# Math...The Bane of My Existence...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 5, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045 "2000-12-05T00:55:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/1 "2000-12-05T00:55:16Z")
I hate hate hate hate hate math…
It’s fucking useless, I swear. Yes, I’m going to have to pay bills and taxes when I’m older, and knowing how to add numbers is going to be good…but what the HELL do Quadratic Formulas, Domain and Range, and all that other stuff have to do with real life?! I swear they are out to get me with this shit.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Sigh. I just know I failed that test I took Friday. God I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow and get it back…I’m hoping for a C-range grade.
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(☹
I guess it could be worse. I could be sucking at more than one class and thank god, I’m not…but still. Pisses me off nonetheless…this was a pretty senseless rant, I know, but at least its not about the election…
---
### Author:  [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/2 "2000-12-05T01:07:18Z")
::heaves a sigh:: That reminds me. I have my calculus final on Thursday and I haven’t started studying yet. I wonder if my professor would be so kind as to take me out back and shoot me?
---
### Author:  [@lovelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lovelee)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/3 "2000-12-05T01:34:05Z")
I took calculus 3 times.
Dropped twice. The third time, something went _click_ and I understood!
It’s the best educational feeling I’ve ever had.
---
### Author:  [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/4 "2000-12-05T01:52:55Z")
I hate having to show my work. I simply look at the problem and write down the answer, actually showing my work is where I always screw up:)
---
### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/5 "2000-12-05T02:08:27Z")
Welcome to the club, asmodean.
Soph year Trig. I wrote programs on my calculator that basically gave me the answers. Teachers had no problem with it. Some were actually (gasp) impressed.
Took me half an hour to finish the final exam. I played blackjack on my calculator for an hour while I waited for the minimum time to be up. Finally with five minutes left until I could go I walked up to the guy moderating, who happened to be my actual math teacher, and basically told him I’d finished nearly an hour ago, that I basically knew my grade (I got high 90s on it and in the class) and had been bored stiff the past hour.
I’d gotten so bored I was coloring in the letters on the page.
Calculus was tougher, though. But in general I understand math.
History, on the other hand . . .
---
### Author:  [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/6 "2000-12-05T02:12:39Z")
Don’t even mention it!!!
I wrote my calculus final this afternoon. Thank god I only needed a 60% to keep an A- or I would have been in big trouble.
And I like math…
---
### Author:  [@relic\_11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/relic_11)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/7 "2000-12-05T02:14:11Z")
**Math Suks**
If necessity is the mother of invention
Then I’d like to kill the guy who invented this
The numbers come together in some kind of a third dimension
A regular algebraic bliss.
Let’s start with something simple, like one and one ain’t three
Any two plus two will never get you five.
There are fractions in my subtraction and x don’t equal y
But my homework is bound to multiply.
Math suks math suks
I’d like to burn this textbook, I hate this stuff so much.
Math suks math suks
Sometimes I think that I don’t know that much
But math suks.
I got so bored with my homework, I turned on the TV.
The beauty contest winners were all smiling through their teeth.
Then they asked the new Miss America
Hey babe can you add up all those bucks?
She looked puzzled, then just said
“Math Suks”.
Math suks math suks
You don’t even have to spell it,
All you have to do is yell it…
Math suks math suks
Sometime times I think that I don’t know that much
But math suks.
Geometry, trigonometry and if that don’t tax your brain
There are numbers to big to be named
Numerical precision is a science with a mission
And I think it’s gonna drive me insane.
Parents fighting with their children, and the Congress can’t agree
Teachers and their students are all jousting constantly.
Management and labor keep rattling old sabers
Quacking like those Peabody ducks.
Math suks math suks
You don’t even have to spell it,
All you have to do is yell it…
Math suks math suks
Sometime times I think that I don’t know that much
But math suks.
From [http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/](http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/)
---
### Author:  [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/8 "2000-12-05T03:23:17Z")
I’ve always had problems with graphing. Everything about graphing kicked my ass royally. For some reason, I just DIDN’T GET IT! For FOUR YEARS!
Well, last Friday my Calc teacher put ALL of the elements of graphing together. And it went CLICK. I understand it! I see it! It’s Beautiful!
Will I ever use this? I honestly don’t know. But for right now, the thrill of doing something right…it’s amazing. .
All I can say, don’t give up. If it makes sense to me, anybody can do it. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/9 "2000-12-05T04:22:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by iampunha \*
> \*\*Took me half an hour to finish the final exam. I played blackjack on my calculator for an hour while I waited for the minimum time to be up. Finally with five minutes left until I could go I walked up to the guy moderating, who happened to be my actual math teacher, and basically told him I’d finished nearly an hour ago, that I basically knew my grade (I got high 90s on it and in the class) and had been bored stiff the past hour.
>
> I’d gotten so bored I was coloring in the letters on the page.
>
> Calculus was tougher, though. But in general I understand math.
>
> History, on the other hand . . . \*\*
[Mr. Burns] Sir (or is it Madame?) I am in your debt.[/Mr. Burns.]
Ha…that’s what math is like for me…I wish! My Latin midterm and final were like that actually. I can’t comprehend people saying its easy…math that is. Its a foreign idea for me. (i was pretty good up until maybe eighth or ninth grade, which was when I slowly began to detoriate.)
I like history. This year anyways. This is the class in which I’ve been moving up year by year.
---
### Author:  [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/10 "2000-12-05T04:41:00Z")
Every once in a while I run into a student who feels this way in person (I’m a math TA). I try to help, but often nothing I do will cheer the student up.
