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Why Math is Better than Politics…

By mathmom

“The best part about math is that, if you have the right answer and someone disagrees with you, it really is because they’re stupid.”

I found the above in an amusing list of quotes from an honors linear algebra class that was linked from Epsilonica, a blog I recently discovered, via his great post In Praise of Proving that Zero equals One.

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This entry was posted on September 16, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Blogging, Math. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Why Math is Better than Politics…”

  1. mattheath Says:
    September 17, 2008 at 6:07 am | Reply

    Thanks for the link

  2. aps223 Says:
    September 19, 2008 at 5:12 pm | Reply

    Hey,

    I recently started a math tutoring blog and am looking to add some related sites to our blogroll. I was wondering if you would be willing to exchange links with me. If you are interested I will be glad to add you to http://mathtutorlab.com

    Thanks,

    Tony

  3. Lim Ee Hai Says:
    September 22, 2008 at 7:40 am | Reply

    The quote is outright correct. Maths is straight-forward clear if the steps are proper. You do not have to wworry which method to use. Any method suitable, will give the same answer. No argument about it.

  4. Bellagh Says:
    September 30, 2008 at 8:11 pm | Reply

    Oh what a wonderful quote! :-) I wish I had that as a plaque or sign for my desk!

  5. kristina Says:
    October 4, 2008 at 8:15 pm | Reply

    Hi — Found your blog via BabyCenter. I love it. And I’m not even a math person. Great quote, by the way.

  6. mathmom Says:
    October 4, 2008 at 8:29 pm | Reply

    Hi Kristina and welcome! I hope you enjoy the blog, and thanks for leaving a comment. :)

  7. Denise Says:
    October 6, 2008 at 2:07 pm | Reply

    Love this quote!

    Of course, even though it’s a wonderful quote, it isn’t exactly true. If I miss a problem because I’m still learning that topic (combinatorics!) and didn’t quite understand what I was doing, that’s not the same as being stupid.

    Also, some problems require a “flash of insight” that being smart doesn’t necessarily help with — but then one could argue that the smart person says, “I don’t know,” while the stupid one blunders on to a wrong answer.

  8. mathmom Says:
    October 6, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Reply

    Hi Denise. :)

    Of course the quote is an oversimplification. Of course it is often not the case that someone who can’t solve a particular problem is “stupid”. The point, IMO, is the beauty of the fact that there are real “right” and “wrong” answers in math, which is of course not quite so clear with politics, no matter how strongly held a particular belief may be.

  9. Matematika lebih baik dibanding politik « Proof { } Says:
    October 27, 2008 at 1:29 pm | Reply

    [...] Saya nemu quote tersebut, disini [...]

  10. mattheath Says:
    November 24, 2008 at 10:52 am | Reply

    Hi mathmom. I’m tagging people who’ve linked me in the past with this meme. Feel free to ignore it.

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