Comment due Sunday, March 3
Contents
Background
Gracie’s questions
Gracie Cunningham was a student who went viral on Twitter a few years ago when someone tweeted her Tik Tok and said, “this is the dumbest video ive ever seen.” (That person’s Twitter account was soon suspended btw.)
After catching a lot of hate on Twitter, Gracie made a follow-up video and tweeted it herself. (I like both videos but I think I prefer the first one tbh.)
Alongside all the critical comments calling her dumb, Gracie got a huge outpouring of support from mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, and teachers, who loved her videos. Like, really, really loved them.
Dr. Cheng’s answers
Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician who is very good at explaining math to non-mathematicians. She’s published a few popular books about math for a general audience and is very active on social media. She’s even appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert!
Gracie’s questions are mostly about the history and philosophy of math (which is a real academic discipline that people can study and get PhD’s in!). Some of her questions have concrete answers and some of her questions just lead to more questions. When Dr. Cheng saw Gracie’s videos and the critical comments on them, she tried answering Gracie’s questions one-by-one on her blog.
Assignment instructions
None of us are experts in the history of math or in the philosophy of math (unless there’s something you’re not telling us in your OpenLab introduction post from last week!). But we all have studied math and encountered math in some form in our day-to-day lives…which means that we’ve all spent time thinking about math, so we can ask questions about it.
For this week’s assignment, think about math in the big picture of the human experience, not just the math you see in your math classes.
- Watch both of Gracie’s videos above and read Eugenia Cheng’s blog post.
- Choose one of the following prompts:
- What are you curious about? Have you ever had any questions like “Is math real?” or like Gracie’s questions that you’ve thought about before? What is one of your questions and what have your thoughts been about it? Was there something in particular that made you have question? Was there something that changed your mind about how you think about it? Do you have any possible answers for your question, even if they contradict each other?
- Which of Dr. Cheng’s answers is the most interesting to you? Why? Did you agree with everything she said or do you have a different idea? How would you have answered this question?
- Imagine Gracie is your friend. What would your answers to her questions be? Which of her questions would you ask her more questions about? What would you ask her? How would you engage with her ideas in a supportive way?
- What’s something mathematical that you have encountered in your life that had nothing to do with the math you learned in school? Was there a problem you had to solve on your own? Did you have to look up how to solve it or did you figure out a way to solve it yourself? Did you use algebra without realizing you used algebra? How do you know what you did counts as math instead of as something that’s not math?
- Look up the history of a mathematical fact, formula, or idea. What problem were people trying to solve when they discovered it? How did it solve the problem for them? How did they know they were right and how did they use it? What is the story of this fact, formula, or idea? (I’m not sure how reliable it is, but the website the Story of Mathematics might be a good place to start).
- Make your own video (on Tik Tok or anywhere else that’s public) asking your own questions about the history and philosophy of math.
- In a comment below, respond to the prompt you chose in at least 5 sentences. Make sure to tell us which prompt you chose so we know what you’re responding to! If you are making your own video, include a link to it in your comment.
You will receive participation credit for your comment.
Chose Prompt C
If i were Gracie’s friend I am not sure what answers I would be able to give her for her questions. Most of them i am still unsure about myself but I what i would tell her is I do think they needed math back then when she said they didn’t. They needed math because that is what help advance our society. And helped others create new things. I would ask her more questions about why do think they came up with and created these formulas. I have had similar thoughts to hers so i would engage her thoughts in a good way and try my best to find some answers to the questions that she has.
D
We all see the world as what it is, at least most of us. I for one have also been like that, accepting everything for what they are are their purpose. The moment you start questioning why is when things start to get more complex. Although not seen at the moment, I believe mostly everything can be calculated. The way cars move (physics), the way people think (psychology), the list goes on and on. As I continue to learn new fundamentals and formulas, I look for ways to apply them in a real world so that there is a reason to keep that knowledge stored somewhere in my head, rather than keep it for the exams that are to follow.
E.
Algebra has roots in ancient civilizations, but it was largely developed by mathematicians like Al-Khwarizmi in the Islamic Golden Age. His work laid the foundation for algebra as a distinct branch of mathematics. People were trying to solve practical problems in areas like trade, inheritance, and land distribution. Algebra provided a systematic way to express and solve these problems involving unknown quantities, making real-life problem-solving more efficient. Algebra introduced a structured approach to solving equations and expressing relationships between variables. This made it easier to formulate and solve problems involving unknowns, enhancing the efficiency of calculations in various fields like commerce, and engineering. Unlike modern, rigorous proofs, ancient mathematicians relied on checking their solutions with specific numerical examples. If the method worked consistently across various scenarios, they would feel confident in its validity. The practical application of algebra varied, from calculating goods and trade transactions to solving geometric problems. Its use expanded over time, becoming a fundamental tool in diverse fields.
