this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
267 points (91.8% liked)
math
829 readers
7 users here now
General community for all things mathematics on @lemmy.world
Submit link and text posts about anything at all related to mathematics.
Questions about mathematical topics are allowed, but NO HOMEWORK HELP. Communities for general math and homework help should be firmly delineated just as they were on reddit.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Math is a language, code is instruction. The language of math is geared toward efficiency and viability for abstractions a layer higher (ad infinitum). Once you are familiar with the language, the symbols take a life of their own, and their manipulation becomes almost mechnical, which reduces the cognitive cost for your mind to operate at the current level of abstraction, so you can focus your mental power on the next level of abstraction, and try to figure out something novel. You can of course unpack the compact language of math into the more plain -- in a sense more "flat" -- form of code instructions; the purpose is different: its more about implementing ideas than creating the ideas in the first place.