deijiaraify my High School math teacher was so very good at teaching mathematics. I would love to thank her today. Thirty five years later I can remember how passionate she was at teaching students. My physics degree owes everything to her.
WOW! I stumbled across this and was blown away. THIS was FAR better than I could have imagined. Faith, wow you are the best at presenting these speakers I have ever seen! I was amazed to see you sit back and let them go without interjecting into the talk that so many others would have done. Subbed and rang that bell!
Egyptians count in base 12 by counting the segments of the main four fingers (using the thumb to count them). Which is reasonable, but then the Babylonians used the Egyptian system on one hand and the western/modern system on the other to get a compound base of 60.
When Mickey Mantle retired from baseball, the Yankees tried bringing him to spring training to work on improving their hitters. The Mick was one of the greatest hitters in the game so they thought he might be able to share some of his wisdom of the art. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out. Mantle was a "swing and hit it" batter who's instincts and intuition and innate skill were enough to be successful without analysis. It just came naturally to him. I think that the"problem" with math education is that people who, like Mantle are naturally gifted in math tend to become the math teachers. To them it is all so intuitively apparent that they have a hard time understanding why others can't see what's right in front of their face. The gifted math teachers are those who can use examples, diagrams, parables and fables, analogies or whatever it takes to turn on the light bulb over the learner's head and teach them to see math in a relatable way.
The easiest excuse in the world is, "they're so good at it, they can't explain it." It's also complete nonsense. If you can't explain something to a child, it's because you don't know it. Many teachers are illustrate that point perfectly.
Back in the 1970s I became good friends with a man who had been the Director of Food Services at Princeton. He once told me about the dining hall for the physics department faculty. At lunch, he told me several of the most advanced physicists would sit at a table. Some days they would not say a word. Sometimes one of them would make a statement in the form of a sentence fragment and the others would knowingly nod their heads. Perhaps the next day one of the other advanced physicists would add to the sentence, again to knowing nods. My friend said that they always had several of the best teaching faculty sit with them for fear that some major discovery might be made but never recorded. My friend also became friends with Albert Einstein. My friend told me that one of the many remarkable trains of Einstein was that not only could he think on the same level as the other advanced physicists, he could also explain the concept to an eight year old kid in an understandable way. Those other physicists were extremely knowledgeable in the field but lacked some basic communications skills. They had a hard time communicating with other PhD physicists. Perhaps some of them were even autistic.
Al Celaya Ah yes. Physicists can't communicate because you heard about it from someone in the food services industry. You can see that same behavior in a mechanics shop when some of them get together to consider a problem. Better when it's about PhDs though because they're just broken. Not like normal people like, mechanics, carpenters...
Those who have natural innate abilities are at a disadvantage in analysis and explaining to others what they do. Folk who have to work at their craft to get a couple more rungs up the ladder are best at bringing others along. . .
One realisation I had as a mathematical modeller was that it would be utterly impossible to make a 100% accurate mathematical model of even just one field. Reality is so rich and detailed that no computer would get even close to handling the amount of information needed to describe what's going on. This really gives me a sense of awe in the same way that thinking about how big the universe is does.
I was just thinking towards the end of the video “I hate how interviewers have these great guests but put then on a time limit” End of video: HEY guys theres a part 2! Me: Oh hell yes!!
I'm fairly certain it was either the Sumerians or the Babylonians who used base 8 (aka octal). (Edit) So I looked it up. Sumerians/Babylonians used base 60 (!). But there were some native Mexican languages that did/do use base 8. (Supposedly they counted on the spaces between their fingers.)
Base 60 is easier than you might first imagine. They counted using both hands. The fingers on the one hand, would point to the knuckles on the other. So technically, they could have counted in base 75, but for some reason, they stopped at 60.
Two of my favorite people. Loved and laughed with this clip! 13:50 is why scientists are not politicians, it can be a blessing and curse at the same time.
I wish ANY of my math teachers had explained to us that math is a language used to express absolutes not subject to interpretation. I wish they told us how it's used to describe the universe. And I wish they had told math jokes, and made it interesting, instead of boring us to death. I had one algebra teacher in college, who had the passion of Brian Green. I'd only had a smattering of algebra before, and it had left me bewildered. I didn't get to finish that semester due to a screw up with my grant application, (they'd lost my check for the application fee) but I never forgot her enthusiasm for math. Her class was the only one in which I actually understood algebra, and was really learning it.
Brian Green is right about Maths describing the universe AND this insight missing from the classroom, when I first saw strange attractors form on my computer screen from very small uninteresting functions I punched in I was giddy, I felt like I was getting the joke somehow.. Everything complex could be very simple at heart. And years later it still gives me an insight into a lot of things. Also from making physics engines for games using vertex integration, I got insights (for instance about torque and friction) that I had never had in 6 years of Physics classes. That whole kinematics seems so clunky and awkward now. And years later I explained to a friend who taught Maths how that worked, because he couldn´t figure out how to tell the class about billiard balls bouncing off each other in an understandable way. You can very easlily calculate those angles and forces using little more than + and - and iteration. The problem becomes laughably simple if you can just look at it as an algorithm. Anybody can understand it, but we teach the hard and outdated (and quite useless) stuff. That´s not instilling love for original thought, that´s a rockband that´s still playing their classics at 70 years of age.. Don´t get me wrong.. It´s nice to listen to the classics from time to time in the background, but teaching can´t be all elevator music.
Prof Greene is spot on on the education of mathematics. I was lucky in that parents taught me math by tying it to the world around me, as I did my children.
