(I had sneaked in a post hosted on a friend's blog in-between. You can check it out here - The magic of retirement)
The problem with mathematics is that mathematics is all about problems. (I'm sorry, I could not resist it.) At least that is the way it seems to almost everyone through school. "Solve this problem", "Solve that problem"...all through school and you scream, "Why me? I did not create the problem so why should I be responsible for solving it? Let the chap who created the problem solve it."
Why am I singling out mathematics? Because it is the only subject where it is ALL about solving problems. At school, at least. True, other subjects like Physics also had problems...and how I hated them...but there were more...you know...questions to be answered than problems to be solved.
The difference, you ask me? See, these problems...they had ONE right solution (Or, perhaps two or so, like Square root of four could be +2 or -2). You had to KNOW in order to solve and you KNEW when you had got it wrong. Not like those answers where you can feel that you got somewhat close to the right thing OR could claim to have done so. (Especially me. With my handwriting, the teacher could only make out one word in six or so and if that word seemed germane to the question, I got the benefit of the doubt for having answered it right.) With these problems, though...I mean, you could get asked the square root of 4 and if you answered 3, you could not claim to have been more nearly right than the chap who answered 8 and seek to be graded accordingly.
See, the point is that questions allow you leeway to claim some room for opinions about what is the right answer. Some subjects more than others, like most of the Humanities. Yes, you could not define Capitalism as the theory that lead to a welfare state but such absolutes are fewer and farther between in the Humanities. Problems, especially mathematical problems, have this pesky issue of having ONE right answer that will brook no argument.
Therein lies the problem...err...the problem with mathematics that I was intending to talk about. Nobody likes a subject matter where he can be proved conclusively wrong. I mean, come on, you CAN discuss the merits and demerits of democracy and a benevolent dictatorship through a whole evening of drunken debauchery but can you do the same about the right answer to X and Y in a pair of simultaneous equations? Some idiot will solve it in a jiffy and PROVE it is right; OR prove your own ingenious solution is wrong by plugging it in to the equations and showing that the equations do not...err...equate. HOW is mathematics going to get popular if it has to be kept away from popular conversation?
Not to mention that the bleeding thing just does not allow you to hold opinions. I mean, you can hold opinions of your choice only when the opinions can, theoretically be true. IF the falsity can be clearly established, what price opinions? What is the point in a subject matter on which you cannot hold any opinions? Holding opinions, without the need to either ascertain or analyze facts, is the lifeblood of civilization. A subject where your freedom of expression is ruthlessly curtailed by someone pushing uncomfortable and incontrovertible facts in your face...it is a wonder that we have not banished it yet. Perhaps, just as governments face a problem in repealing the law of gravitation, mathematics has become a necessary evil.
Is it a wonder then that mathematics is the least popular of all subjects? You cannot readily speak of anything related to it without the fear of being proven wrong, unlike, say, economic systems or social ideas where you can readily discuss even based on pristine ignorance. You cannot hold and discuss various opinions, form cliques based on those who share your opinion vs others, troll those who oppose your ideas...I mean, it is just no FUN!
Though there is light at the end of the tunnel; a hope that mathematics, too, can aspire to become popular. As I recently discovered on a Facebook thread where this problem was posed for people to solve : 5+10x20. You had those who said it was 205, based on BODMAS - first multiplication and then addition. And you had those who said it was 300, because ORDER was everything and so you were supposed to keep solving it from left to right. So, for the first lot 5+10x20 = 10x20+5 = 205; for the second lot 10x20+5 would be 205 but 5+10x20 would be 300.
Aha! At last! Difference of opinion in Mathematics and THAT thread had hundreds of comments passionately arguing both sides with each side trolling the other!
I look forward to the day when, like Creationism vs Darwinism, we will have two or more versions of mathematics and this much neglected subject takes center stage on social media!
