doing away with math?

[fatal291]

i read somewhere that (NASA) was going to change the way they use math. I also read that schools were going to stop teaching certain forms of math as it is no longer needed and outdated. I did not believe this. How can they change math? I am 18 and i was hanging with my grandparents (yes, this is rare for an 18 year old i know) and they explained to me how they had only "business math" in school. They were not shown how to do the comlex math we do now in school. I had no idea the universal language math changed so much. i though math changed other things, not itself really. <br /><br />could this be true? are they changing it to be easier for other countries to adopt or would they adopt other countries systems? i for one have NEVER used long divion outside of school.. and working at Sears during the holiday season is as much "real world" experience as a human can get.

 

[adrenalynn]

<font color="yellow">and working at Sears during the holiday season is as much "real world" experience as a human can get. </font><br /><br />That seems kinda telling.<br /><br />Put that Sears store in orbit, then come back and talk to us... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[fatal291]

If only I could!

 

[qso1]

NASA may be looking at changing the way they use math but I'm sure they will still be using math. One change may be that some of the employees that may now be using math unecessary to their jobs will no longer have to use particular types of math. An example being a facility manager who may have had to learn algebra or calculus...neither is needed much in facility managment. But the folks who do trajectory calcs will still be required to be able to use algebra and calculus.<br /><br />Another change is probably increased reliance on computers. Certain multiple planetary flyby trajectories can only be done effectively by computers. Math itself has not changed that much...people have. Americans in the post Sputnik 1950s-60s emphasized science and engineering educations in part so we could win the moon race. After Apollo, the math requirements evidently and gradually faded back to where it may have been prior to the 1950s.<br /><br />As a result, in todays world, mathematics, science and engineering are not as emphasized as they were in the 60s. And as pendulums go, we as a society swing like a pendulum so math will probably return as we now see our competitive edge in other industries begin to be threatened. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Do you have an idea of where you read it?<br /><br />Then we might be able to get some idea of what they are suggesting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[nexium]

We can rely more on pocket calculators for arithmetic. I only do long division about once per year, and find a square root by that complex method even less often. I learned slide rule 60 years ago. The method for locating the decimil point of a slide rule answer, I still use daily. I find I can typically determine the first two significant numbers in my head, quicker than hunting up a pocket calculator, which mysteriously gives me a wrong answer often enough, I want to do "the in my head check" for confirmation. For most of what I do, plus or minus 5% is close enough. I never learned new math, nor sets, so perhaps NASA can dispence with both. I don't picture algabra nor calculus changing much, and have no opinion on the very advanced math. Neil

 

[fatal291]

I think I read it on the internet, something else that was not used (pubicly) in the 60s.. I'm sure it was on Space.com somewhere as to this is all i do all day either here or CNN.

 

[vandivx]

that's how it used to be in old days, my parents (in Europe) also learned mainly "business math" with some basic algebra thrown in but that was also very much geared to practical use, to get abstract math like its tought today everywhere you had to go to 'gymnasium' type of school, not sure what its English equivalent would have been, that's where you also learned Latin and Greek and got broad classical education but that all ended by 1940s I think, it was part of the 'old world'<br /><br />I have to say that lots of what I learned like all that integral solving and matrix manipulations I promptly forgot and I knew even then its useless garbage that only specialists should be learning, like I was sitting in lecture on QM and this crazy teacher (young too which is weird) filled in for few lectures and made us do stuff with matrices that old particle guys used to do (S-matrices), only worse thing was the course on computing where people did stuff with those punch cards LOL, that was stupid if anything because that was when that type of computing was already out, speaking circa about 1986/7<br /><br />one should only learn principles of those areas of math and get into them practically only when one knows he is specializing in some area where it might come usefull, today I only value that I understand principle of integration/differentiation and that I have some idea what matrix algebra is all about (to pick these as example areas) but those practical manipulation methods with them was just lost time if you ask me because you forget it anyway if you don't use it and you get specialized course if and when you need it later on in your career<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

Manipulating matrices ..... [shudders] ........ isn't that why we have Matlab ? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

SO in other words you have nothing at all to back up your assertion, and in fact you can't even define what math is being done away with?<br /><br />Rather pointless without at least one fact to deal with..... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

<font color="yellow">If only I could!</font><br /><br />You could if you had the math. It's just a matter of funding after that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[kerberus]

Math is the Devil.<br /><br /><i>...beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.</i> - St. Augustine <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vandivx]

LOL <br /><br />for those who only know matrix multiplication etc, I talk about matrix reduction methods, like if you got 9x9 or 16x16 or 50x50 matrix (well, I am overdoing it here but you get the idea) there is a method how to convert them to smaller matrices which can then be handled when you do all the work with pen and paper only, matlab didn't exist then I believe and anyway those guys who do these things are crazy, they would tell you what if you got stuck on island without electricity and wanted to compute with your big matrices, what would you do then <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />they tell it with a look of horror @ the deprivation in their eye too and one almost believes them<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>