Introducing grade school children to fractals could raise their interest in math. The bends of a branch are repeated over and over, for each branch, all the way down to the veins in the leaves. Those same fractal patterns are found in our bodies as well. It's possible to detect cancerous tumor extremely early due to the fractal pattern of the blood vessels which feed the tumor. As Brian stated, there is an entire universe which opens up with math as a tool.
I hated solving math problems in school, but when I began the write computer programs using algebra, It all became very clear. I've often said that algebra was the answers, not the problems.
I studied up to third degree calculus. From this experience, allegorically, I learned everything about a hammer. I did not learn what it was for. I did not learn that that hammer was used to pound nails. A worthless exercise. Poor teaching. The use of the tool was lost on us. I invented a game where I was marooned on a desert island, and had to figure π out 20 places to escape, and finally got series. I built a really great deck off the back of the house. Knocked the Egyptians off their asses. Algebra II. Great trig. Strings, and levels and batter boards. All Math. When am I going to use Math? When I plan to execute something. I wish I knew why I did calculus, other than to get into med school. I'll bet I could use it. Still, there is not a day where I do not look at the world, and use numbers and their relations to add beauty to what I see.
you use calculus for finding volumes. calculus, remember, is where you take a 2 D linear function and make it 3D by rotating it along an axis. It does have uses.
"When am I going to use it" is a red herring. Because you learn to read at school, and you have to read to get anywhere in life, people assume maths (and every other subject) should have the same applicability. The point is you don't *just* learn to *read*, i.e. work out how to put words together from letters: you - amongst other things - learn to comprehend, to assimilate information, to concentrate for extended periods, to make logical deductions, and to infer information. Similarly in mathematics you learn precision, more precise logical deduction, and how the world works. You also develop your imagination. Amongst other things. People who have no math have limited skills in many of those departments. The interviewer touched on this when she asked about "using" math to understand and experience life. The answer, if the question is applied and understood correctly, is *ALL THE TIME*, in every aspect of your life, from the moment you get out of bed to the moment you fall asleep. Because mathematics describes the way the world works, it is so much a part of everyday life that you don't even realise you are "using" it all the time. Probably the most convincing argument for studying maths: just remember every flat-earther failed and/or dropped out of high school maths. You cannot be a "flattard" if you just pass maths at the school-leaver level.
I was always great at math, but I was in my first year of engineering school when I finally understood why math is important. It was like a burning bush.
I never understood in high school math why we needed to learn base 2 or 8 or 16. I then got a job in IT many years ago and guess what,it finally made sense. Learning the pragmatic side of mathematics so that it is interesting is a large piece of the why puzzle.
i havent watch the video still but i know this is going to be great i mean brian lectured my special relativity class and is my fav physics educator and lewis is my second fav comedian of all time (rest in pieces george, entropy got ya), how can this be any less then epic, amirite or what?
The Mayan numbers are in the background and they don't know its base 20? Also you can use Mayan as base 10 or base 12 or base 16 or whatever and it makes multiplying and division much easier because you can use it as a "written abacus". Its also more efficient in terms of short-term memory, so it could be possible to multiply huge numbers in your head.
When I was a frosh back in college ,one of my math professors talked historically about the Greeks having 4 impossible math problems back in their day. While the prof was up at the board explaining them,I walked him through solving one of them (something about bisecting angles from what I remember). How looked at my logic and said you solved it. Then said if you send in this answer to some national Math society ,it's like a $25 buck prize. At that time in my life ,I really didn't give a rats ass about anything and blew it off as too much trouble I had a cousin that was a math whiz at Pitt that after graduation got a union job at Westinghouse. Made much more money than most of his professors. Society really doesn't care for intellectuals. Just ask all the starving adjuncts.
I was touched by math and science the same way as being pure, finite and were always there. We discovered not invented them. The Einstein quote is the answer to the question I've had in my head since I was child (1st grade).
wonder full...I was great in math old school math ...in school bad at spelling ...Great interview,I have never seen Lewis so calm...Thank You keep up the show...
From Wiki: The Yuki language in California and the Pamean languages[1] in Mexico have octal systems because the speakers count using the spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves.[2]
If I put a full comment in here it would run to at least a page. I will say, though, that for those who don't catch on to math very well, thank God for Martin Gardner!
Some Guy He updated Calculus Made Easy, by Thompson. He also did the Mathematical Recreations column in Scientific American, and wrote books on recreational math.
I feel the TV shows "Numbers" from CBS, and "Cosmos" and "Nova" from PBS do a wonderful job of showing the importance and the language. "Numbers" would solve criminal cases by showing how math gave you the variants and possibilities and patterns while the math genius wrote out the equation. He would show you where the parts of the equation applied and how it physically dealt with each aspect. Watch it sometime. It was awesome. :O)
Re: Neutrinos apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180716.html Sometimes when I'm walking I dream I'm being taken for granted It's then that I clearly imagine The day that you take me for granted You said, one day you're going to realize You really have no sense of yourself And with no way to take it back You'll get frozen in your tracks Frozen in your tracks Sometimes when we're talking I feel like you're not even listening It's then that I clearly remember Rarely ever seeing you listening You said, when you going to realize You really have no sense of yourself There's no way to take it back You've been frozen in your tracks Simpler than the rest You don't do stupid games You're not more complex You don't lay 'violent blame' Tonight I was walking Feeling alone on this planet When all at once something stopped me I realized I'd taken you for granted And tonight I realized I really have no sense of myself No way to take it back I am frozen in my tracks I'm frozen in my tracks Frozen in my tracks
You were taught how to use a screwdriver, not how to make a table. When using a sufficiently complex screwdriver, it's actually smart to read the manual first. Much of our complex system takes time to become useful. This is why it took thousands of years to get here... It's not all relatable to a guy counting chickens. Ask Einstein to relate Relativity to your everyday life, lol... The only difference there is you aren't told to really understand Relatively, since it's harder.
