As I discuss in my blog I enjoy numbers, thus I selected this topic thinking it would be something fairly and interesting easy to blog about. However when I was assigned to interview someone in the field of my topic, I became slightly stressed while my mind raced. I tossed around possibilities of whom I could interview while still sitting in the classroom. Visiting my high school math teachers here in town or wandering the halls of the math factuality here at Northwest were both ideas that crossed my mind but as soon as class let out though I knew whom I was going to call.
Ron Platt, my grandfather graduated with a PhD in mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1971. Today at the age of 68 he is still extremely sharp when it comes to mental math and configuring a variety of mathematical equations with help of a calculator. Grandpa enjoys giving all four of his grandkids educational presents; a few months ago I received a DVD, which he hoped I would use to further develop my math skills.
I began our informal interview by asking my grandfather “How do you talk to people in that field?” He told me he did not have the best answer but he would try to give me an insight into the mathematical field. “When collogues and I would talk to on another we would use lots of Greek symbols and arithmagrams when discussing certain processes.” I asked him to throw out a few more terms off the top of his head that I could include in my paper. Acute, obtuse, and right triangle, parabola, perpendicular, parallel, axis of symmetry, proofs, mean, median, mode, range, and average were just a few of the mathematical vocabulary words he was more than pleased to tell me about.
Next I asked, “Was there any lingo you guys would use that would frequently use that would not be understood by the common public?” “Sure there were some slang terms but when we were outside the work place those words did not creep into our vocabulary very often. Mostly when we discussed our work with each other we would make sure to explain our selves in ways that were careful, logical, and precise. When we described and instructional process to a fellow collogue we always tried our best to make sure one step led smoothly into the next.”
“Do you talk to others not in the field differently or in other words do you dumb it down for them?” was the final question I asked my grandfather. He answered with “Of course, that is definitely a special skill one must posses.” Grandpa went on to make clear to me that it was sometimes complicated to explain a mathematical process to someone who is less sophisticated the field. He always felt it was an accomplishment to take a complicated process and put it in plain words so someone in the general public would fully grasp the concept.
Unfortunately there are some assumptions that the general public make about mathematicians. One common stereotype that is given is that all people in the math field are extremely elegant and do not know how to engage in a daily, or regular conversation. Sometimes it can be hard to snap out of “work mode” and use vocabulary that us common folk utilize from day to day. My grandfather assured me though that contrary to popular belief being a mathematician does not define every aspect of your social life.
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