Myths about Math

People are often surprised when they find out I'm a math major, because I don't strike them as "the type."  I used to take this as a compliment, implying that I don't fit the stereotype (I've never played dungeons and dragons, I'm terrible at chess, and I shower).  But recently, it's started to bother me that there so many stereotypes about mathematics and mathematicians that go unquestioned.  I would like to take a moment to clear up some myths that have passed as fact for far too long.

Myth #1
Mathematics isn't all that interesting, and it is only useful if you're going to be an engineer or a statistician.

--->  If you open your eyes and look around you*, mathematics is fascinating, because it is everywhere.  From the design of the chair you're sitting in, to the proportion of the margins on the pages in the books you read, to the arrangement of which teams play which (and when) in every sports tournament ever conducted... there is no escaping it.  In addition to what is man-made, i.e.: traffic lights, employee schedules, works of art, and the design of auditoriums, there is also mathematics that can be found in nature.  Entire books have been written on the math we can trace out appearing in flowers, birds' wings, and spider webs. Yes, you will need some knowledge of calculations to do your taxes, but math encompasses much more than calculations.  You will also need mathematics to throw a good party, which brings me to my next myth:

Myth #2
Mathematics = calculations.

--->  All you have to do is look up "Mathematics" in any dictionary or even Wikipedia to have this assumption contradicted. Wikipedia states that "Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change."  I would amend this and add that Mathematics is also the study of proportion, relationships, patterns, and logic.
1+3=4 is no more the substance of Mathematics than red + yellow = orange is the substance of art.

Myth #3
Mathematics isn't as complex or organic as fields in the liberal arts, like Philosophy or Anthropology, because math problems have just a single answer in the back of the book that is either right or wrong.

--->  How useful would it be to make math books for academic use that did not have answers that were either correct or incorrect?  As students are beginning to learn methods for solving problems, they need to have a way of checking whether they are using the methods correctly.  In real life problems that mathematicians face, there is no answer in the back of the book.  It becomes less about "finding the answer" and more about finding a way that works.  In other words, mathematics at the early academic level does indeed have a binary result: you either have it right or wrong.  Beyond this stage in learning, the mathematical process takes much more complex forms.  Often, it is less about finding the solution than it is about creating a path towards an ideal solution that is already known.  In addition to the organic and creative process that mathematics is, it's questionable whether you can consider math entirely separate from studies of the humanities in the first place.


Myth #4
Mathematics is its own separate field.

--->  Someday, I will dedicate an entire post to disproving this.  This fall, I am taking a class that is specifically focused on how the study of Mathematical Sciences has overlapped and intertwined with the rest of humanity's story.  The logic implicit in psychology, the statistical foundations of sociology, and the proportions inherent in art attest that mathematics is hardly separable from other fields of study.
I will say that this myth has continued due partly to the fault of mathematicians themselves, or at least the majority of mathematicians in academics.  If I could pick one department at Ball State that is the least likely to network with other departments to create projects or exchange resources in an effort to broaden their students' abilities to work with others of different skill sets and view points, it would probably be the department of Mathematics.  This is disappointing to me especially because I feel that mathematics is a field that is and always has been collaborative at its best.

Myth #5
Mathematicians have horrible spelling, punctuation, and grammar in general.

--->  This one is true.  I like to think that I'm an exception to this rule, but if I am, I am the ONLY one.  The only. one.

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Keep an eye out for more myth-busting, because I might add to this list.  For now, I'm going back to my math software homework; this rectangle isn't going to maximize itself.

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*Yes, that was a Look Around You reference.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5054356894457127152