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Dyscalculia

March 30th, 2007 · No Comments · Last updated: March 30th, 2007

A blog post about a new phenomenon similar to dyslexia: Discovering Biology in a Digital World

A big BUT: mathematics is not (only) about numbers - mathematics is about patterns, structures, regularities; about thinking consistently and diligently; about beauty.

David Hilbert, one of the greatest mathematicians of the last century who worked and lived in Göttingen was notoriously bad at arithmetic - there is an anecdote where he asks his students in his lecture what 7 + 5 equals: one says 11, another 13 (of course, it is 12 - I think? ;-)) : and David Hilbert does not recognize the error, but asks them to decide which of the two answers is true.

I just want to stress this, because you can bet on a lot of people using such studies as the one about dyscalculia to avoid doing math or make excuses. If you think you have dyscalculia, use a calculator to do the dumb arithmetic and concentrate on the conceptual parts. No need to pass up on this wonderful subject.

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