I was great at math when I was a kid! It was probably a top 3 or 4 subject in terms of aptitude, although I wasn't like some masochist or something, so it's not like I enjoyed going to math class. It just wasn't quite as frustrating as history or government or whatever, the things that almost invariably interest me today... go figure.
I figured I had already done enough of the stuff for a few decades, so maybe it's time to pick it back up now.
Same, actually. Math used to come easy to me but I wasn't a huge fan. I also did high-level physics back in high school. Can barely remember much of it now. Then again, I did also enjoy history, at least for the stories (if not the dry facts and dates).
I love thinking and learning about that stuff, but only got a cursory look in college. I was also probably overwhelmed by all the stuff we had to memorize. Looking back, there was way too much memorization and not nearly enough thinking from first principles. I might have had a lifetime love for math and physics ingrained in me if not for all the drudgery.
Funnily enough, I am currently writing an essay on a little-acknowledged bit of mathematical history in in one of J. L. Borges' most famous stories.
Apart from this, I do Geometry as a hobby every now and again. I recently practiced the approximate "Squaring the circle" construction described by John Michell.
I like some of Plato's ideas, but the "ideal form" one is tough for me to consider anything other than woo. I'm less familiar with Michell's work, but it seems like he had one foot in mysticism and one foot in empiricism. Is that a reasonable assessment?
Me: "Damn. Another Monday. Let me check Substack real quick to distract myself from this sad realization."
Substack: "Let's Invent Math!"
Me: "This is going to be a long week."
To be fair, I was actually always pretty good at math. I even know that one thing is less than "more than one thing," for instance. #humblebrag
I was great at math when I was a kid! It was probably a top 3 or 4 subject in terms of aptitude, although I wasn't like some masochist or something, so it's not like I enjoyed going to math class. It just wasn't quite as frustrating as history or government or whatever, the things that almost invariably interest me today... go figure.
I figured I had already done enough of the stuff for a few decades, so maybe it's time to pick it back up now.
Same, actually. Math used to come easy to me but I wasn't a huge fan. I also did high-level physics back in high school. Can barely remember much of it now. Then again, I did also enjoy history, at least for the stories (if not the dry facts and dates).
Tell me about the high level physics you did!
Slowly.
You're a sick, sick individual.
I love thinking and learning about that stuff, but only got a cursory look in college. I was also probably overwhelmed by all the stuff we had to memorize. Looking back, there was way too much memorization and not nearly enough thinking from first principles. I might have had a lifetime love for math and physics ingrained in me if not for all the drudgery.
Funnily enough, I am currently writing an essay on a little-acknowledged bit of mathematical history in in one of J. L. Borges' most famous stories.
Apart from this, I do Geometry as a hobby every now and again. I recently practiced the approximate "Squaring the circle" construction described by John Michell.
I know next to nothing about sacred geometry, but would you say that Michell was a successor of Plato in a way?
I think that is stretching it, but he is definitely an ardent follower of some of Plato’s ideas.
I like some of Plato's ideas, but the "ideal form" one is tough for me to consider anything other than woo. I'm less familiar with Michell's work, but it seems like he had one foot in mysticism and one foot in empiricism. Is that a reasonable assessment?
I’d say it’s more like one foot in mysticism, one foot in archeology and a hand or two in conservative thought.
Thanks for sharing your Pi with us!
Watch out around pies. Some of them are square.
Doh!
So can you put a square pie in a round pan? There must be a math for figuring it out
This one's actually really simple: if the diagonal of the square is less than the diameter of the pan, it will fit.
So much for square pegs and round holes!
True math nerd measure: how many digits of*pi* did you memorize?
9; my son 50 (!)
Whoa! That's wild.
I guess I spent some of that same sort of energy memorizing lines from Holy Grail, so I get it.
Like five past the decimal, but I didn't see much benefit in going past that. You?
Is the big circle in the pictures the ancient ancestor of the hula hoop?
Let's imagine that it is. Nobody will be the wiser.
Sounds a lot like Piaget’s pre-operational and concrete operational stages of cognition in children.
There seems to be a great deal of value in observing how kids figure things out, one step at a time, doesn't there?