> 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.

adlai

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

math

New Territory Alert: ~math

SimpleStacker

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