- #1
Constantinos
- 83
- 1
Hey people!
I'm new to this forum. I feel sorry I hadn't discovered it earlier. Some of the discussions here seem pretty interesting to me at least and I feel there are a lot of things to learn.
I open this post to talk about mental imagery, the visualization of concepts in physics mathematics or even other sciences and engineering. Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I found nothing through searching (which I found kind of odd, I expected it to have been discussed sometime).
So I guess we all have the experience of imagining the mathematics and physics we have learned. Either through doing arithmetic in our heads, manipulating an equation to be solved, doing geometry, thinking of a graphic representation of a function or its derivative and so on. This process seems to facilitate understanding and train the intuition. Moreover, the more one can visualize things, the more independence one has from calculators, computers, paper and the like.
But how far can it go? One can only do so much arithmetic inside the brain, big numbers and decimal points confuse and we are often wrong. The same goes with geometrical figures of irregular shapes not found in the observable world. It is sometimes better to use paper, or a machine to do your work. Better in terms of time taken to solve the problem (someone, for some reason might find intrinsic value in solving the problems in his head regardless of the time taken)
What is your opinion, When is it appropriate to use this faculty of our intelligence? Can it be trained? For example, I'm thinking of going back to all "High School" (its called Lyceo- Λύκειο in Greece and its not exactly High School) books and just read them and do the exercises without touching pencils or calculators, see if I am better at visualizing even the more advanced subjects in the textbooks I'm currently studying in the University. Do you think that might be worthwhile? And last (certainly not least) what are your philosophical opinions or known scientific facts about this experience of visualizing?
I'm new to this forum. I feel sorry I hadn't discovered it earlier. Some of the discussions here seem pretty interesting to me at least and I feel there are a lot of things to learn.
I open this post to talk about mental imagery, the visualization of concepts in physics mathematics or even other sciences and engineering. Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I found nothing through searching (which I found kind of odd, I expected it to have been discussed sometime).
So I guess we all have the experience of imagining the mathematics and physics we have learned. Either through doing arithmetic in our heads, manipulating an equation to be solved, doing geometry, thinking of a graphic representation of a function or its derivative and so on. This process seems to facilitate understanding and train the intuition. Moreover, the more one can visualize things, the more independence one has from calculators, computers, paper and the like.
But how far can it go? One can only do so much arithmetic inside the brain, big numbers and decimal points confuse and we are often wrong. The same goes with geometrical figures of irregular shapes not found in the observable world. It is sometimes better to use paper, or a machine to do your work. Better in terms of time taken to solve the problem (someone, for some reason might find intrinsic value in solving the problems in his head regardless of the time taken)
What is your opinion, When is it appropriate to use this faculty of our intelligence? Can it be trained? For example, I'm thinking of going back to all "High School" (its called Lyceo- Λύκειο in Greece and its not exactly High School) books and just read them and do the exercises without touching pencils or calculators, see if I am better at visualizing even the more advanced subjects in the textbooks I'm currently studying in the University. Do you think that might be worthwhile? And last (certainly not least) what are your philosophical opinions or known scientific facts about this experience of visualizing?