Geometry may be hard-wired into brain, study shows

Reuters ^ | Thu Jan 19, 2006 | Anon

[RobbyS]

Relativity is counterintuitive, an intellectual contract on the same order as atomic theory. Kant was right to say that we can only perceive three dimensions. Science as a whole has gone beyond our ability to imagine in the original sense of the word. It has become a code, and only the code-breakers can interpret it.

[RightWingAtheist]

Fascinating article. Thanks for posting it.

[RobbyS]

It could be you were mistaught. Many math teachers really don't understand their subject.

[R. Scott]

What is better displayed here is the seeming fact that not all children come equipped with the same ability to intuit the obvious and that is a phenomenon for social study, not the science of mathematics, per se.

Just as some people have a great sense of direction and others seemingly don’t. For some math comes easy, others have to struggle. I think much of it has to do, not with the wiring of the brain but with upbringing – nurture, not nature.
But my opinion might be a result of having a degree in Sociology.

[Netheron]

But Kant didn't say that we could only perceive three dimensions. Kant said that there WERE only three dimensions. He was directly saying that the existence of four or more dimensions was absolutely impossible. Kant made specific statements about the actual structure of the universe which have been proven false.

Anyhow, there are two refutations to the perceiving three dimensions issue.

1) Many mathematicians, who spend a long time working with four (and higher) dimensional objects, actually do develop the ability to perceive them in the same way that people normally perceive three dimensonal ones.

2) Physics experiments are perception, that's why we do them.

[tertiary01]

I took that into account. Maybe it was due to a difference in textbooks, but I think most explain Geometry in the same linear fashion.

[dangus]

>> I think most explain Geometry in the same linear fashion. <<

Well...

[Onelifetogive]

Geometry may be hard-wired into brain, study shows

Personally, I have always had a thing for nice curves and shapes. It almost seems programmed into me...

[Ichneumon]

["All participants, even those aged 6, performed well above the chance level of 16.6 percent," they found. The average score was nearly 67 percent correct -- identical to the score for U.S. children.]

So, primitive hunter-gatherers who have never been inside a classroom score as high on geometry as American children who are being "educated" at $10,000 per head per year.

To be fair, the comparison was for 6-year-olds. Not many 6-year-olds are getting any kind of "education" beyond how to sit at their desks, color within the lines, and playing well with others. The "$10,000 per head" education comes when they get older.

Now let's compare the abilities of the US students versus the hunter-gathers on, say, trigonometry when they're 18.

[Ken H]

So, primitive hunter-gatherers who have never been inside a classroom score as high on geometry as American children who are being "educated" at $10,000 per head per year.

The $10,000 figure is because someone has to cosine for those under 18.

[RobbyS]

He said that three dimensions(and Euclidean geometry) are a priori but that has to do with us, not the universe except as we are part of it. It was his concession to realism, so I should have said that even the idealists like him made that concession. Any scientists has to be a realist. Some people are capable of great flights of imagination. Wasn't it Michaelangelo was could like a stone and visualize the figure within?

[Junior]

I didn't get that the U.S. students were six; I understood it to include hunter-gatherers from the age of six on.

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOLOL! Thank you oh so very much for the encouragements!

[hispanarepublicana]

I was just horrible at algebra and suffered through it with C's during high school. Meanwhile, I aced geometry and actually tutored some of the A+ algebra students suffered horribly with C's in geometry. I just loved doing proofs.
I wonder what that says about how my mind is wired?

[Pharmboy]

I wonder what that says about how my mind is wired?

Sounds like all the right connections are there...

[phantomworker]

A math ping list sounds good!

[PatrickHenry]

Do it!

[phantomworker]

OK, but maybe I'll need some coaching. Never owned a ping list before.

Does that mean I need to start reading more math articles then? LOL! I guess that would be a good excuse to start. Thanks!

[PatrickHenry]

I can give you a few names to start off with, and a template for a logo. Or you can experience the joy of doing it all by yourself.

[phantomworker]

Sounds good. LOL. I have enough joy in my life, thanks. When I find a good article, I would appreciate your help. Thanks!