US tax forms are easy to use because the IRS's Forms and Publications Division has transformed the mathematics written in Congress speak into a algorithms whise flows are governed by the lines on the forms.
I have three questions about M theory Eleventh dimension theory How many geometric shapes are in the Kalapi-Yao space How many geometric shapes? The second question is Will these different geometric shapes give different laws in physics? Will you give different universes in laws? The third question about membranes in M theory All calabai-yao spaces are membranes in M- ???? Please send my three questions to space scientists
I like the Feynman quote, but, it was between Zorthian (an artist) and Richard at a strip bar in Pasadena, where each was teaching the other his area of expertise. Feynman learned to draw naked woman. I have a napkin he drew on. And no I won't sell it!e
it's the english of tax forms that are frustrating, not so much the math, tax forms are pretty much addition subtraction and some percentages, but the way forms are laid out and the way questions are posed - and why the hell we are doing this - that frustrates. art and literature in school gets taught badly too, but greene hits the mark, it's enthusiasm and imagination that get left out of math subjects, and it's the tests we hate, not the sitting around debating what the implications of math are. when i was at school we listened to music and discussed drugs and sex and life in general in the art room, but math and english was fine, but the goal was to pass a test. soon perhaps, with the likelihood of AI accelerating, maybe we will be able to just sit around in school and discuss and experiment, rather than slave to pass tests.
Maybe one problem with maths education is that the examples in which the maths are applied are not very relatable for many students. An example from primary school comes to mind with two cars racing towards each other at different speeds and the question being when they will pass each other. I don't remember having a driver's license back then
When I read up on the history of mathematics I really began to gain an appreciation of it. I'm still sorely lacking in skill at it, but I'm no longer afraid when I come across it.
After being treated like a moron for about 12 years by my family and teachers, my mother ( in the process of training to be a special education teacher) realized that I had certain learning disabilities. My reading and language comprehension had always been above my age level. I loved history, science and geography, music. But math class was a horror fest. All through my schooling I was unable to cope with arithmetic, never mind calculus or geometry. Fractions? Decimals? Nope. Might as well be hen scratches. My mother finally sorted out the evidence in her head, ( she had been a teacher for over 20 years at this point) applied her new special ed training, and told me I had learning disabilities. So, despite what my family had been telling me for years, I wan't STUPID and LAZY. No, I had brain trouble. As my mother put it, I had "bridges out" between my right and left frontal lobes. I have the organizational ability of a rabid cow, I can't write an essay to save my life, I need a calculator to do basic arithmetic, my spatial judgement is ludicrously inadequate, my hand eye coordination could win comedy awards, I have only a vague notion of how logic works... In short, I am profoundly unable to manage higher level thought. And yet I managed to get two university degrees, and worked in retail/ customer service for years. There are people who think I'm smart. I know I'm not. Because all through my childhood and teen years I was told that if you can't do the math, you're an idiot.
There are different types of intelligence. The fact that you are posting here and (I assume) that you watched the video tells me that you are "smart." If you weren't smart, you wouldn't find this video worth watching.
Great conversation. I disagree with Brian on one point: when Lewis asks why can't math be more like language and allow minor errors like screwing up a verb test, I disagree with his premise entirely. Approximations are essentially the equivalent of getting a verb tense wrong. We round for calculations and build oversimplified models for simulations, but we do it because it gets the point across without unduly diluting or skewing it. We both introduce and tolerate errors when we do things like that, and we'll continue to err until we understand the 'language' of the universe well enough to avoid it.
Actually Lewis Black in India children are taught tax calculation in high school as part of statistics. Actually in India after High school it is not taught as tax calculation is too easy to be taught in senior high school. Also Jesus and God have 5 finger to point to the statement "Only God is perfect".
SATISH PRADHAN but then again maybe it is just pointing out that these deities as they exist in organized religion are so human, too human. I mean, why would 5 mean perfection?
Since the writers of _The Simpson's_ who have created these characters ostensibly all have five fingers on each hand, they are the gods of this series.
The British wordplay and recreational mathematics expert Leigh Mercer (1893-1977) devised the following mathematical limerick: 12 + 144 + 20 + (3 x Sqrt4 ) ------------- + (5 x 11) = 9sqrd + 0 7 (Math fonts not in my collection, so excuse the letters used for adaptation, here. Original has none.) This is read as follows: A dozen, a gross, and a score, Plus three times the square root of four, Divided by seven, Plus five times eleven Is nine squared, and not a bit more.
Rick and Morty, I believe, has surpassed The Simpsons and Futurama because they've built on them with the newest science. There's a whole running question in the main plot line that involves neutrinos (the neutrino bombs made by Rick throughout the series).
Brian Greene says that mathematics can describe our reality, but that may not be entirely true. We use mathematics to make models of reality. One definition of a model is that it is a simplified representation of something. We don't know if we will ever be able to create a mathematical model that gives a one to one description of reality, even though such a model is the holy grail that physicists are looking for.
Math is the language of the universe, no one will explain that, you need to have the curiosity to venture out and discover it. All schools will and can teach you is show the doors for many worlds, it’s your curiosity, bravery, stupidity etc that will help you opened the doors and go exploring.
E equals m c square is one of the equations of many. How to view and base a theory and deriving principles and technology is a new way of mathematical model. But who is going to propose such things.
