Assignment 5: Math attitudes
(Due Sunday September 23rd 2018)
Quite often when I meet someone new and tell them I am a mathematician, their first response is, "Oh, I hated math in school. I was not very good at it." I used to find this very frustrating since I never heard anyone say to me, "Oh, I hated reading in school. I cannot read very well." I have learned to enthusiastically tell people that there is mathematics everywhere -- from the touchscreens of their cellphones (linear algebra in 4-dimensions!), to their credit card getting encrypted when you order on-line (number theory!) to getting audited by the IRS (statistics!).
Fortunately the public's perception about mathematics is changing for the better. I was surprised to read an opinion piece today at CNN entitled, "Who really paid to protect us from Florence". See https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/15/opinions/who-really-paid-to-protect-us-from-florence-sobel-solomon/index.html
The answer was -- surprise! -- mathematicians, computer scientists and other scientists who have developed strategies to make hurricane prediction incredibly accurate. The article said in 1964 there was $8 billion federal support for university-based research, whereas today it is over $30 billion.
I was very happy about these numbers (amounting to about $2 per person per week) until I looked up what $8 billion in 1964 dollars is worth today in 2018 dollars. The answer: over $63 billion. So we are supporting basic research at half of the level as the 1960's.
The question I leave you this week to ponder is: How can we as individuals talk to strangers, friends and family about math? Do these individual conversations affect national investment in math? How can we influence our political leaders to value investing in math and science?
Quite often when I meet someone new and tell them I am a mathematician, their first response is, "Oh, I hated math in school. I was not very good at it." I used to find this very frustrating since I never heard anyone say to me, "Oh, I hated reading in school. I cannot read very well." I have learned to enthusiastically tell people that there is mathematics everywhere -- from the touchscreens of their cellphones (linear algebra in 4-dimensions!), to their credit card getting encrypted when you order on-line (number theory!) to getting audited by the IRS (statistics!).
Fortunately the public's perception about mathematics is changing for the better. I was surprised to read an opinion piece today at CNN entitled, "Who really paid to protect us from Florence". See https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/15/opinions/who-really-paid-to-protect-us-from-florence-sobel-solomon/index.html
The answer was -- surprise! -- mathematicians, computer scientists and other scientists who have developed strategies to make hurricane prediction incredibly accurate. The article said in 1964 there was $8 billion federal support for university-based research, whereas today it is over $30 billion.
I was very happy about these numbers (amounting to about $2 per person per week) until I looked up what $8 billion in 1964 dollars is worth today in 2018 dollars. The answer: over $63 billion. So we are supporting basic research at half of the level as the 1960's.
The question I leave you this week to ponder is: How can we as individuals talk to strangers, friends and family about math? Do these individual conversations affect national investment in math? How can we influence our political leaders to value investing in math and science?
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