B
Dr. Cheng’s answer to the last question, “Why are the only people who are disagreeing with me the ones who are dumb, and the physicists and mathematicians are agreeing with me?”
This question interested me the most for 2 reasons, 1- being that I would’ve answered the question much differently, and 2- her answer was well put together, considering that she phrased my thoughts on the question in a much more logical manner.
I would have addressed that as humans we tend to lie to ourselves, so that we may always see ourselves in the best light, that being said there are factors that may explain the ideas of those Gracie considers ” dumb” But I’ll only mention one for the sake of keeping this short.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is the idea that we’re convinced that our opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis.
But in reality, our opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information that confirms what we believe, while we ignore information that challenges our preconceived notions.
Confirmation Bias has Been tested and researched countless times in a study done by these two researchers: Mark Snyder & Nancy Cantor. Though, there are more recent ones that make a good read.
B
Which of Dr. Cheng’s answers is the most interesting to you? Why? Did you agree with everything she said or do you have a different idea? How would you have answered this question?
Answer number seven was the most interesting to me because a lot of people replying back on social media are the ones who never experienced things or they feel threatened. I agree with that answer. In high school, I was supposed to take pre-calculus after algebra II, but I took computer science because I didn’t look at taking calculus as being proud, I looked at it as why are they stressing me out putting me in another math class. If I were to answer this a different way I’d say the ones that reply back are the ones that don’t know what they’re saying they’ll just say things to put you down when they’re the ones are putting themselves down.
Prompt-A
I have always disliked math ever since I first started. Something I do enjoy is history so I have always wondered where in God’s name did math come from. I have a basic understanding that addition was a simple form of math to determine how many things people had and if they wanted more how much they would have. Same with subtraction and other simple math. The thing that confuses me was who in their right mind invented calculus or algebra. I understand that some necessities for these things would be architecture and building things but it’s baffling how someone who never has done math before invented it. I can barely understand math and I have been doing it all my life so imagine not knowing a thing about it and discovering theories and making laws. Another question I have is who decided that any of it had any merit and explained it to others unknowing of math. Math is seen in everything and as someone who dislikes math I see it all the time. I could see how people lived without math but discovering it is a whole different story that I find really interesting. I am assuming the basis of math was built upon over generations and I think that is really interesting.
A
I also have had similar questions and thoughts about what Gracie is talking about. One question that I had was, also how did they come up with the more complicated levels of math if they didn’t have anything to use it for? I know that math is real but I believe that simple math like basic addition, subtraction, division and multiplication was created back then and the humans created formulas as we got smarter and just kept crediting famous philosophers. When I thought about this question I thought about how we don’t need all these sophisticated mathematical formulas in our day to day lives so people 2500 years ago definitely wasn’t using it in there’s
B
Dr. Cheng’s answer to the last question, “Why are the only people who are disagreeing with me the ones who are dumb, and the physicists and mathematicians are agreeing with me?”
This question interested me the most for 2 reasons, 1- being that I would’ve answered the question much differently, and 2- her answer was well put together, considering that she phrased my thoughts on the question in a much more logical manner.
I would have addressed that as humans we tend to lie to ourselves, so that we may always see ourselves in the best light, that being said there are factors that may explain the ideas of those Gracie considers ” dumb” But I’ll only mention one for the sake of keeping this short.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is the idea that we’re convinced that our opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis.
But in reality, our opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information that confirms what we believe, while we ignore information that challenges our preconceived notions.
Confirmation Bias has Been tested and researched countless times in a study done by these two researchers: Mark Snyder & Nancy Cantor. Though, there are more recent ones that make a good read.
A. I have always wondered how math came to be. The way Gracie described it was the same way I thought about it. It makes sense to have basic math like 2+3=5 but what I never understood was how people came up with irrational numbers, or formulas etc. If I think about it more it makes less and less sense why someone would create such mathematical terms because if there is no need for them in our day to day lives now, it is really hard to imagine why they would need them back then. I really do not have any idea as to what an answer to these questions could be.
Prompt A. I’m curious about the importance of math. I understand that we do use it in our daily lives and math has made our lives substantially easier, but my curiosity lies in the importance of the math taught in schools. I’ve had plenty of questions similar to “Is math real” and one of my questions is what’s the point of understanding the more complex forms of math i.e. imaginary numbers, infinite geometric sequences, etc. The questions have all arose through me doing WebWork and struggling through some of them. So far nothing has changed my mind, but I have an idea as to why it may be necessary for some, but not for all. I assume any possible answers would be to “make life easier” probably to provide reasoning for a discovery or to act as evidence/a means to calculate more complex topics.