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Monday, October 13, 2008
Maverick Mathematician
I've got a math test this afternoon. And I'm sian of doing math. I honestly have no idea how to study math. I'm doing my schaum questions while waiting for Big Man Japan to load. I got the feeling that Hugh isn't feeling that great either because he's waiting for Beauty and the Beast to load.

This test means a lot to me though. I've been failing all my mini-quizzes thus far. And they're all simple questions. It's not like I'm bad at math. It's just that I guess I've always been sort of a maverick mathematician. I do math the way I do physics. I use too much intuition.

I've managed to come up with proofs for all sorts of things like differentiation, pythagorean theorem, (-1)(-1) = 1.... And I wonder why I don't ace my tests. I guess it's because I use mathematics in a manner that any "formally trained" mathematician would frown upon. I multiply by infinity, divide zero by zero, skip steps... etc etc. Even the methods I use to do tutorial questions are "unorthodox".

I guess, I've always seen mathematics as interesting, but I've only ever used it in the most practical sense - to get the result I need. It doesn't really help that I can't be very bothered about mathematical formalism (or almost any sort of formalism for that matter, sometimes even my physics is non-"conventional").

I really should stop having this attitude towards math. Firstly because my A would be on the line if I continue, and even more importantly, formalism is there for a reason. To help, not to hinder.
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