Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 3

can people who aren't geniuses do complex math problems or is that something ordained at birth? Like the problems in a Beautiful Mind...I don't even know what that type of math is called. Can anyone here complete similar problems?

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 997

"Genius" is a difficult term to define.

I don't know if I am a genius, but I do know some advanced maths.

I think that maths in general requires a certain flexibility of thinking. Many people, I think, have a problem with the level of abstraction involved in pure mathematics. They like to be able to think about maths problems in "real" terms. When they see even a simple problem like 2+6, they immediately think of two things and six things. Mathematicians don't do that so much - for them, maths is partly a symbol manipulation game. On the other hand, maths also requires an eye for symmetry and elegance.

Maths is not taught very well in many schools. Most people therefore only get as far as basic arithmetic and algebra before they give up. They don't see much real mathematics, so they have a false idea about what maths is.

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: In galaxy far, far away at z=6
Posts: 500

I would not call myself a genius either and used to know some reasonably advanced Maths. And I'm talking calculus either. But, I do stuggle with what I call advanced maths; set, number and games theory. That stuff defeats me every time I try to grok it.

As James says most people give up at Algebra for some reason and really don't know what Maths really is. For most the equations,

d(x^2)
--------
dx

and

e^-iπ-1 = 0

Are equally incomprehensible and meaningless. The second, Eulers relation, is to me a very beautiful and powerful statement. Whereas the first is more akin to basic mechanics, just crank the handle to solve.

But I would say that you do have to be a genius to formulate new mathematics. Not everyone can be Reimann, Gödel or Hilbert. That takes something extra. It is that extra that defines the genius.

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