yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

How to see math like art, so you can appreciate it fully | Talithia Williams


2m read
·Nov 3, 2024

  • The number one complaint I hear as a mathematician is, "What am I gonna use this for?" And quite honestly, maybe you're not using calculus every day of your life, but one thing that math teaches us is how to think critically. It teaches us how to be resilient and also improves our decision-making. Thinking through mathematics in that way, it really helps us transfer those skills then to our everyday life.

When someone tells me that they hate math, I really try to get them to just appreciate mathematics as a discipline. Much like you might take an art appreciation course which exposes you to all the beauty of art and different types and works of art. What would a math appreciation course look like?

What might we show people in a class that says, "We're not doing any calculations. We just want you to see the beauty of mathematics and where it shows up." That's a class that people get excited about because they're like, "Great, if I'm not being tested, if it's really just about me appreciating the beauty of it, I'm here for it. Tell me all about it."

I think we miss opportunities to connect people to the beauty of mathematics because we want them to understand the structure and the order, and we want to move them through math courses that aren't always tied to the beauty that mathematicians get to see as they stay in the field.

And so I'd love to think about ways for people to see that earlier so that then they can become more excited about the field. Whether or not they go into it, they can appreciate it. Just like whether or not they become an artist, they can still have beautiful pieces of artwork in their home.

More Articles

View All
Feudal system during the Middle Ages | World History | Khan Academy
Talk about in other videos. The Middle Ages refers to that roughly 1,000 year period of time in Europe, from the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 until we get to about a thousand years later, with the emergence of the Renaissance and the Age of Expl…
Reading within and across genres | Reading | Khan Academy
Hello readers! Let’s talk about the idea of genre in fiction. Genres are types of stories that share similar themes, styles, or subject matter. So, science fiction is a genre, fairy tales are a genre, mysteries are a genre. Each one of these types of stor…
The Bullet Block Experiment
Alright, here is the setup: I have a rifle mounted vertically and we’re going to shoot a bullet into this block, right into the middle of it. So obviously the block is going to go flying into the air. But we’re going to do this again and instead of firin…
Designing Characters with Deep Learning: Spellbrush (W18) - YC Gaming Tech Talks 2020
My name is Corey; I’m the CEO at Spell Rush, and I’m here to talk to you today about designing characters with deep learning. So, um, we’re Spell Rush. We’re a YC company as well; we’re building deep learning tools for art and artists. What exactly does …
EXCLUSIVE: How "Glowing" Sharks See Each Other | National Geographic
This amazing thing happened a few years ago. We accidentally found a fluorescent fish, and then that led us to over 200 fluorescent fish, including two species of sharks. I wanted to film these sharks in their natural world with the shark eye camera and s…
Don’t Rely on Credibility Stamps
There are a lot of institutions in our society today that are relying upon credibility stamps. They used to be how you gain credibility in society. So, if you were a journalist writing for the New York Times or Washington Post, then you had the masthead o…