People are told that math is hard so they have a preset aversion backed with no personnel experience. It's not that hard right up to college level. Think of it as a puzzle to solve like those twisted up chrome wire and wood puzzles to take apart and put back together. Algebra is just a bunch of puzzle pieces that you can build puzzles or reduce the complex to pieces, reorder the pieces and see whatever piece of information you are missing. Cross multiply, cancel out common pieces, add up and subtract common pieces, divide and multiply in a small set of a few simple rules. How many nails are in that house if you only know the average house 2x4s and nails per 2x4 are in it. Put the problem in variables and move them around to bring out the how many nails in any house or houses and put in the numbers and solve the puzzle. How many eggs in 7 cakes if you know how many in one cake? You figure out miles per gallon. Percent raise. You do Algebra all the time without realizing it.
I would give a different answer to why they teach math to kids who will never use it. It's for the same reason that whenever I go to a restaurant for the first time, I want to see is the menu before I order my meal.
If you take the time and trouble to really understand mathematics and not just mechanically manipulate symbols, you start to understand reality. You find that everything is related to everything else, so there are no independent variables. You understand that all the "real" problems in science and engineering calculations are simplifications.
that's a fantastic life purpose. you are a great entity. and you don't have to ask permission for a joke. they are in general, not copyrightable and I got this off the internet, anyway. spread this one.
Didn't they do a study on neutrinos that they put a lab down into the Earth to see how far neutrinos penetrated Earth. And a recent find has said that they pass all the way through.
she just said they had no seat belts how is he gonna buckle up so instead try, "Hold on" maybe?" *BTW my child caught that joke. on the Simpsons the night it aired, "I ate pie" we laughed. Also, wasn't there a Hindu God that appeared on the Simpsons? or is that another Mandella Effect? now, how does Disillusionment fit into these shows? we got the future, present now the past that led to these present & future? I love Luis Black, he has been the Angry old man since his teens. (except the anger is justified & reasonable not just get off my lawn, angry.) p.s.s. so we are all math but most don't want to play it. we all do basic Arithmetics one, two, threes & weights & measures. But we do not care to indulge with Math & the universal rules & functions of how. We should be interested but the average student is often pointed in other directions, IMHO. good points you folks have made.
Regarding why God and Jesus had five fingers, I was thinking the reason is that the writers are human, creating or giving life to the Simpson, and thus are essentially God in the Simpson world
I beg to differ; Futurama appears to have better quality and more in-depth math jokes. That "I ate some pie" joke from the Simpsons was cute, but it wasn't as awesome as some of the Futurama ones.
Are math jokes funny? Sum times.
We are divided on this subject .
Absolute-ly
deijiaraify my High School math teacher was so very good at teaching mathematics. I would love to thank her today.
Thirty five years later I can remember how passionate she was at teaching students. My physics degree owes everything to her.
Σ *
Sum times what?
There are 10 kinds of people - those who understand binary and those who don’t.
That´s a funny maths joke and a nerd joke! You did it.. U100ia!
there are two types, those who can extrapolate from data and
I realize it's kind of off topic but do anyone know a good website to watch new tv shows online ?
@Westley Clayton Try Flixzone. You can find it by googling =)
@Westley Clayton I would suggest flixzone. You can find it on google =)
Black + Greene = entertaining learning with a PURPOSE. More of these two together. PLEASE.
Thanks for sharing...
WOW! I stumbled across this and was blown away. THIS was FAR better than I could have imagined. Faith, wow you are the best at presenting these speakers I have ever seen! I was amazed to see you sit back and let them go without interjecting into the talk that so many others would have done. Subbed and rang that bell!
Dr. Greene is correct with regard to the Mayan numbering system. It is base 20.
did not know that hithertofore
We Indians are ‘base 40’ - we can count up to 20 on each hand by counting on the joints, base and tip of each of the five fingers.
Egyptians count in base 12 by counting the segments of the main four fingers (using the thumb to count them). Which is reasonable, but then the Babylonians used the Egyptian system on one hand and the western/modern system on the other to get a compound base of 60.
no you are base 41. remember, you count up to the highest number and then add one. eg, base 2 has only 0 and 1, base 3 has 0 and 1 and 2, get it?
no, that is base 13. see the explanation below.
Great choice of guests.
I love professor Brain Greene he's so smart, I feel adrenaline rush every time I watch him.
When Mickey Mantle retired from baseball, the Yankees tried bringing him to spring training to work on improving their hitters. The Mick was one of the greatest hitters in the game so they thought he might be able to share some of his wisdom of the art. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out. Mantle was a "swing and hit it" batter who's instincts and intuition and innate skill were enough to be successful without analysis. It just came naturally to him. I think that the"problem" with math education is that people who, like Mantle are naturally gifted in math tend to become the math teachers. To them it is all so intuitively apparent that they have a hard time understanding why others can't see what's right in front of their face. The gifted math teachers are those who can use examples, diagrams, parables and fables, analogies or whatever it takes to turn on the light bulb over the learner's head and teach them to see math in a relatable way.
The easiest excuse in the world is, "they're so good at it, they can't explain it." It's also complete nonsense. If you can't explain something to a child, it's because you don't know it. Many teachers are illustrate that point perfectly.
Back in the 1970s I became good friends with a man who had been the Director of Food Services at Princeton. He once told me about the dining hall for the physics department faculty. At lunch, he told me several of the most advanced physicists would sit at a table. Some days they would not say a word. Sometimes one of them would make a statement in the form of a sentence fragment and the others would knowingly nod their heads. Perhaps the next day one of the other advanced physicists would add to the sentence, again to knowing nods. My friend said that they always had several of the best teaching faculty sit with them for fear that some major discovery might be made but never recorded. My friend also became friends with Albert Einstein. My friend told me that one of the many remarkable trains of Einstein was that not only could he think on the same level as the other advanced physicists, he could also explain the concept to an eight year old kid in an understandable way. Those other physicists were extremely knowledgeable in the field but lacked some basic communications skills. They had a hard time communicating with other PhD physicists. Perhaps some of them were even autistic.
