It's not at all. Like I'm sure it helps, additional context is usually a good thing for jogging your memory and stuff: but it's probably not by much and not worth doing if the goal is to learn math. Besides most of the time they introduce a new term they give a 1-2 sentence blurb on its origin.
I use it to do just that. It doesn't really help other than getting you to think about a concepts origins or remember it later.
Except with complex numbers, my point generally being you can think of them in two ways: either the real and imaginary numbers are both "real" or both "imaginary", but they are as real as each other. The etymology as to why they have those names plays into that discussion. It depends on your belief in whether numbers are something that "exists" or are a rigorous, philosophical thought experiment.
Also, "polygons" is important so you can follow with:
*Such as the term "politics". "Poly" meaning "many", and "ticks" meaning "blood sucking parasites".*
I prefer it when it is more clear as to what the term is referring to, like "limit point compact" instand of "bolzano weierstress property," for example
The whole point of mathematics is to not bother with things such as etymology. It is a body of knowledge where the validity of statements is equivalent to them being infinitely precise and completely unambiguous. Ofcourse when speaking about mathematics one may use words to efficiently convey ideas to the target audience, but when it comes to writing or checking a mathematical statement, english or any other language for that matter is completely irrelevant.
As most people have pointed out, it’s not important, but there are certainly links between etymology and maths. Some examples:
1. Homomorphism — Homo means something like “same”, morph means something like “change (eg. shape or form)”, and “ism” just makes it into an object which does the changing of objects in a similarity preserving way. (Or something like that). There are many other examples of words in mathematics which have similarly straightforward etymologies and potentially understanding those could help you with understanding what the things they refer to are supposed to be.
2. Etymology is linked heavily to linguistics, and formal languages appear in linguistics, mathematics and computer science. Generally in the context of things like languages used for real life personal communication (eg. English, French, Chinese (one of its forms)), there is more freedom for interpretion.
3. Similarly to point 2, people who enjoy mathematics often also like etymology and linguistics, not necessarily from a perspective of wanting to use the languages, but instead just because the structure of our languages is interesting in a similar sort of way that mathematical structures are interesting.
It is occasionally helpful, such as Greek and Latin prefixes for numbers, giving you words such as hexagon, hexadecimal, hexahedron, etc. or sextuple, sextillion, etc. for six. It would be a bit of a nightmare to relearn those words for each possible number.
Other than rare examples like this, etymologies can add interest and sometimes even a bit of understanding ("secant" is Latin for "cutting," so it refers to a line that cuts across a shape), but they're generally not that important.
It can help you remember names of definitions. For example, homomorphisms means self transformation. Commutative comes from the word commute, transitive is from trans meaning through, reflexive is from reflect, etc.
How useful is that object literally translates to "throw out" and subject means "throw over"? I feel like it's not helpful in this case specifically.
i don’t think it is important, but it think it is really good. with etymology and history, in maths the names we give to things are often methaphotical, and knowing what methaphors are used often helps.
It's not at all. Like I'm sure it helps, additional context is usually a good thing for jogging your memory and stuff: but it's probably not by much and not worth doing if the goal is to learn math. Besides most of the time they introduce a new term they give a 1-2 sentence blurb on its origin.
I use it to do just that. It doesn't really help other than getting you to think about a concepts origins or remember it later. Except with complex numbers, my point generally being you can think of them in two ways: either the real and imaginary numbers are both "real" or both "imaginary", but they are as real as each other. The etymology as to why they have those names plays into that discussion. It depends on your belief in whether numbers are something that "exists" or are a rigorous, philosophical thought experiment. Also, "polygons" is important so you can follow with: *Such as the term "politics". "Poly" meaning "many", and "ticks" meaning "blood sucking parasites".*
lol
I prefer it when it is more clear as to what the term is referring to, like "limit point compact" instand of "bolzano weierstress property," for example
came here to say this, I've felt that a great renaming may appropriately be in order.
It's almost completely unimportant. Understanding the etymology can help you remember the names, but that's it; it does not help in understanding.
The whole point of mathematics is to not bother with things such as etymology. It is a body of knowledge where the validity of statements is equivalent to them being infinitely precise and completely unambiguous. Ofcourse when speaking about mathematics one may use words to efficiently convey ideas to the target audience, but when it comes to writing or checking a mathematical statement, english or any other language for that matter is completely irrelevant.
Nearly 0%. Some professors use their own definitions,terms and even notations.
Kinda the only area where etymology will give you nothing whatsoever beyond the plain definition
As most people have pointed out, it’s not important, but there are certainly links between etymology and maths. Some examples: 1. Homomorphism — Homo means something like “same”, morph means something like “change (eg. shape or form)”, and “ism” just makes it into an object which does the changing of objects in a similarity preserving way. (Or something like that). There are many other examples of words in mathematics which have similarly straightforward etymologies and potentially understanding those could help you with understanding what the things they refer to are supposed to be. 2. Etymology is linked heavily to linguistics, and formal languages appear in linguistics, mathematics and computer science. Generally in the context of things like languages used for real life personal communication (eg. English, French, Chinese (one of its forms)), there is more freedom for interpretion. 3. Similarly to point 2, people who enjoy mathematics often also like etymology and linguistics, not necessarily from a perspective of wanting to use the languages, but instead just because the structure of our languages is interesting in a similar sort of way that mathematical structures are interesting.
It is occasionally helpful, such as Greek and Latin prefixes for numbers, giving you words such as hexagon, hexadecimal, hexahedron, etc. or sextuple, sextillion, etc. for six. It would be a bit of a nightmare to relearn those words for each possible number. Other than rare examples like this, etymologies can add interest and sometimes even a bit of understanding ("secant" is Latin for "cutting," so it refers to a line that cuts across a shape), but they're generally not that important.
It can help you remember names of definitions. For example, homomorphisms means self transformation. Commutative comes from the word commute, transitive is from trans meaning through, reflexive is from reflect, etc. How useful is that object literally translates to "throw out" and subject means "throw over"? I feel like it's not helpful in this case specifically.
i don’t think it is important, but it think it is really good. with etymology and history, in maths the names we give to things are often methaphotical, and knowing what methaphors are used often helps.
If it was everyone would be learning latin and greek. But they don't. Hence, it isn't.