I don’t know how people can study for math hours on end. The most I can do it is for two hours without losing my mind from utter boredom.
It is such a boring, dry, and irrelevant subject for me. That goes for all of mathematics. Stil I study it because I know one needs to know it in order to get a head in this world.
It is no wonder why college coeds I hear take speed or other drugs like it to help themselves get through exams.
Thank goodness that Isaac Newton didn’t feel this way. 
When someone says to me, “I don’t need to learn all this math, I’m never gonna use it”. I think to myself, “you are going to get screwed over a lot and you’ll probably always be really poor.” Math is way, way, way important.
What are you studying ty? I wish I was back in college.
LOL
True story, I dated a engineer once and she said that they never had to work the mathematical problems out themselves where instead they always had computers or charts figure out the data instead for them. So, in a sense you really don’t need it in today’s world of computers.
With that being said, I am trying to learn everything I can out of necessity of the bullshit modern career economy.
I’m trying to become a certified electrician. Just need to get up to an Algebra II level.
My understanding of math is pretty simple. Buy low, sell high, do it as often as you can, profit. As far as sitting around working problems for the sake of becoming mathematically fluent so to speak…it makes me want to kill myself. I can’t think of anything more boring.
I had a brother in law who was an electrician. Good luck with that. You can make money, but you can also get shocked.
I love math. It’s the aesthetic satisfaction of certainty in order and perfection in patterns, and the physical release and feeling of achievement when everything comes together to form the absolute one correct answer that is completely indisputable.
This is only compounded when faced with a complex problem, and your mental struggles build up and up to a final climax - like a kind of relief that you have reached your solution, giving you a feeling of superiority and conquering - like sex crossed with winning a fight. Well, nearly.
I get the same satisfaction from the logic of philosophy and solving/resolving problems that have plagued philosophers for over 2500 years.
Probably also why I love computer programming so much too, which is basically just algebra. Any questions with your course, ask me - I’d love to help.
You still have to know math to get the computer to do what you want it to. There are two kinds of math – the conceptual kind (understanding what equations mean, how they relate to each other, the rules for interacting with them) and the kind where you figure out numerical answers (4+4=8). Computers do the second kind. Engineers may not need the second kind, but they sure as hell need the first kind. All the calculators in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t know what the math means.
I would wager Math’s important even for an electrician. I’ve seen the kind of math that’s relevant to electricians, but I didn’t learn enough to understand it. Stuff about how electricity flows and changes through different parts of an electrical system.
I’ve not knowingly seen the kind of math that’s relevant to electricians, but I did a bit of engineering at uni so maybe I have.
In terms of “understanding what equations mean, how they relate to each other, the rules for interacting with them”, there are only so many mathematical operators of which to gain an intuitive understanding. They all boil down to addition and subtraction anyway… and understanding why only gives you a much more flexible and complete ability to understand problems of greater complexity (though it is not really necessary).
The rest of math etc. is just algebra/formulae - doing stuff with these operators, to values.
This is just the same thing as operating with numbers, only with a greater level of abstraction: using letters to denote “any one number assigned to a letter at any one time”. Although in terms of electrical engineering, the letters denote physical concepts like Electrical Current, Voltage, Resistance, Power etc.
But I would imagine that logic is more useful to an electrician: learning how hardware works due to the logical behaviour of electricity when it passes through certain parts of a circuit. Get a hold of both and you’re surely sorted.
To Smears:
Yeah, my first goal is to become a basic electrician where later on I would go to school again in becoming a electrical engineer. You know, those people who develop the electrical layout for building construction and such. That is my main objective. I am twenty six now where I hope to have all of this accomplished by the time I am thirty six.
I hate math with every fiber in my being, but alas, it is the only way to survive in this service economy nightmare. One has to sacrifice their entire lives in trying to become super smart just to have a basic standard of living where the banksters by comparison in the United States laugh themselves to their banks.
Silhouette, I appreciate the offer. Might just take you up on it.
Right now I’m finishing up on studying advanced fractions and decimal systems. I am slowly positioning myself into algebra. I think by next fall I should be at a algebra II level. At least that is my goal.
I am a very slow learner when it comes to math. It’s just one of those subjects that I despise. It is my hope to learn as much as I can.
I would like to learn calculus and advanced geometry eventually.
Although I’m not sure if I’ll ever be highly successful I would like to learn scientific notation and be able to grasp physics in mathematical form when reading subjects like quantum physics for instance. Time will tell overtime in the long run.
To Flannel Jesus:
Yeah, that makes sense. Still I nonetheless feel that a lot of the required learning you’re not going to being using a lot in the real world, but it is what it is I suppose.
The way education is set up in the States and in most places elsewhere, you’re definitely right Tyrannus. Large portions of the required learning are often a waste of time. For many of us in this world, we could learn pretty much anything there’s a class for in a small fraction of the time the actual class goes on. But you have to go at the snail’s pace that everyone else goes at, waste your time doing little snail things. Whether you’re a snail or not.
But, when it comes to math, despite the snail’s-pace of it all, concepts up to and including algebra II (though not much past) have been incredibly useful for me in my job and elsewhere. And my job description doesn’t say anything about math.
Stick in with the math. It is important for electricians, even more important than it is for me doing my job. Always remember: you’re not in school to learn, you’re in school to get a piece of paper. But, if you happen to learn something along the way, no harm done.
Oh man, you should’ve looked into Job Corps like I suggested to you awhile back. The one I went to had an Electrician’s trade, they got to learn in the classroom as well as go out into the community and get real work-based learning experience, and it was a self-paced program so, depending on your ability to retain information, a person could be done with the whole program in a year and then had the help of their instructor in finding a job.
I mean, Job Corps was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, on a mental level, but it’s also the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, on a professional level.
I just really hate the idea of working for someone. It makes me feel like a slave. I had a friend who went to job corps when we were teenagers or something, then she became a stripper in miami, now she sells real estate in st augustine. Good times. I don’t think she wanted to go to job corps, I think her parents made her or something. Who knows?
Ty, you should get a job as an electrician on a cruise ship. You should see all the wires on those fuckers. It’s crazy. Plus you’d be surrounded by islands and hos and hos from islands. What could be better? Drinks? Crap tables? Island hos? The ability to entertain a new crowd every three or five days?
It is, but for most people, pretty basic math.
I mean, it’s been Days since I used Trig, know what I mean?
I don’t use geometry. I suppose there is some instinctive geometry when I do my mediocre carpentry. But certainly no proofs.
Calculus…why it must be a whole month ago…wait, not since college, that I used it.
Adding, subtracting, multiplying and Dividing are all most people need.
Statistics can creep its way into non-hard sciences and even humanities. Though again, most people don’t need it unless they are addicted to gambling. And as far as I can see the false sense of Control counteracts any benefits.
If you are an engineer, sure. And so on to the jobs that require it. Hell even doctors can get away with pretty limited math - still the basic four.
Electricians, however,will need some math beyond the basics, I Believe. Booboos will be punished by lawsuits, charges of criminal negligence - perhaps even manslaughter - loss of licence and fisticuffs.