Al Celaya Ah yes. Physicists can't communicate because you heard about it from someone in the food services industry. You can see that same behavior in a mechanics shop when some of them get together to consider a problem. Better when it's about PhDs though because they're just broken. Not like normal people like, mechanics, carpenters...
Those who have natural innate abilities are at a disadvantage in analysis and explaining to others what they do. Folk who have to work at their craft to get a couple more rungs up the ladder are best at bringing others along. . .
Allen Sams That's a myth. Unfortunately, it's widely believed despite the fact that there are a great many examples that illustrate that it's false.
One realisation I had as a mathematical modeller was that it would be utterly impossible to make a 100% accurate mathematical model of even just one field. Reality is so rich and detailed that no computer would get even close to handling the amount of information needed to describe what's going on.
This really gives me a sense of awe in the same way that thinking about how big the universe is does.
I was just thinking towards the end of the video “I hate how interviewers have these great guests but put then on a time limit”
End of video: HEY guys theres a part 2!
Me: Oh hell yes!!
The interviewer is also great!
Music can be thought of in base 7 (diatonic) or base 12 (chromatic), although we typically use mod 12 or 7 because of perceived octave equivalence.
I'm fairly certain it was either the Sumerians or the Babylonians who used base 8 (aka octal).
(Edit) So I looked it up. Sumerians/Babylonians used base 60 (!). But there were some native Mexican languages that did/do use base 8. (Supposedly they counted on the spaces between their fingers.)
Base 60 is easier than you might first imagine. They counted using both hands. The fingers on the one hand, would point to the knuckles on the other. So technically, they could have counted in base 75, but for some reason, they stopped at 60.
2, 3, and 5 were sacred and so was 6, 10, 12, 15, 30, 60, and everything else that you could get by multiplying the first sacred numbers.
Thanks! I wasn't able to find it with a Google search.
In any case, that base 60 system is why our time units are so strange.
I accidentally came over this video. I must say, this is a most wonderful show! The Simpsons, science and other ideas of the world!
Two of my favorite people. Loved and laughed with this clip!
13:50 is why scientists are not politicians, it can be a blessing and curse at the same time.
I wish ANY of my math teachers had explained to us that math is a language used to express absolutes not subject to interpretation. I wish they told us how it's used to describe the universe. And I wish they had told math jokes, and made it interesting, instead of boring us to death. I had one algebra teacher in college, who had the passion of Brian Green. I'd only had a smattering of algebra before, and it had left me bewildered.
I didn't get to finish that semester due to a screw up with my grant application, (they'd lost my check for the application fee) but I never forgot her enthusiasm for math. Her class was the only one in which I actually understood algebra, and was really learning it.
This is a brilliant channel, it is a disgrace that so few people follow it 😱
Brian Green is right about Maths describing the universe AND this insight missing from the classroom, when I first saw strange attractors form on my computer screen from very small uninteresting functions I punched in I was giddy, I felt like I was getting the joke somehow.. Everything complex could be very simple at heart. And years later it still gives me an insight into a lot of things. Also from making physics engines for games using vertex integration, I got insights (for instance about torque and friction) that I had never had in 6 years of Physics classes. That whole kinematics seems so clunky and awkward now. And years later I explained to a friend who taught Maths how that worked, because he couldn´t figure out how to tell the class about billiard balls bouncing off each other in an understandable way. You can very easlily calculate those angles and forces using little more than + and - and iteration. The problem becomes laughably simple if you can just look at it as an algorithm. Anybody can understand it, but we teach the hard and outdated (and quite useless) stuff. That´s not instilling love for original thought, that´s a rockband that´s still playing their classics at 70 years of age.. Don´t get me wrong.. It´s nice to listen to the classics from time to time in the background, but teaching can´t be all elevator music.
Prof Greene is spot on on the education of mathematics. I was lucky in that parents taught me math by tying it to the world around me, as I did my children.
I'm so happy the algorithm showed me this channel!
Introducing grade school children to fractals could raise their interest in math.
The bends of a branch are repeated over and over, for each branch, all the way down to the veins in the leaves.
Those same fractal patterns are found in our bodies as well.
It's possible to detect cancerous tumor extremely early due to the fractal pattern of the blood vessels which feed the tumor.
As Brian stated, there is an entire universe which opens up with math as a tool.
The Duder Yes, but school teachers usually kill it.
Christian Geiselmann
SOOO TRUE!!!!!
I hated solving math problems in school, but when I began the write computer programs using algebra,
It all became very clear.
I've often said that algebra was the answers, not the problems.
I studied up to third degree calculus. From this experience, allegorically, I learned everything about a hammer. I did not learn what it was for. I did not learn that that hammer was used to pound nails. A worthless exercise. Poor teaching. The use of the tool was lost on us.
I invented a game where I was marooned on a desert island, and had to figure π out 20 places to escape, and finally got series.
I built a really great deck off the back of the house. Knocked the Egyptians off their asses. Algebra II. Great trig. Strings, and levels and batter boards. All Math. When am I going to use Math? When I plan to execute something.
I wish I knew why I did calculus, other than to get into med school. I'll bet I could use it. Still, there is not a day where I do not look at the world, and use numbers and their relations to add beauty to what I see.
With calculus, you deck wouldn't have had to be rectangular.
