Are you a "minimal formulas" person?


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So basically, "minimal formulas" is a term I coined to describe people who prefer remembering as few formulas as they can and avoid memorizing the ones that can clearly be derived from the few basic formulas you already remember. For example, Total Surface Area of a cylinder can be found by adding the areas of the two bases to the area of the curved part (so a "minimal formulas person would only remember how to find the curved part's area and the areas of the two circular bases). Another example would be just learning product rule without memorizing chain rule (for differential calculus). 

 

Obviously, I'm a "minimal formulas" person. What about you?

(Math section FTW)

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2 minutes ago, Agent P said:

I am kinda a minimal formulas person, but not really.

Cool. I think it saves a lot of time (and memory :P). Besides, being a minimal formulas person keeps you alert and your mind remains agile- that's something useful for math. 

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10 hours ago, Kanad said:

Definitely a minimal person. Memorizing is for obsessed people.

You remember those [x+a][y+b] formulas?

There's a formula for that? XD I just expand them when I come across them. 

Edited by Master Flap
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1 minute ago, Kanad said:

Oh, there's a forumla for everything.

I started Complex Numbers a few days back. You've done them, I presume?

Yup. Learning ahead of school, I see? Just like me. :P No time to wait for those slowcoaches called teachers. :P 

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Just now, Master Flap said:

Yup. Learning ahead of school, I see? Just like me. :P No time to wait for those slowcoaches called teachers. :P 

We have three Maths teachers in our school, one [that teaches me] is sexist towards boys, one who sticks to the book, third one's a man in his mid-20s. Plus, my entire batch is regarded as the worst in the school, there's group punishment almost everyday; and they ask me "Why do you skip school so often?".

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24 minutes ago, Jade Maveric said:

Minimal formula 'person'? I'm a crazy, uncontrollable minimal formula fan-boy!

You should probably add a poll, if they're there.

They are there. But there's no way for me to edit my post. D: 

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2 minutes ago, Jade Maveric said:

Are you sure. Cause we've got a poll on 'Which lang should I learn after Java'

I said that polls are there. But I can't edit my topic to add them. There's no way to edit topics at the moment for non admins. :P 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...
On 1/31/2016 at 3:53 PM, Agent P said:

I am kinda a minimal formulas person, but not really.

What the hell does this even mean

Anyway it really depends, I find that I end up memorising formulae that can be derived anyway just because I do problems so often that the results stick in my head, even if I attempt to do them from "first principles".

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  • 1 month later...

I'm an "I avoid anything more complicated than 69+69" person.

But in all seriousness, I found that in primary school I got much better at dealing with stuff when I got to the exact root of it.

So a bare-bones formula such as Area of square = S2, I'd learn it as actually visualizing a square, and seeing where the lines cross each other, to actually make sense of what the formula means. That way even if I happened to forget the formula I could still work out the answer. So... by your definition, I guess yes?

Edited by Im Dead Inside
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10 hours ago, Im Dead Inside said:

I'm an "I avoid anything more complicated than 69+69" person.

But in all seriousness, I found that in primary school I got much better at dealing with stuff when I got to the exact root of it.

So a bare-bones formula such as Area of square = S2, I'd learn it as actually visualizing a square, and seeing where the lines cross each other, to actually make sense of what the formula means. That way even if I happened to forget the formula I could still work out the answer. So... by your definition, I guess yes?

Yes I'm similar but in more of a numbers way. If I can understand WHY a formula works the way it does, I am more likely to remember it.

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8 hours ago, Gramps said:

Yes I'm similar but in more of a numbers way. If I can understand WHY a formula works the way it does, I am more likely to remember it.

Yes finally someone understands. If they'd start doing this in school maybe I could pass some exams for once.

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On 1/31/2016 at 3:52 PM, Master Flap said:

So basically, "minimal formulas" is a term I coined to describe people who prefer remembering as few formulas as they can and avoid memorizing the ones that can clearly be derived from the few basic formulas you already remember. For example, Total Surface Area of a cylinder can be found by adding the areas of the two bases to the area of the curved part (so a "minimal formulas person would only remember how to find the curved part's area and the areas of the two circular bases). Another example would be just learning product rule without memorizing chain rule (for differential calculus). 

 

Obviously, I'm a "minimal formulas" person. What about you?

(Math section FTW)

OMG I was so cringe. What is this even?

Math is math. You show up for exams without studying and math is that one paper you don't screw up. 

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