Folk Mathematics
If modern mathematical practices are what distinguish modern professional mathematicians from older ideas of folk mathematics. Although such "folk" practices may well include useful formulae or algorithms, they are generally without the accompanying proof discipline.
Read more about this topic: Mathematical Practice
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or mathematics:
“Some folk want their luck buttered.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
If bread and butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day
The clock doth strike, by algebra.”
—Samuel Butler (1612–1680)