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he dropped physics because of puzzles but not math?
i see this with a lot with undergrads, they claim the problems are just puzzles and not real life problems, but they are short sighted because if you can't even solve a simple puzzle you won't be able to solve the real life problems either, at least not well
as to how I defined "a class full of puzzles": the puzzles weren't organized around a single mathematical principle. Some were about induction. Others about proof by contradiction. They all had narrative setups, like pirates splitting a pot of gold, or prisoners trying to escape, etc
he dropped physics because of puzzles but not math?
I can't speak for my friend, although my impression was that his offhand comment was more about academic physics [possibly only true for undergrad] oversimplifying real-world complexity into "puzzles", while mathematics freely admitted that educational examples were distinct from the concepts they helped elucidate... not that one curriculum didn't require as much critical thinking or problem solving as the other.
how do you decide whether something is a real problem, or just a puzzle ?
context for why I latched onto that word choice:
one of my friends did a dual major for undergrad of math and physics, subsequently dropping physics; he summed up his disinterest as it all being "a bunch of puzzles", i.e. maybe entertaining or even challenging temporarily, although not giving any long-term fundamental insight.