In your school system, what is third degree calc? Like multivariable calculus? Just wondering since I haven't came across that usage before. Thanks
you use calculus for finding volumes. calculus, remember, is where you take a 2 D linear function and make it 3D by rotating it along an axis. It does have uses.
he might be referring to 3 D vectors, those are fun
the difference is this: arithmetic is linear; algebra is 2 D and calculus makes the world 3D
"When am I going to use it" is a red herring. Because you learn to read at school, and you have to read to get anywhere in life, people assume maths (and every other subject) should have the same applicability.
The point is you don't *just* learn to *read*, i.e. work out how to put words together from letters: you - amongst other things - learn to comprehend, to assimilate information, to concentrate for extended periods, to make logical deductions, and to infer information. Similarly in mathematics you learn precision, more precise logical deduction, and how the world works. You also develop your imagination. Amongst other things. People who have no math have limited skills in many of those departments.
The interviewer touched on this when she asked about "using" math to understand and experience life.
The answer, if the question is applied and understood correctly, is *ALL THE TIME*, in every aspect of your life, from the moment you get out of bed to the moment you fall asleep. Because mathematics describes the way the world works, it is so much a part of everyday life that you don't even realise you are "using" it all the time.
Probably the most convincing argument for studying maths: just remember every flat-earther failed and/or dropped out of high school maths. You cannot be a "flattard" if you just pass maths at the school-leaver level.
I was always great at math, but I was in my first year of engineering school when I finally understood why math is important. It was like a burning bush.
I never understood in high school math why we needed to learn base 2 or 8 or 16.
I then got a job in IT many years ago and guess what,it finally made sense.
Learning the pragmatic side of mathematics so that it is interesting is a large piece of the why puzzle.
I married a burning bush, and really really still happy.
I couldn't agree more. You have the best and the brightest. it is a tough one, but you prepared well. so you survived. Kudos to you.
"y=x^3"
"Are you being sarcastic?"
This has never happened.
i havent watch the video still but i know this is going to be great
i mean brian lectured my special relativity class and is my fav physics educator and lewis is my second fav comedian of all time (rest in pieces george, entropy got ya), how can this be any less then epic, amirite or what?
The Mayan numbers are in the background and they don't know its base 20? Also you can use Mayan as base 10 or base 12 or base 16 or whatever and it makes multiplying and division much easier because you can use it as a "written abacus". Its also more efficient in terms of short-term memory, so it could be possible to multiply huge numbers in your head.
When I was a frosh back in college ,one of my math professors talked historically about the Greeks having 4 impossible math problems back in their day.
While the prof was up at the board explaining them,I walked him through solving one of them (something about bisecting angles from what I remember).
How looked at my logic and said you solved it.
Then said if you send in this answer to some national Math society ,it's like a $25 buck prize.
At that time in my life ,I really didn't give a rats ass about anything and blew it off as too much trouble
I had a cousin that was a math whiz at Pitt that after graduation got a union job at Westinghouse.
Made much more money than most of his professors.
Society really doesn't care for intellectuals.
Just ask all the starving adjuncts.
Even though she called Alexa "Alexis," my Echo Dot started blathering on about something.
I was touched by math and science the same way as being pure, finite and were always there. We discovered not invented them.
The Einstein quote is the answer to the question I've had in my head since I was child (1st grade).
Wow, this has got to be the first time ever that I have seen Lewis Black not getting all worked up about a topic. 😂
wonder full...I was great in math old school math ...in school bad at spelling ...Great interview,I have never seen Lewis so calm...Thank You keep up the show...
10:20 Ok, but does he understand instructions from IKEA?
From Wiki: The Yuki language in California and the Pamean languages[1] in Mexico have octal systems because the speakers count using the spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves.[2]
I am loving this channel, some how got hooked on to it,
Octopi would use base 8 if they did math.
You don't know that. By the reasoning you came to that conclusion with, you should be using base 4.
Have you never heard about 10tacles?
Good One!
Jeff B, What if they used the suckers to count on ?
Which may be the reason they are one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet.
If I put a full comment in here it would run to at least a page. I will say, though, that for those who don't catch on to math very well, thank God for Martin Gardner!
Can you recommend a book title?
Some Guy He updated Calculus Made Easy, by Thompson. He also did the Mathematical Recreations column in Scientific American, and wrote books on recreational math.
I like these 3 together. They should do more. Interesting.
I feel the TV shows "Numbers" from CBS, and "Cosmos" and "Nova" from PBS do a wonderful job of showing the importance and the language. "Numbers" would solve criminal cases by showing how math gave you the variants and possibilities and patterns while the math genius wrote out the equation. He would show you where the parts of the equation applied and how it physically dealt with each aspect. Watch it sometime. It was awesome. :O)
Re: Neutrinos
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180716.html
Sometimes when I'm walking
I dream I'm being taken for granted
It's then that I clearly imagine
The day that you take me for granted
You said, one day you're going to realize
You really have no sense of yourself
And with no way to take it back
You'll get frozen in your tracks
Frozen in your tracks
Sometimes when we're talking
I feel like you're not even listening
It's then that I clearly remember
Rarely ever seeing you listening
You said, when you going to realize
You really have no sense of yourself
There's no way to take it back
You've been frozen in your tracks
Simpler than the rest
You don't do stupid games
You're not more complex
You don't lay 'violent blame'
Tonight I was walking
Feeling alone on this planet
When all at once something stopped me
I realized I'd taken you for granted
And tonight I realized
I really have no sense of myself
No way to take it back
I am frozen in my tracks
I'm frozen in my tracks
Frozen in my tracks
I was taught HOW to solve equations, but not WHY I SHOULD solve equations. Basically, we were taught to memorize, not learn.
You were taught how to use a screwdriver, not how to make a table.
When using a sufficiently complex screwdriver, it's actually smart to read the manual first.
