Ouch, already on the first item, it just, does not work for me.
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If somebody sent me back to the 18th century in a time machine, I could probably still be a scientist. If it was the nineteenth century, I'd be in trouble - that's when mathematical physics really hit its stride.
I would be even worse, guaranteed. Problem isn't that i'm bad at math as such, i'm totally excellent at it, and very fast, up to a point.
Because i'm useless at keeping track of rules and stuff about how you're supposed to calculate, every time i look at math, i start with figuring out the optimal way to solve it, preferably by logic. Which works great quite a long way. Until reaching the point where i can no longer logically disassemble the numbers.
This is also why i suck at modern physics math. I'm bloody marvellous at the theory, but showing or equating the theory as math just gives me a disconnect error far too often. Then of course there's also the fact that too often nowadays, "physicists" just play around with math "proving" everything and the kitchen sink without bothering to even consider if their math has any connection to reality any longer. As i've noted half as a joke far too many times, if the math doesn't work out, just add more dimensions!
It's also interesting how completely differently people handle math. To me, numbers are WORDS, they have a meaning but that's something i dont bother with until calculations are finished, if at all, to me math is 100% theory.
My brother is complete opposite, numbers to him are always solid, real values and to calculate he has to have some representation to make it work well, but with that, he's actually quite good at it, and he doesn't have my annoying limitation, indeed, he has a relatively low "top speed", but he calculates hypercomplex university level math at the same speed as gradeschool math.
While my eldest brother is strictly "by the schoolbook" type, doesn't have anything like my theory and logic based math, nor my other brother's visualised/practical math.
I did not learn to use a computer to study such matters. Back when I was young, I knew a few math tricks. In high school, I brought a slide rule to a test, and there was much squealing and many complaints. "If you learn to do it," the teacher said, "you can use them too." Next thing I knew, he had me teaching a class on using a slide rule.
My father was an absolute wiz with a slide rule. Favorite trick of his was challenging new people who could calculate faster, letting his opponent use a calculator. He never lost. Most of the time, people had not even managed to enter half the numbers on the calculator before he was finished.
After that, it was computers, or calculators if a computer wasn't handy. They seldom were, back then. But they had us learning dimensional analysis (are you sure you have the units right?) and checking our powers of ten. Proofreading the calculations, that was, not making them.
Because of my special style of doing math, decimals... Whoops, too many decimals again? So sorry about that i just keep forgetting...
It was funny though once on an exam in school, i was the only one in the class who had not used the proper formula for a nasty difficult problem, and i was the only one who got the correct answer. With a halfdozen too many decimals to get full points. And absolutely no "show your work" that the teacher could understand, just my personal notation which even after nearly 3 years with me, he still had not figured out. At all. Which made the result even more funny, from any perspective not his at least.