Oh yes, I popped a few pills for my math final... Options

[Terzin1]

I dont think you guys have any idea about what i think of math. I dont hate it, i am just not good at it and i think i know the reason. It is not that I cannot remember the formulas or the equations or even the derivatives, it is that I think that I cannot understand why math was created the way it was. It was someone who decided that we should count by 1's. Why not 1/2's or anything?
Heres what confuses me. (this is not a math problem so bear with me) If you have a line that is 4 inches, a physical line that you can see, it is possible to divide that line into 3, 100 percent equal, parts. but if you have a line that equals 4, meaning you cannot see the line but it is represented as 4, then there is no way to divide that into 3 equal parts. the number comes out to 1.33333333333333....... and on forever. If it goes on forever then there is no end. If that is the case than how can you divide a line into three separate parts just fine? Theoretically, i think there should be an end and thus this is why i think math is flawed. Try and take that 3.9999999... x 3 again and you will see that it will not equal the whole number 4. There must be a problem.

[Terzin1]

I can't explain this phenomenon and I am in M119 business calc. by the way. On a side note, I just got a 57% on my final, haha. I am terrible at math but I like to draw things to conclusions. Why is it that division is the only part of math that cannot be always used in examples for physical things? If you take a whole number like 2 and add another to it like 5 you get 7. You can say you had 2 apples and found 5 more for a total of 7 apples. You could do the same with subtraction and get rid of some apples. You could multiply the number of apples you have even. Addition, subtraction, and multiplication can all be used for physical and theoretical problems without ending up with decimals and especially decimals with no end. The only way that you get a decimal that never ends is by division, or from what I can tell. What is wrong with division? perhaps it is our number system and the fact that you cannot divide using a ten scale. Could it be that there is another number out there that would solve this problem? I just think that it is a problem that if solved, could explain alot of things. By the way, I would totally agree that math is perfect, therefore this problem should not exist.


This post has been edited by Terzin1: Dec 13, 2005 - 6:09 PM

[RocketScott]

..... By the way, I would totally agree that math is perfect, therefore this problem should not exist.

What problem? I see no problem. It's our understanding that is flawed. What you must understand when doing complex problems like this is the number of significant figures to us and that the numbers are only reprsentative of what you are trying to solve. You can divide a number by another and take it to the infinite decimal point but why? I'm a carpenter, I build large houses. The smallest unit of measure I use is 1/8 inch, maybe I'll add a little or subtract a little. There's no need for 32nds or 64ths for what I do, nobody will notice. When I was college that would not have worked. Whole different ball of wax. Running chemical reactions on a small scale requires so much more precision. Had to take numbers out to a bunch of decimal points.

Try to just focus on the problems you have in front of you. Simpify what you can before trying to calculate. Leave numbers as fractions as long as you can, this will help with simplifying.