If math is a such a definite subject with solid answers, how are there still unsolved math problems? How do people even come up with them?
In: Mathematics
The math most of the world learns and the math that academics studying math study are completely different maths. The vast, vast majority of us learn “how” math works. We learn the methods and formulas that explain the world around us, the ones we’ve known and understood for, for the most part, hundreds of years. It’s what we need to navigate a 3 dimensional world with an economy. Sometimes we learn slightly newer fun tricks you can do with math, without really going deeper than the surface level of the trick.
Academics are studying “why” math works. They look into the rules governing math and what it takes to break them, and what breaking the rules tells us about math. Unsolved problems in mathematics aren’t the same as the algebra homework you forgot to do. They’re things that either work or don’t, and we’re still trying to figure out *why.*
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