Timeline for Most harmful heuristic?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 17, 2014 at 15:52 | comment | added | Hagen von Eitzen | Picking a basis in a vector space is the root of much evil | |
| Apr 25, 2014 at 15:36 | comment | added | finitud | This. Matrices in high school were one of the things that pushed me towards going for Physics instead of Math in college. Only when I had my linear algebra course did I get what matrices were about. | |
| Apr 17, 2013 at 20:13 | comment | added | Rami Luisto | I didn't come across matrices until university, but I wholeheartedly agree that linear algebra should not begin with matrices and their operations. I didn't get a proper view of linear algebra (especially the determinant, which was basically taught by giving the definition and making the students calculate the determinant of a general four-by-four matrix by hand) until I read Sheldon Axler's "linear algebra done right". There the pedagogical idea was to begin with linear mappings and noting as a side note how they can be presented with these funny squares of numbers etc... | |
| Apr 25, 2010 at 15:43 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | By the time I got to linear algebra last year, I had already totally forgotten how to multiply matrices. Luckily, for proofs, the definition of matrix multiplication is a better way to prove something than drawing out (with ...'s) a big nxn matrix. | |
| Oct 25, 2009 at 16:47 | comment | added | DoubleJay | I had no idea why matrices would exist until beginning the linear algebra class I'm currently in. They seemed perverse and non-sensical. They really don't belong in high school math, frankly. I didn't even remember how to multiply them until I refreshed myself recently. | |
| Oct 24, 2009 at 21:11 | comment | added | Qiaochu Yuan | Agreed. It's really hard to internalize what all those intermediate steps in a row reduction actually mean. | |
| Oct 24, 2009 at 20:59 | history | answered | Jason Dyer | CC BY-SA 2.5 |