[DeSoya]

In an article I read recently a UC Berkely professor likened math to poetry or art. He said that math was an extremely creative process. Having just started doing proofs (not geometry proofs but real math proofs) I understand a bit of what he means. It's really pretty hard to figure things out sometimes. A proof can take a great deal of cleverness.
In response to anyone who thinks math is boring I would say that you should read "A Tour of The Calculus" by David Berlinski. It's an interesting book written about one of the most mind bendingly amazing inventions in human history. Most of all it shows that math is anything but boring. Just think of where we would be without fractions. How else could we talk about getting half-way to somewhere?
My fear is that with money being the over-riding principle behind schooling, areas such as theoretical math, poetry and fiction writing, classics and music will begin to die out or become so specialized as to have no meaning to culture what so ever. With so many people turning to computers as a percieved way to get up and out of their current situation we lose many people who might become those aforementioned geniuses. Not that I'm trying to scapegoat computers. I just think that so often something; like a computer, car or cell phone, becomes a percived necessity when it is anything but. These things are tools but are not seen as such. In as much I feel that they stunt the outgrowth of culture instead of expanding it. This lack of science students is indicative of this.

DeSoya

p.s. Thanks Attalus. [img]smile.gif[/img]