Hello everyone!

I am going to be honest and say that I do not enjoy learning math. I am unsure why. I do, however, enjoy learning other subjects, such as English.

I would like to hear other members' reasons for enjoying this subject because I hope it will give me a reason to enjoy math as well. For those of you who do enjoy math, allow me to ask this question: Why? What captures your pleasure in learning and studying math? What makes math so exciting for you? I know that may not be an easy question to answer, but try to come up with some other answers besides, "Because math is just my thing."

I, personally, dislike math because:
- One careless, minute mistake in solving the problem can mess you up.
- It is too complicated (in my opinion).

Feel free to counter my reasons with contrasting statements.

Thanks,
Listen

I used to be in your shoes a long time ago (in middle school). I hated math, and I was an English pro...

But as I went through high school, I developed a skill in doing math.

Its all about the hard work you put into it, and your determination to stick with it.

Yes, there will be times when you're frustrated when you can't figure it out; but when you do figure it out eventually, I feel that that feeling is more rewarding than anything else. Although I'm pretty quick with regards to question asked here on MHF, there are questions asked on MHF that make me stop and think for a while.

I think math is a great subject if you like to be challenged. Even the smartest person out there has his ups and downs with a problem. You're not alone. I'm sure that I can speak for some of the members here in the fact that there are limits to what we can do, and when we tackle challenging problems, we try to enjoy it as much as possible.

I hope this gives you some insight on my view of this.

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It's too complicated ..

There's almost nothing i learn in my life which is not complicated . Say for English , i used to take English Literature once upon a time and Shakespears or Macbeth's poems have driven me crazy , especially when they use lots of classical English .

Like Chris said , its the self satisfaction which has driven me to love math . I hate it when i fail to nail down a problem but the self pride and satisfaction u get when u crack a tough problem is just simply immeasurable .

I used to hate math because it was never "always easy" for me. Probably why I had difficulty with it in high school and because it was never easy for me I would never work at it. I expected everything to be easy for me so I could do whatever I wanted. I'd get A's in everything except math in high school.

Interestingly enough, I found myself wandering in the library searching for a book to read. Walking down one of the aisles, my eyes fell upon a book that changed the course of my life and way of thinking.

I brought it home with me (also brought a book by Stephen Hawking, which was another good read) and devoured it. I'd laugh out loud at it and I'd strive to understand maybe some of the less subtle details of the book. The technical. Then, I wanted to be a Physicist from that day forward. I was a pretty lame bloomer. That was very near the end of my senior year, where I had no prospects of going to college and was about a week away from signing my life way to the marines.

I decided that I was going to take this dream and run with it. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I managed to get my dad to research some things, pull some strings to get money, and after about a year of doing that I'm in my first year of junior college. It's not where I want to be, but I have to work to get where I want to be.

I was devastated the first time I took my college's assessment because I had scored into Pre-Algebra (one developmental course above Arithmetic Fundamentals). I studied for about a month (very intensely) and upon retest I was able to score into Calculus (the highest they'd place you). That's a heck of a jump, especially since I only had Algebra II in high school my junior year (one semester course, so it was in 2006 that I had taken it). I made the choice to take some classes more on my level though because I needed to make sure I'd do well in Calculus by getting the concepts from the Pre-Calculus course to apply in Calculus. I also took Trigonometry and Statistics this semester. I have only math classes this semester and I'm not feeling crazy yet.

I've developed a certain enthusiasm for math. I read books about mathematicians, I listen to lectures, watch them, sit in on them, and I even try tackling some math Olympiad problems every now and then. I'm very in love with it and it has become a lot easier. I can seriously say I learned more studying by myself about math than all of my math classes combined in high school. I'm a self-learner I find and I don't really take much in from a lecturer who just complicates something simple. I have tons of math books now and I'd say 3/4ths of my books that I own are completely about math.

I decided instead of majoring in Physics to major in Mathematics. I wasn't one of those kids who fell in love with it as a child though or went up through their teen years completely captivated by the beauty of numeracy.

A long time ago I use to stare out of my window and wonder why. What was the origin of life on earth? Why does life grow increasingly more complex? What causes the difference between man and ape? Why does man create and discover? What is a mind and how does the brain work? What created the Universe and what came before it? What is the ultimate fate of the Universe? Is there a smallest small or largest large? What is time, what is existence, and why did life grow self-aware?

About 15 years ago, I started studying non-linear differential equations. I no longer wonder why about a lot of things. I'm not saying I have the answers. I'm just saying I no longer wonder why.

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"I am beset by the ironies in my life"

I'm too tired and not in a mood to answer the question of why I like math so I'll be quick : you're given some tools (axioms) and you can build really beautiful structures (theorems) with them.

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Isaac

I like maths because it is extremely adaptable. Learning one formula is much easier than learning tabular values

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I always liked math, but when I got into high school it became my social circle. The math club went to competitions on weekends and hung out after school. The better you were at math the cooler you were.

Transitioning from the end of the basic calculus material to proofs is really hard. It's a completely different way of approaching math than you've ever done before. The material becomes super dense and the most basic sounding things can seem impossible to prove.

All in all though, cmon, being good at math makes you cool!

One thing I personally like about maths is that you can have a problem that looks straightforward at first, but the ideas underlying it are extremely advanced and span many branches of maths. Yet you can also have what seems like an extremely complicated structure or system which is governed by merely a few simple rules.

One quick example of the first category, the partition function:

A partition is of an integer n is a way of writing it as the sum of positive integers. If we take 4, then: 4=1+1+1+1 or 4=2+2 for example. So two such partitions of 4 are (1,1,1,1) and (2,2).
The partition function, p(n), of an integer is just the number of possible ways of partitioning an integer.
You could explain this to a child. Give them, say, 4 blocks and see how many different ways they can group them together, obviously they might not get every combination but they'll still have an idea of what they're doing.

Mathematically though things can get a bit crazy. One expression for p(n), is the frightening:

where

.

Which you definitely wouldn't be able to explain to a child!

Thanks for all the replies! I find pleasure in reading each individual's reasons for liking this subject.

Haha, it makes you cool? I might look into that, then.

I found this to be a very interesting post.

Does a fish like swimming in water?

CB

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Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.

Giordano Bruno

Perfect example.

gives...

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choose a path...

or

I'd like to be better at math but it seems that I can do logic, but not math.

Well, originally I took math because I was good at it. In highschool, a math course guaranteed me an easy 90+, so I always took them. I also found it relaxing to sit down and do math problems... the whole process of clearing your mind and concentrating only on numbers seemed refreshing after a busy day.

Now, I've developed a much deeper appreciation of math. Philosophers have discussed the aesthetic pleasure of "mathematical beauty," which I definitely understand. Observing or constructing a particularly elegant proof, puzzling over the complexity of organizations springing from a few simple rules, really "getting" a difficult concept and feeling its significance in a way you can't even put into words... etc. I think they're all very rewarding experiences. Also I'll admit some of my motivation is esoteric... I enjoy understanding things that most people don't.

Math is rad

You either have a knack for it or you don't. This usually governs your love or hate for it.

At the end of the day, like it or not it's a part of life that's here to stay. As long as stuff needs to be measured or compared Math will be called on.

Not everyone needs to be a mathematician, my gosh that would be a boring world.

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Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components.