One of these days I’m going to have to figure out just why my chosen field is so vilified. Other subjects get people’s dander up (my wife tells me stories of English Lit majors making the same complaints about Linguistics, and vice versa), but some days it seems like _everyone_ hates math. Oh well…I ain’t exactly the victim here, am I? 🙂
Cheer up, **Zoggie**. For most majors, the math requirements are over by the second year. Small comfort, I know, but still…
---
### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/11 "2000-12-05T08:37:50Z")
Mathgeek, I think there’s something about it . . it’s like Shakespeare, Calculus and Physics all carry some aura around them, as do poetry and quantum physics. I’ve enjoyed (or at least tolerated) all of those. No nastiness involved.
---
### Author:  [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/12 "2000-12-05T10:22:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Zoggie \*
> \*\*It’s fucking useless, I swear. Yes, I’m going to have to pay bills and taxes when I’m older, and knowing how to add numbers is going to be good…but what the HELL do Quadratic Formulas, Domain and Range, and all that other stuff have to do with real life?! I swear they are out to get me with this shit.
> \*\*
It’s about not burning yer bridges, **Zog**. At this point you can’t really know **what** you’ll end up doing.
If you end up working in any kind of financial field (and believe me - many people who didn’t expect to end up working in a financial field), you’ll use all this stuff. For example you give as an example the quadratic formula. Well, that comes up with monotonous regularity in my job. You’d be surprised at the amount of stuff that you think is “useless” and “has no place in real life” that is vitally important in day-to-day work. Remember that interest on your money is compounded, not added. This means that you can’t do much with it unless you know how to deal with powers. This means geometric progressions, binomial formulae and, yes, quadratics.
And besides all that, maths in its true form is an art. Why do we do art? What purpose does it have? To elevate us beyond mere automatons that do what we have to do to survive, that’s why. Maths is beautiful in and of itself. **That’s** why I studied it. It’s not always easy, but it can be a joy in the end.
When I was a kid I thought that artsy stuff was fun, but it was science and real world stuff that was really important.
Now I’m an adult I know that science is necessary but that its art that is really important.
pan
---
### Author:  [@nadin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nadin)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/13 "2000-12-05T13:11:26Z")
I couldn’t do the maths because my beloved teacher is a maggoty piece of rotting shit who should never be allowed to teach. Fuck her to hell, she made me cry for the first time in two years. BITCH. Instead of using the lesson to teach and explain mathematical concepts, she whines about how much work she has to do, how awful we are and that we should have learnt this area three years ago. This attitude makes us too scared to ask questions so our grades get worse and worse. Any formal complaint about her teaching has been ignored and we have to suffer because of it. This our final year and our grades fucking matter. I might not get in to my first choice university as a consequence of her fucking teaching and this is at a fucking fee paying school.
It’s not because I’m dumb, I usually pick maths up quite easily and enjoy it, but this past year beofre every maths lessons I feel like I’m going to vomit because I hate it that much. I need to learn this stuff, because I’ve applied to do a degree in Economics and Politics where I’ll need to be able to do statistical modelling.
Fuck you to hell, you evil cow, you don’t know how lives you’ve wrecked.
Feeling much better now. My brother’s coming home this weekend and he does Maths at Oxford so he can help me with my exam revision.
---
### Author:  [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/14 "2000-12-05T14:33:14Z")
Well, I made a discovery in the last year, which was that I really do like math. I think it’s the teacher. I finally got one that was able to make math look easy and logical. Up until then, math was my weak course. I actually started to look forward to math, which is something I never thought would happen.
It’s too bad that I only had one day to study for my final though. Now that was a little too much pressure. There’s no feeling like looking at your final and thinking “Did we DO this??”.
---
### Author:  [@Mauve\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauve_Dog)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/15 "2000-12-05T23:05:57Z")
There are two things which I learned as a result of math, and which are ultimately far more important than the equations and concepts: Logic and Problem Solving. Even though I may not need to know how to integrate exponential functions, or factor cubic equations, the problem solving skills that are required to do so have stayed with me. And there is no better way to learn logical thought.
Whether you ever use the actual math or not is really irrelevant, if you look at the big picture.
---
### Author:  [@LifeWillFall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeWillFall)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/16 "2000-12-06T04:25:04Z")
Well personnaly(sp?) I’m a math major as you can probably tell from my grammar, anyway I like math it’s pretty easy and even the hard stuff is kinda fun to figure out. Now don’t get my wrong I use the word fun loosely. I think the problem that people have with math is the way it’s taught. most teachers and school teach busywork, plug a into formula b. But I like math cause it always makes sense, everything is based on rules which aren’t broken, English on the other hand…
---
### Author:  [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2000, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/17 "2000-12-06T14:25:41Z")
_Yes_ **Mauve Dog** - you’re absolutely right. If there is one thing that maths teaches it’s how to think a seemingly intractible problem through from start to finish. It teaches you a method of thinking that is invaluable if you ever want to try doing something where the solution isn’t immediately obvious from the start.
Logical and rigorous thought. I may forget the subtleties of my maths degree, but I’ll never lose the way of thinking that it instilled.
OTOH these arguments really only apply to those studying maths properly. School level maths is more about teaching you how to use a method to achieve a task. This in itself is a valuable goal and it is a start on the path to the ultimate aim of logical thought. Which is good and should be encouraged. But it doesn’t in itself provide the student with the problem-deconstruction tools we’re talking about.
pan
---
### Author:  [@WiredGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WiredGuy)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2000, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-the-bane-of-my-existence/44045/18 "2000-12-06T17:43:29Z")
Math is beautiful, math teachers can suck. For those strugling with math or physics may I suggest a series of books by Barrons called “Algebra The easy way”, “Calculus the easy way”, “Trig the easy way”, “Statistics the easy way”, ect. These books clearly explain the concepts and definitly help you understand the material.