was a kid.