History Main / EverybodyHatesMathematics

To those who practice it, higher math is an art form like any other. The average person can criticize it as incomprehensible, but so are many beautiful and acclaimed works of art and science. Mathematicians imagine a situation, often very simple (a triangle inside a circle, or a sequence of numbers) and then through imaginative and often esoteric application of very basic axioms, find out incredible things; the axioms are the mathematician's paintbox, and the situation in question is their canvas. Constructing a proof is analogous to writing a poem or painting a picture; math is actually more about imagination, intuition and game-like problem solving than about simply following learned formulae and methods. Unfortunately, math education doesn't work like this; children are taught[[note]]At least in the US[[/note]] in bland black-and-white that a + b = c or that sin(2a) = 2sin(a)cos(a) but will never, or rarely, be told WHY, or asked to prove it; merely to commit these methods to memory, regurgitating them onto a set of dry, uninspired questions and exercises as required, all by hand, even though calculators and computers are cheap and plentiful. As a final screw-you, it is most likely the reason why their grades drop as it often hammers the dreaded "F" or "Fail" on them. And that is not considering the fact that higher education usually requires you to pass ''every'' subject you take to graduate, meaning that maths (usually in the form of algebra) is often the reason why many college and university students fail their overall studies. Since most of the required classes tend to be computation-heavy, most people come away from mathematics thinking that's what the subjects entail, while higher-level math is more abstract. For mathematicians, this is akin to thinking that astronomy is all about telescopes.

* In the [[Literature/JacquesMcKweon Jacques McKweon]] series by Creator/BenCroshaw, people have turned math terms into ersatz swearwords. This is because space travel has been permanently changed by the existence of teleportation technology and the out of work pilots have started swearing by math as a form of petty revenge.

* In ''Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood'', people have turned math terms into ersatz swearwords.

* [[WebAnimation/LeoAndSatan OneyNG's Algebra Aversion]] has Satan trying to help Leo do his homework... but the end result has him [[BerserkButton freaking out]] and damning Algebra.
* [[Creator/TeamStarkid Calculus was tough.]]
* [[Website/TheBestPageInTheUniverse Maddox]] [[http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=math wrote an entire page]] [[TakeThat spitting in the face of this mentality]], explaining that mathematics is the reason that major scientific developments such as oil platforms, medicine, and space travel exist. This is explained by the fact that he has a degree in mathematics.
--> "[[DoubleStandard Why is math the only discipline that has to put up with this bullshit?]] People gladly learn art, music, literature and geography. You'll even nod like a happy idiot when you learn what a haiku is, and you never complain or whine about how you'll never use this in your "life." When is the last time you wrote a haiku, asshole?"
* WebVideo/BernadetteBanner complains that pattern drafting involves "an unreasonable amount of math."
* If you go on Website/{{Tumblr}} and browse the "mathematics" and "math" tags, chances are a good chunk of the posts will consist of users complaining about the latest math homework rather than mathematics itself.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'', when Timmy is asked to write the answer to 2+2 on the board, [[EpicFail he calculates it as equaling 5]]. Just as Mr. Crocker is about to mock him for it, Creator/StephenHawking shows up (due to Remy Buxaplenty hiring him to prove Timmy write to earn his trust) and writes a proof explaining that 2+2 can equal 5. In TheStinger, Mr. Crocker has found out that 2+2 actually equals 6, but he gets incinerated into bits by Stephen Hawking's jetpack wheelchair.

To those who practice it, higher math is an art form like any other. The average person can criticize it as incomprehensible, but so are many beautiful and acclaimed works of art and science. Mathematicians imagine a situation, often very simple (a triangle inside a circle, or a sequence of numbers) and then through imaginative and often esoteric application of very basic axioms, find out incredible things; the axioms are the mathematician's paintbox, and the situation in question is their canvas. Constructing a proof is analogous to writing a poem or painting a picture; math is actually more about imagination, intuition and game-like problem solving than about simply following learned formulae and methods. Unfortunately, math education doesn't work like this; children are taught[[note]]At least in the US[[/note]] in bland black-and-white that a + b = c or that sin(2a) = 2sin(a)cos(a) but will never, or rarely, be told WHY, or asked to prove it; merely to commit these methods to memory, regurgitating them onto a set of dry, uninspired questions and exercises as required. As a final screw-you, it is most likely the reason why their grades drop as it often hammers the dreaded "F" or "Fail" on them. And that is not considering the fact that higher education usually requires you to pass ''every'' subject you take to graduate, meaning that maths (usually in the form of algebra) is often the reason why many college and university students fail their overall studies. Since most of the required classes tend to be computation-heavy, most people come away from mathematics thinking that's what the subjects entail, while higher-level math is more abstract. For mathematicians, this is akin to thinking that astronomy is all about telescopes.

To those who practice it, higher math is an art form like any other. The average person can criticize it as incomprehensible, but so are many beautiful and acclaimed works of art and science. Mathematicians imagine a situation, often very simple (a triangle inside a circle, or a sequence of numbers) and then through imaginative and often esoteric application of very basic axioms, find out incredible things; the axioms are the mathematician's paintbox, and the situation in question is their canvas. Constructing a proof is analogous to writing a poem or painting a picture; math is actually more about imagination, intuition and game-like problem solving than about simply following learned formulae and methods. Unfortunately, math education doesn't work like this; children are taught[[note]]At least in the US[[/note]] in bland black-and-white that a + b = c or that sin(2a) = 2sin(a)cos(a) but will never, or rarely, be told WHY, or asked to prove it; merely to commit these methods to memory, regurgitating them onto a set of dry, uninspired questions and exercises as required. As a final screw-you, it is most likely the reason why their grades drop as it often hammers the dreaded "F" or "Fail" on them. And that is not considering the fact that higher education usually requires you to pass ''every'' subject you take to graduate, meaning that maths (usually in the form of algebra) is often the reason why many college and university students fail their overall studies.

In short, people generally actually have no problem with maths, as long their future isn't staked on reciting it and what they are learning has application outside the books.