[kenberg]

Parents: Do you have children trying to choose a path in life? A recent report ranks mathematics as a top career choice.

In explaining their choice they note:

"Mathematicians ranked at the top of a list of 200 professions because they rarely work outdoors and don't have to deal with toxic fumes and noise unlike, say, sewage-plant operators... "


If your child says things such as "I would rather shovel ***** than do algebra" refer him/her to this report.

http://mathdl.maa.or...view&newsId=499

[hrothgar]

kenberg, on Jan 23 2009, 05:28 PM, said:

Parents: Do you have children trying to choose a path in life? A recent report ranks mathematics as a top career choice.

In explaining their choice they note:

"Mathematicians ranked at the top of a list of 200 professions because they rarely work outdoors and don't have to deal with toxic fumes and noise unlike, say, sewage-plant operators... "


If your child says things such as "I would rather shovel ***** than do algebra" refer him/her to this report.

http://mathdl.maa.or...view&newsId=499

That report has generated MUCH amusement here at The MathWorks

[Gerben42]

You can also study astronomy, and then become a mathematician afterwards

The skills you learn are similar, but instead of being labeled as studying something that people find boring, people are more interested in what you studied.

Somehow people can connect more to someone studying cosmology or galaxy dynamics than continuous fractions or algebraic topology...

[blackshoe]

Quote

Courter also earns more than the median income for a mathematician.

She works, and presumably lives, in San Francisco. She'll need it.

[JoAnneM]

If your child wants to pursue an education in the Arts please do not discourage them. There are wonderful careers available.

[barmar]

kenberg, on Jan 23 2009, 09:28 AM, said:

"Mathematicians ranked at the top of a list of 200 professions because they rarely work outdoors and don't have to deal with toxic fumes and noise unlike, say, sewage-plant operators... "

Is that really the typical decision one has to make about their professional life? If you have the aptitude to be a professional mathematician, would you even consider working in sewage? At the risk of seeming elitist, I think that's a job you take because you don't have a real profession. It's not like you can go to college to get a degree in sewage working.

I'm a little curious what they consider a professional mathematician. There are lots of professions that make heavy use of mathematics, such as physicists, financial analysts, or mathematical software developers. How many people can really make it as a pure mathematician?

[gwnn]

Philosophers (12) beating Physicists (13) ? Sounds like an insult to me

[FrancesHinden]

barmar, on Jan 24 2009, 05:00 AM, said:

I'm a little curious what they consider a professional mathematician. There are lots of professions that make heavy use of mathematics, such as physicists, financial analysts, or mathematical software developers. How many people can really make it as a pure mathematician?

Obviously it's all a bit random, because they've counted a software developer as a mathemtician, but have actuaries and statisticians as separate professions.

[kenberg]

Oops! I had not anticipated serious responses!

Maybe mathematicians just have a weird sense of humor but it cracked me up to see mathematics being touted as a career because you don't have to work outdoors and smell awful stuff the way a sewage worker does.

i never take these career advice things at all seriously.

When I was in high school I took they gave us all a test that was supposed to determine what sort of careers would be suitable for us. We were to choose things we liked, they would tell us what career to choose. Afterward, one of my classmates checked with me to see if I thought he got the answers right! He was planning on being an engineer, so he tried to answer the questions the way an engineer would. I answered as best i could and they suggested I should be a farmer. Sorry, I'm a city boy. Mathematics was definitely not advised for me. They graded careers with letters, farmer and I think pilot were rated A for me, mathematician C or C minus.

My approach was simple and I think satisfactory: Find something that you are reasonably good at and that you enjoy, and figure out if/how you can make a living at it.

Neither of my daughters are mathematicians, not would I suggest that they should be. They chose careers that suit them and it seems to have worked.

[luke warm]

gwnn, on Jan 24 2009, 05:38 AM, said:

Philosophers (12) beating Physicists (13) ? Sounds like an insult to me

i beg your pardon?

[gwnn]

luke warm, on Jan 24 2009, 03:25 PM, said:

gwnn, on Jan 24 2009, 05:38 AM, said:

Philosophers (12) beating Physicists (13) ? Sounds like an insult to me

i beg your pardon?

what part of ""

did you not understand?

(I am studying Physics and I am surrounded by people who think Philosophy is boring and pointless. I disagree with them.)

[Al_U_Card]

Mathematics: Art or science?

[Al_U_Card]

One of the reasons to get a "higher" education.. ..song lyrics?

http://ca.youtube.co...h?v=6QgCfnBtF7M

[kenberg]

Al_U_Card, on Jan 24 2009, 11:59 AM, said:

Mathematics: Art or science?

Mathematical truth is based neither on experimental verification nor on aesthetic pleasure so I would claim it cannot easily be placed in either category. I think most of us, if forced to choose, would call it a science because of the following fundamental feature: When the proper evidence is produced then a conclusion is universally accepted regardless of preferences. That slightly overstates matters because there are arguments about constructivism and such things that go to the philosophical foundation of mathematics, but these arguments are largely ignored by working mathematicians and the criteria for publication are right or wrong, new or not, important or not. If it's ugly but right, then it's right and so it's right. And publishable.


I think it was Hardy who said that there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. Sort of a variation on "Truth is beauty, beauty truth". Perhaps so, but this is a hope rather than a criterion.

[luke warm]

gwnn, on Jan 24 2009, 09:06 AM, said:

luke warm, on Jan 24 2009, 03:25 PM, said:

gwnn, on Jan 24 2009, 05:38 AM, said:

Philosophers (12) beating Physicists (13) ? Sounds like an insult to me

i beg your pardon?

what part of ""

did you not understand?

(I am studying Physics and I am surrounded by people who think Philosophy is boring and pointless. I disagree with them.)

i should have put a in mine, it was meant to be humorous

[kenberg]

I intended the whole damn thread as humor. The best laid plans....

[Winstonm]

Quote

..song lyrics?

You mean to tell me that when Sly and the Family Stone sang "Let Me Take You Higher" it was about mathematics?

[kenberg]

Winstonm, on Jan 25 2009, 11:40 AM, said:

Quote

..song lyrics?

You mean to tell me that when Sly and the Family Stone sang "Let Me Take You Higher" it was about mathematics?

No, I think they were speaking of bidding a bridge hand there.

[Winstonm]

kenberg, on Jan 25 2009, 12:09 PM, said:

Winstonm, on Jan 25 2009, 11:40 AM, said:

Quote

..song lyrics?

You mean to tell me that when Sly and the Family Stone sang "Let Me Take You Higher" it was about mathematics?

No, I think they were speaking of bidding a bridge hand there.

Right. Probably a bridge hand over troubled water, at that.

[TimG]

barmar, on Jan 24 2009, 12:00 AM, said:

It's not like you can go to college to get a degree in sewage working.

I strongly suspect that you can get a degree in a discipline that is focused on waste management, sewerage treatments, and the like.