- #1
ehrenfest
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I am an undergraduate math and physics major and nowhere in my education did I explicitly study the Greek alphabet. This has recently gotten to be a SEVERE problem as I hit higher mathematics where the use of the greek alphabet is almost more common than the American one. For example, I raise my hand to ask a question about something on the board but then realize I cannot read the equation because I do not know one of the Greek letters.
I have noticed that my fellow math majors have this same problem. It seems to me like at some level of mathematics education, people just start assuming that everyone knows the Greek alphabet even though it is not taught at any stage of mathematics. But maybe that is just my case. Did other people have the Greek alphabet taught to them in junior high or high school or was it just thrown on them beginning in college?
Anyway, today I am going back to elementary school and practicing writing row after row of zeta, xi, chi, etc and trying to recite the whole alphabet from memory.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/classics/greek_resources/writing_guide/writing_guide.html
I have noticed that my fellow math majors have this same problem. It seems to me like at some level of mathematics education, people just start assuming that everyone knows the Greek alphabet even though it is not taught at any stage of mathematics. But maybe that is just my case. Did other people have the Greek alphabet taught to them in junior high or high school or was it just thrown on them beginning in college?
Anyway, today I am going back to elementary school and practicing writing row after row of zeta, xi, chi, etc and trying to recite the whole alphabet from memory.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/classics/greek_resources/writing_guide/writing_guide.html
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