Much of our complex system takes time to become useful. This is why it took thousands of years to get here... It's not all relatable to a guy counting chickens.
Ask Einstein to relate Relativity to your everyday life, lol... The only difference there is you aren't told to really understand Relatively, since it's harder.
US tax forms are easy to use because the IRS's Forms and Publications Division has transformed the mathematics written in Congress speak into a algorithms whise flows are governed by the lines on the forms.
Subscribed.....wonderful show
4:05. Why am I watching this? Was Lewis chasing some tail and follow the hostess onto the set?
Spot on about education and maths with regards to taxes. The education system seems to be the same over here in UK too.
what a tremendous funny and importand exchange of ideas! so funny and very interesting!
"Do you two have the same mother?" lol
I'm glad to see that Professor Crawley is enjoying Oxnard.
I have three questions about M theory
Eleventh dimension theory
How many geometric shapes are in the Kalapi-Yao space
How many geometric shapes?
The second question is
Will these different geometric shapes give different laws in physics?
Will you give different universes in laws?
The third question about membranes in M theory
All calabai-yao spaces are membranes in M-
????
Please send my three questions to space scientists
I like the Feynman quote, but, it was between Zorthian (an artist) and Richard at a strip bar in Pasadena, where each was teaching the other his area of expertise. Feynman learned to draw naked woman. I have a napkin he drew on. And no I won't sell it!e
it's the english of tax forms that are frustrating, not so much the math, tax forms are pretty much addition subtraction and some percentages, but the way forms are laid out and the way questions are posed - and why the hell we are doing this - that frustrates. art and literature in school gets taught badly too, but greene hits the mark, it's enthusiasm and imagination that get left out of math subjects, and it's the tests we hate, not the sitting around debating what the implications of math are. when i was at school we listened to music and discussed drugs and sex and life in general in the art room, but math and english was fine, but the goal was to pass a test. soon perhaps, with the likelihood of AI accelerating, maybe we will be able to just sit around in school and discuss and experiment, rather than slave to pass tests.
Maybe one problem with maths education is that the examples in which the maths are applied are not very relatable for many students.
An example from primary school comes to mind with two cars racing towards each other at different speeds and the question being when they will pass each other. I don't remember having a driver's license back then
Taxes use arithmetic primarily, which is a tiny subset of mathematics.
Lewis Black nailed it.
Homer becomes a math genius, if the equation involves food.
When I read up on the history of mathematics I really began to gain an appreciation of it. I'm still sorely lacking in skill at it, but I'm no longer afraid when I come across it.
After being treated like a moron for about 12 years by my family and teachers, my mother ( in the process of training to be a special education teacher) realized that I had certain learning disabilities. My reading and language comprehension had always been above my age level. I loved history, science and geography, music. But math class was a horror fest. All through my schooling I was unable to cope with arithmetic, never mind calculus or geometry. Fractions? Decimals? Nope. Might as well be hen scratches.
My mother finally sorted out the evidence in her head, ( she had been a teacher for over 20 years at this point) applied her new special ed training, and told me I had learning disabilities. So, despite what my family had been telling me for years, I wan't STUPID and LAZY. No, I had brain trouble. As my mother put it, I had "bridges out" between my right and left frontal lobes.
I have the organizational ability of a rabid cow, I can't write an essay to save my life, I need a calculator to do basic arithmetic, my spatial judgement is ludicrously inadequate, my hand eye coordination could win comedy awards, I have only a vague notion of how logic works...
In short, I am profoundly unable to manage higher level thought. And yet I managed to get two university degrees, and worked in retail/ customer service for years.
There are people who think I'm smart. I know I'm not. Because all through my childhood and teen years I was told that if you can't do the math, you're an idiot.
I read your comment before I watched the video, and I don't get it. I'll see if it makes sense in more context after I've watched it.
No, I still don't get it.
There are different types of intelligence. The fact that you are posting here and (I assume) that you watched the video tells me that you are "smart." If you weren't smart, you wouldn't find this video worth watching.
@ Steve Fortuna
I don't know her, but I would vote for her over the incumbent in a heartbeat.
Great conversation. I disagree with Brian on one point: when Lewis asks why can't math be more like language and allow minor errors like screwing up a verb test, I disagree with his premise entirely.
Approximations are essentially the equivalent of getting a verb tense wrong. We round for calculations and build oversimplified models for simulations, but we do it because it gets the point across without unduly diluting or skewing it. We both introduce and tolerate errors when we do things like that, and we'll continue to err until we understand the 'language' of the universe well enough to avoid it.
11:06 " ...a scattering..." I'm sure he didn't see the joke at the time butt really
Actually Lewis Black in India children are taught tax calculation in high school as part of statistics. Actually in India after High school it is not taught as tax calculation is too easy to be taught in senior high school.
Also Jesus and God have 5 finger to point to the statement "Only God is perfect".
SATISH PRADHAN but then again maybe it is just pointing out that these deities as they exist in organized religion are so human, too human. I mean, why would 5 mean perfection?
More like the middle finger was added so god could flip us the bird more easily?!
Since the writers of _The Simpson's_ who have created these characters ostensibly all have five fingers on each hand, they are the gods of this series.
That first one is more of a Rebus puzzle than a joke.
The British wordplay and recreational mathematics expert Leigh Mercer (1893-1977) devised the following mathematical limerick:
12 + 144 + 20 + (3 x Sqrt4 )
------------- + (5 x 11) = 9sqrd + 0
7
(Math fonts not in my collection, so excuse the letters used for adaptation, here. Original has none.)
This is read as follows:
A dozen, a gross, and a score,
Plus three times the square root of four,
Divided by seven,
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared, and not a bit more.
