Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2015 June 24

= June 24 =

Why are less people asking Mathematical questions in the reference desk than questions about science?
It cannot be that people understand Mathematics better than they understand science. 175.45.116.105 (talk) 00:50, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Well as Frederick Langridge said
 * Two men look out through the same bars; One sees the mud, and one the stars
 * I'm afraid most people are mired in the mundane material world and do not appreciate the awesome beauty of mathematics ;-) Dmcq (talk) 11:12, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * If this were the Language desk, I'd reflect on the choice of "less people", rather than the appropriate term, "fewer people". But as it isn't, I won't.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  12:35, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * I was quite impressed by a supermarket saying 'fewer than 10 items' instead of 'less than 10 items' - though I'd have said 'up to nine items', I don't think 'and including' is needed for that. Dmcq (talk) 13:27, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * WP:CRYSTAL applies here, but I don't think there's any harm in speculating about something so trivial. In the USA, school is out for the summer. Summer is usually a bit slower on the math desks. For whatever reason, it does seem to be true that people tend to come up with scientific questions of idle fancy more than in math. Also the totality of science is likely in some sense "bigger" than the totality of math, so there's in a way we should expect more traffic on the science desk. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:15, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * For most people, math is just a tool to do other interesting things, and is not, in itself, very interesting. StuRat (talk) 18:55, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


 * The fact that the Mathematics Stack Exchange works better, and that generally one gets better responses there probably plays a role in diverting attention from this page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.40.61.82 (talk) 09:55, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Not to mention math.stackexchange's habit of giving out complete solutions to homework problems. Some people like that.
 * The record will note that I have recently tried to ask a question on ma.se, and got no answer. While I was at it, I tried my hand looking at other questions, and I think the culture there is inferior to what we have here. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 17:44, 25 June 2015 (UTC)