Man nearly falls off roof after ladder buckles - GIF

[mklotz]

It has always fascinated me how those early thinkers figured out all of these vitally important details. The mathematical concepts, relationships of the stars and the planets, etc.

They did all of this with their own minds, no computers to help them.

Well, for one thing, most of them studied mathematics. Today, most folks never get beyond arithmetic and aren't even proficient at that. Most notably, they studiously avoid any post-schooling opportunity to learn any math.

Without algebra one can't express a mathematical concept in a form that allows it to be manipulated and study the effects of such manipulation. Geometry is essential to characterizing the real world so you can explore it and understand it.

[hemmjo]

Well, for one thing, most of them studied mathematics. Today, most folks never get beyond arithmetic and aren't even proficient at that. Most notably, they studiously avoid any post-schooling opportunity to learn any math.

Without algebra one can't express a mathematical concept in a form that allows it to be manipulated and study the effects of such manipulation. Geometry is essential to characterizing the real world so you can explore it and understand it.

Oh I totally agree. But I am taking about the people who FIRST discovered and began to actually use it. Before anyone can study it, someone had to realize that it existed.

https://historycooperative.org/who-i...d-math/existed.

As a retired teacher, I do agree that many school and teachers schools are failing badly.

[mklotz]

Oh I totally agree. But I am taking about the people who FIRST discovered and began to actually use it. Before anyone can study it, someone had to realize that it existed.

As a retired teacher, I do agree that many school and teachers schools are failing badly.

In many cases, math was the tool used to predict the existence.

You don't realize the earth's orbit is elliptical until you make a lot of observations and then attempt to fit a curve to them, a mathematical operation. In modern times our theories of atomic structure have predicted the existence of unknown elementary particles. Experiments based on their predicted features have then demonstrated their existence. Einstein utilized his general relativity to predict the existence of black holes long before they were discovered.

The schools are so busy with social claptrap that they never get around to teaching the stuff that will form the platform for lifetime learning. Nor do they instill the understanding that learning doesn't stop at graduation.