Most of the people think that Mathematics and Arithmetic are equivalent. But in my opinion, they are quite very different. I have been studying in mathematics for two years since I got in the university. Then I know that math is actually a very different knowledge I have never learned.
Arithmetic is just a technic of calculating or solving the problems with numbers. On the other hand, mathematics is another larger world. The kernel of this knowledge is "analysis", and then you have to prove the conclusion if possible. For example, given a function f(x) = x^2 , prove that the function f(x) is continuous on |R(Real numbers). The statement in this problem may be trivial for many people, but actually, we have to write a very strict process that each word is reasonable and conforms to logic. The answer is too long, and I think it is not the emphasis of this article, so I omit it here.
Comparing arithmetic with math, they are really different. So I don't like people who confused arithmetic with mathematics a little. Math is really not easy, but arithmetic is not as hard as you think. Just to read the question carefully, the answer to the problem is just a little calculating.
Hi! I really agree the point that the main goal in mathematics department is not learning arithmetic but learning analysis. (I use ‘analysis’ because I think that mathematics is a huge field while arithmetic is a part, but not all, of mathematics. Thus, maybe the things you want to compare are ‘arithmetic’ and ‘analysis’.) These two different conceptions perplex many people. However, I think maybe there can have a thesis statement in the end of first paragraph that briefly points out the difference of ‘arithmetic’ and ‘analysis’. For example, ‘arithmetic’ is a tool of calculating the number; on the other hand, ‘analysis’ is focus on analyzing problems deeply. As the result, readers can realize that the article will discuss the distinction between these two conceptions in the following paragraph. This is just my little advice and I think the article is already pretty good.
回覆刪除