Thread: Math levels??

Say... can anyone tell me if there are some sort of math levels or ranks or something??
and what is math good for in general(exept calculating stuff)?

thanks in advance,
tony

What do you mean by levels or ranks?

Isn't "calculating stuff" pretty useful? In general, math is about seeing patterns and making models to describe those patterns. As such, math is naturally a powerful framework in which to describe scientific phenomena and to conduct human affairs.

hm... but why do we need to SOLVE mathematical problems??
cant someone like invent a calculator that u like can upload there different formulas and all you have to do is just put numbers instead of xyz, press enter and get the answer??

I'm not sure I understand your first question. I mean, why do we need to solve any problems? Isn't it self-evident? Isn't a problem something that, by definition, needs to be solved?

How can you build a calculator that does fancy math if you don't know how to do that math in the first place? Calculators are good at solving problems faster than we can, not at doing math that we don't know how to do.

yah, but people who already solved that problem can make this kind of item so they wont have to go thru all the proccess of solving for the next time that they`ll encounter such problem...

I almost want to say that that's the division between math and computer science. Math is attempting to solve the problems that haven't been solved yet (and those that can't be solved by computers), and computer science is finding efficient ways to solve known problems automatically. That's not a very good generalization of things, but it might give you a better idea of where to start when asking such questions.

Originally Posted by MagiMaster

That's not a very good generalization of things

Yes, it is. You just summed up the goals of mathematics and computer science in a beautiful nutshell. :-D

lol, lets leave calculators aside then...

I see in other posts and and in life in general that you can calculate almost anything with mathematics, including thoughts, meaning of things and... *gulp*... god...
its obvious that you`ll eventually find pattern to almost anything if you start looking for it(like the 23 phenomena of instence) but aint it all just bunch of randomness in the fabric of the universe??

Originally Posted by JaneBennet

Originally Posted by MagiMaster

That's not a very good generalization of things

Yes, it is. You just summed up the goals of mathematics and computer science in a beautiful nutshell. :-D

Thanks. I think there's more to both fields than that, but I guess that covers most things.

Originally Posted by Hanuka

lol, lets leave calculators aside then...

I see in other posts and and in life in general that you can calculate almost anything with mathematics, including thoughts, meaning of things and... *gulp*... god...
its obvious that you`ll eventually find pattern to almost anything if you start looking for it(like the 23 phenomena of instence) but aint it all just bunch of randomness in the fabric of the universe??

I suppose the ultimate goal of all science is to understand how everything works, so if you see a pattern in something and you can prove (careful here, science can't prove anything 100%, only nearly 100%) that that pattern is real then in some real way, you better understand how that thing works. If things are truly random, then hopefully that's the pattern you'll find (see quantum mechanics).

BTW, so far, the patterns behind thoughts have eluded scientists. They're still looking though.