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Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

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Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#31
post #6

Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. Similarly, you don’t need anything except a chalk board to teach math and most other subjects.

> Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles.

You may also need steroids, which Soviet body builders definitely used.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#32
Here is an interesting paper [1](PDF) by a Russian mathematician who has taught mathematics in Russia, USA and Brazil. He compares the "very successful usage of word problems in Russia and contradictory, inefficient and often immature treatment of word problems in USA."

[1] http://toomandre.com/travel/sweden05/WP-SWEDEN-NEW.pdf

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#33

I can only assume but culture makes things very different. I often said that French abstract algebra books stopped me from learning for 10 years (after many serious attempts). One book from Garreth Williams unlocked 80% of my issues. The shocking part was the approach. It was very operational, you calculate, you manipulate concrete data. In French books it's all theorems and concepts. Learning curve to make a Haskell…

> It was very operational, you calculate, you manipulate concrete data

it's interesting that some academic approaches focus on the theoretical framework and conceptual depth, with the underlying assumption that the student would "get" it once the fundamentals are understood.

The other approach, mostly in the asian schools, teach rote and speed in mechanical/mental manipulation. For example, a student would do 1000 quadratic equations, mostly by rote using substitution into the formula. That constitutes "teaching" of the quadratic equation.

But in the end, who learned more? Not sure. But i do believe that being able to manipulate numbers very quickly leads to a quality of its own, and can make understanding harder concepts easier.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#34

I can only assume but culture makes things very different. I often said that French abstract algebra books stopped me from learning for 10 years (after many serious attempts). One book from Garreth Williams unlocked 80% of my issues. The shocking part was the approach. It was very operational, you calculate, you manipulate concrete data. In French books it's all theorems and concepts. Learning curve to make a Haskell…

I dunno, Rudin, the most popular abstract algebra textbook in English, is quite dense.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#35
post #6

Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. Similarly, you don’t need anything except a chalk board to teach math and most other subjects.

> Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. You may also need steroids, which Soviet body builders definitely used.

If you think only Soviet body builders were juicing, you are sorely mistaken. FYI I am the furthest thing from an ideological defender of the Soviet system as you will find. I am just stating some truths.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#36
post #6

Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. Similarly, you don’t need anything except a chalk board to teach math and most other subjects.

But you do need a computer to teach programming (generally.) The US has generally been about efficiency, there isn't much need wasting time on paper with a problem when we can understand the concept and solve the problem with a computer. That's my opinion of course, as an American. So I'm biased. When I was taking advanced math classes, my first thought when presented a concept was "how can I solve this by writing a…

This is also why Dijkstra said Americans did hardware and programming while Europeans did theoretical computer science.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#37
post #6

Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. Similarly, you don’t need anything except a chalk board to teach math and most other subjects.

Using only free weights and a pull-up bar will work. But it doesn't mean it's the most effective way to body-build. You can write a program from scratch in C to perform an task, or you could use all of the tools of your disposal to far more e f f e c t i v e l y complete the task, potentially without code. You don't need anything except a chalk board but there may be more effective ways to obtain the result you are looking for.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#38
post #14

My dad took the advanced courses for physics, math, organic chem in first year University of Toronto in 1970. I've seen his textbooks and they were on the same level of this. Much more advanced than what I saw in the 90s/00s. More focus on reasoning from first principles, less focus on easily approachable material. Basically I'm saying that baby boomers had more advanced textbooks in their university period compared…

Yes, I think that websites are an analogous in the sense that eventually adding features starts to get in the way

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#39
I mean, could it be as simple as "Learning math is more important to Russians than to Americans?" And before you dismiss this as simplistic, consider everything that's competing for attention with "learning math." What things are Americans either preoccupied with or beset with, that Russians esp. Soviet Russians, weren't? I'm thinking, the profit motive. Particularly as concerns textbook publishers. And parents who need to pay for healthcare and that oversized house. And textbook readers who wonder how the hell they'll ever use this to find a job.

Re: Why are Soviet math textbooks so hardcore in comparison to US textbooks? (2017)

#40
post #6

Soviet body builders only used free weights and a pull-up bar. You don’t need anything but that to get big muscles. Similarly, you don’t need anything except a chalk board to teach math and most other subjects.

But you do need a computer to teach programming (generally.) The US has generally been about efficiency, there isn't much need wasting time on paper with a problem when we can understand the concept and solve the problem with a computer. That's my opinion of course, as an American. So I'm biased. When I was taking advanced math classes, my first thought when presented a concept was "how can I solve this by writing a…

Mathematics and problem solving are not mutually exclusive - understanding one is usually a sign you understand the other. Programming is just a layer of abstraction over one of these things.
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