Rick and Morty, I believe, has surpassed The Simpsons and Futurama because they've built on them with the newest science. There's a whole running question in the main plot line that involves neutrinos (the neutrino bombs made by Rick throughout the series).
math puns are the first sine of madness 😏
Man, She is very Good in asking Questions.
"where do all the neutrinos go, long time passing" when will they ever learn.
Brian Greene says that mathematics can describe our reality, but that may not be entirely true.
We use mathematics to make models of reality. One definition of a model is that it is a simplified representation of something.
We don't know if we will ever be able to create a mathematical model that gives a one to one description of reality, even though such a model is the holy grail that physicists are looking for.
Math is absolute, it's the perfect science
.
Yes however are u aware of Russell's paradox which states a fundamental flaw in what is supposed to be perfect
No it's not. The foundations of math is shaky, and people have generally given up working on it since about 100 years ago.
Apply set theory to this: "All puddles are dogs but not all dogs are puddles." ? ? ?
22:30 I think she fell in love 😂
so much better just to let them boys have a discussion, IMHO.
Math is the language of the universe, no one will explain that, you need to have the curiosity to venture out and discover it. All schools will and can teach you is show the doors for many worlds, it’s your curiosity, bravery, stupidity etc that will help you opened the doors and go exploring.
E equals m c square is one of the equations of many. How to view and base a theory and deriving principles and technology is a new way of mathematical model. But who is going to propose such things.
Roger Penrose gives Witten a strong competition.
People are told that math is hard so they have a preset aversion backed with no personnel experience. It's not that hard right up to college level. Think of it as a puzzle to solve like those twisted up chrome wire and wood puzzles to take apart and put back together. Algebra is just a bunch of puzzle pieces that you can build puzzles or reduce the complex to pieces, reorder the pieces and see whatever piece of information you are missing. Cross multiply, cancel out common pieces, add up and subtract common pieces, divide and multiply in a small set of a few simple rules. How many nails are in that house if you only know the average house 2x4s and nails per 2x4 are in it. Put the problem in variables and move them around to bring out the how many nails in any house or houses and put in the numbers and solve the puzzle. How many eggs in 7 cakes if you know how many in one cake? You figure out miles per gallon. Percent raise. You do Algebra all the time without realizing it.
MrBonners I found math hard all the way through grade school.
You think I care about someone (you) I don't know?
idk any math jokes. do they go like:
a constant and a variable walk into a bar...
or maybe the punchline's like:
...theorem? damn near killed 'em!
Nobody gets math jokes since the answers are variables.
Average people's Math = Arithmetic based
Scientist's Math = Logic based
You want a challenge? Read his "The Fabric of the Cosmos"....
I read all of his books and they were great. He made them very accessible though. I mean, I didn't think of them as a challenge.
they are so adorable. Love from nepal, Brian Greene.
I would give a different answer to why they teach math to kids who will never use it. It's for the same reason that whenever I go to a restaurant for the first time, I want to see is the menu before I order my meal.
Sitting here kissing my thumbs screw base eight!
She kills all the magic.
I can't tell if her reactions are real or fake.
What is purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
The best comedy was slapstick comedy during the silent film er.... "Pi in the face"..
Octals used in computer science are base 8.
If you take the time and trouble to really understand mathematics and not just mechanically manipulate symbols, you start to understand reality. You find that everything is related to everything else, so there are no independent variables. You understand that all the "real" problems in science and engineering calculations are simplifications.
I wish they had chosen a more savvy host. I like Mr Black and I love Mr Green, but this mix has no chemistry.
I thought Mayan used base 5. .... = 4 and - = 5
so a proton says to a neutron, omg, I think we just lost an electron. The Neutron says are you sure? The proton replies "Of course, I'm positive."
So good! May I use this? My purpose in life is to make my friends groan and roll their eyes...
that's a fantastic life purpose. you are a great entity. and you don't have to ask permission for a joke. they are in general, not copyrightable and I got this off the internet, anyway. spread this one.
here's a medical joke in bad taste: how do you tell the difference between a oral and rectal thermometer? answer: the taste
Trying to figure out higher math, to me is like trying to learn Mandarin by seeing it written in Chinese,
You need a teacher that really loves math to be able to pass that on to his/her students...
Keith Wood True, but you also need the gift for it as well.
Didn't they do a study on neutrinos that they put a lab down into the Earth to see how far neutrinos penetrated Earth.
And a recent find has said that they pass all the way through.
How can he buckle up if the seats don't have seat belts?
*Lewis Black understands sex jokes a couple of bits better... now days.*
she just said they had no seat belts how is he gonna buckle up so instead try, "Hold on" maybe?"
*BTW my child caught that joke. on the Simpsons the night it aired, "I ate pie" we laughed.
Also, wasn't there a Hindu God that appeared on the Simpsons? or is that another Mandella Effect? now, how does Disillusionment fit into these shows? we got the future, present now the past that led to these present & future? I love Luis Black, he has been the Angry old man since his teens. (except the anger is justified & reasonable not just get off my lawn, angry.) p.s.s. so we are all math but most don't want to play it. we all do basic Arithmetics one, two, threes & weights & measures. But we do not care to indulge with Math & the universal rules & functions of how. We should be interested but the average student is often pointed in other directions, IMHO. good points you folks have made.
I didn't learn shit in elementary through high school.
Regarding why God and Jesus had five fingers, I was thinking the reason is that the writers are human, creating or giving life to the Simpson, and thus are essentially God in the Simpson world
I beg to differ; Futurama appears to have better quality and more in-depth math jokes. That "I ate some pie" joke from the Simpsons was cute, but it wasn't as awesome as some of the Futurama ones.