Comment by doublerabbit

12 hours ago

I haven't been able to grasp maths as a kid nor as an adult.

I've tried night classes, tutors, activities. Nothing sticks.

Even the standard 12x tables I struggle at. I want to understand it but my brain just can't understand the non-practicality side of things.

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doublerabbit

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sethammons  11 hours ago

My best friend was like that. Couldn't see the practicality until he got bit by a geology and water science bug. He went from calling me to get help figuring out percentages to doing chemistry equations in his head because he "got" the applicability.

My brother's mom tutors math. One of her insights with a former student was that they were in need of forming some number sense. She started by walking them both out to the street: "how many tires are there on this street of parked cars?" The student, already flummoxed, started panic guessing. So she started with counting.

For times tables, have you developed any intuition around it? For me, times tables are rectangles composed of unit squares and that helps with my intuition. Modern Common Core standards in the US focuses a lot on exposing different mental models to students. And after seeing the same 4x6 enough times your brain will automatically associate that with its solution. Instead of calculating, it is memorized.

My brain doesn't require car tires, geology, or other practical needs: it likes puzzles. I struggle with medical stuff and I can feel my brain switching to meh-mode and hardly anything sticks. I don't know how many times I have been told about the different kinds of sugar and how your body uses that energy and I would still have to look it up.

  • doublerabbit  7 hours ago

    > For times tables, have you developed any intuition around it?

    I've tried different approaches. 4x3 being 3x4

    But somehow I end up miscounting and giving the answer for 4x4 or be off a digit every-time.

    A good example was that I was at a brewery last night.

    They didn't do pint glasses but glasses of: 1/4, 1/2 and 2/3rd's.

    I thought 1/2 was more than 2/3rd's so I ordered a 1/2 rather than thinking I was getting more.

    However I was unable to visual how 2/3 is more than 1/2 when 1/2 is half a pint, or half a glass.

    My visual capabilities are great at others but just couldn't formulate the equation of 2/3 is more than 1/2.

    Very simple stuff, but it just doesn't meld.

    • tzs  4 hours ago

      > However I was unable to visual how 2/3 is more than 1/2 when 1/2 is half a pint, or half a glass.

      Maybe visualize splitting a pint with a friend. If you split the pint into 2 equal parts and each of you gets 1 of those 2 parts you each get the same amount.

      Then visualize splitting it instead into 3 equal parts. You get 1 of those parts and your buddy gets 2. There's no fractions there so it should be easier to visualize that your buddy got twice as much as you did.

      Comparing those two visualizations might make it easier to see that someone who gets 2/3 of a pint gets more than someone who gets 1/2 of a pint.