The importance of Mathematics Mathematics doesn’t enjoy popularity among students and population in general. I remember myself at school straining to grasp anything from a blackboard full of formulae

Martín

The importance of Mathematics Mathematics doesn’t enjoy popularity among students and population in general. I remember myself at school straining to grasp anything from a blackboard full of formulae. My then teacher used the typical theoretical approach in her lessons and that didn’t help to take any interest in the subject. For instance, learning off by heart the definition of a derivative and a limit is not the best way to make it appealing to a 13-14 year old classroom and these words went straight in one hear and out the other at the best of times. However, my lack of interest came to an end when I was at university and started to apply those abstract concepts to specific and real contexts – a differential equation is not that bad if you realize that that bunch of symbols explain how the market fluctuates or why Cristiano Ronaldo’s failed to score a free kick. It’s said that every human being is hard-wired to use mathematical language because our brains work that way. For example, if you want to go from A to B, you automatically estimate how long it will take , thus you are linking space and time and getting a result from it. In addition, the decisions and choices we make are merely an analysis of the different options we have. We have to cope with ambiguity and think on our feet and that’s simply logic.

Sep 5, 2015 10:00 AM

Corrections · 2

The Importance of Mathematics

Mathematics doesn’t enjoy popularity among students or the general population. I remember myself at school straining to grasp anything from a blackboard full of formulae at school. My then-teacher used the typical theoretical approach in her lessons which didn’t help me form an interest in the subject. For instance, learning off by heart memorizing the definition of a derivative and a limit by heart is not the best way to make the subject appealing to a 13-14 year old classroom full of thirteen to fourteen year-olds and her words went straight into one ear and out the other at the best of times. However, my lack of interest came to an end when I attended college and started to apply these abstract concepts to specific and real contexts – a differential equation is not that so bad if you realize that these symbols can explain how the market fluctuates or why Cristiano Ronaldo’s failed to score a free kick.

It is said that every human being is hard-wired to use mathematical language because our brains work that way. For example, if you want to go from point A to point B, you automatically estimate how long it will take, thus you are linking space and time to obtain a result from it. In addition, the decisions and choices we make are merely an analysis of the different options we have. It's only logical that we have to cope with ambiguity and think on our feet and that’s simply logic.

Great job! Note, the phrase "it is said..." is a commonly used idiom, and therefore, the contraction "it's" is not used here. Second, in English (at least in America), the term "college" is more often used to refer to post-secondary education after high school. The term "university"is usually used to refer to the institution as a whole. Here, saying that you "attended college" would be more appropriate. Third, you can also use the more informal word "formulas" instead of formulae. I've rarely seen the latter used. Buen trabajo!

May 4, 2016

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