I recently came across a book by Lakoff & Nunez called "Where mathematics comes from : how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being". After reading the introduction, I jumped to the four appendices where the equation e^(pi)i = -1 is explained. I never thought I'd be able to understand that equation, but reading their explanation made it tantalizingly approachable. It may well be that much of why people were turned off to math in school can be explained by metaphoric deficiencies in the teaching of it. And they show how to rectify the situation with their (metaphor-based) take on how that particular equation might be better explained. Anyway, it'll probably take a few re-readings before I really get it, but at least now, there's a chance... John Miller Technology Services School of Education University of Michigan On Sunday, January 26, 2003, at 12:00 PM, ahimsa <ahimsa@onetel.net.uk> wrote:
That is probably the source of my own aversion to math: I hate to blame my teachers and no doubt I was also probably a lazy sod :) - but whatever it was, I now do have to work really hard to overcome that resistance, despite my appreciation for the sheer beauty of geometry and algebra at the 'safer' and more 'abstract' level of a philosophical appreciation.