Maths -- What Is It Good For?

[Simon]

Mr February:
> As a maths graduate, I would like to confirm that maths
> is indeed not good for anything.

Seconded by this recent mathematics graduate. It certainly is not good for
career planning.



Cindy:
> The best part of being a math dullard is that
> technology
> (undoubtedly perfected by math majors with thick
> glasses wearing
> pocket protectors and carrying slide rules)

Andrew:
> No pocket protector, but yes...I still carry -and use-
> the Pickett N4-ES rule I got in my second year at
> Caltech.

It took this maths grad a good few moments to think of what use a slide
rule would be. Of course I would have found out more quickly by reading
further through the thread, but where is the fun in that?


Cindy:
> Cindy (who never figured out the point of those darn
> slide rules)

Andrew:
> They're the first light-powered calculators.
> {grin}

I thought that a human was this.



Cindy:
> The best part of being a math dullard is that
> technology <snip> has
> made knowledge of math much less important than it used to be.

Barb:
> Contrary to the above
> statement, math majors do not generally engage in perfecting
> technology; that is the purview of engineers.

It is the case that the maths grads are probably the people who messed up
the technology in the first place. Of course a cruel person may want to
suggest that the engineers approach would be to hit the thing (of course in
a technical way that only looks unnecessary to the untrained eye).



Barb:
>Slide rules are
> antiques now; graphing calculators do this job.  (If you don't know
> what slide rules were for, you obviously never dealt with
> logarithms.  I once read a fascinating biography of Napier, which
> you would probably use to prop up a wobbly table.  Oh well.)

It is my graphics calculator that would be used to prop us a wobbly table,
but that is because it does not actually do the job it was designed for. It
died a few years back; luckily after I had finished needing it to work.

My scientific calculator has a dead battery and so is only usable in good
weather condition (it is also solar powered, but often there is not enough
sunlight to power it). I have no idea where I would find it. Probably in
one of the many boxes I still have not managed to sort through, even though
I finished my degree over 6 months ago.

However it is the case that in my 18 formal university examinations I never
once had the need for a calculator, which was either extreme good luck or,
more likely, the way the exams were designed. It was also the case that I
never once had a calculator in the examination schools with me, as was the
case with the majority of students taking the exams. It is a very odd
feeling to be walking into a mathematics exam with no calculator!



Andrew:
> I get my jollies out of what's called homological
> algebra and category/topos theory.

Now if only you had been around here 12 months ago when I was actually
trying to study some of that stuff.



Simon
--
"I didn't go to university. Didn't even finish A-levels. But I have
sympathy for those who did." - Terry Pratchett
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