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Mathematics as an
art and a discipline.
deMath is an open mathematical archive for students and educators. Mathematics is not a collection of formulae to be memorised, but a discipline to be practiced, understood and discovered from first principles.
Founder & MentorSaad Hassan
Author & Educator"What is lost when mathematics is reduced to formulae, techniques, and exam strategies?"
Saad Hassan is an author, educator and a fervent proponent of learning mathematics from first principles.
He has spent much of his career thinking about how mathematics is taught, how it is learnt, and what is lost when the subject is reduced merely to mechanical algorithms. He has worked extensively in mathematical education, particularly in the training of students for mathematical Olympiads and premier competitive examinations.
He has served as the Head of the Olympiad Division at Vidyamandir Classes and has been associated with the Centre of Excellence. He is also the author of The Olympiad Companion: The Fine Art of Mathematical Mischief and is writing a series of problem books for students who wish to go beyond routine mathematics and develop a genuine, structural understanding of the discipline.
The Purpose of the Vault
Mathematics Education in India
A dearth of teachers capable of elevating mathematical thinking has produced an insistence on cramming endless formulae and algorithms. Students begin viewing mathematics as dependent on tricks for quick resolution, breeding resentment: "Why must I cram so many things just to get the answer? Is that all there is to mathematics?" until phobia takes root.
Out of the Pan into the Fire
When enthusiastic students enter coaching institutes, teachers often compound the error with harder questions under the same rote methodology. When a student encounters a problem outside the ambit of their memorised toolkit, progress collapses. High scores through hard work are not an endorsement of the method: volume is never a substitute for understanding.
The Problem That Fights Back
You learn more by sitting idly in the company of an unsolved problem that is not responding to your attacks than by swiftly razing through hordes of problems which reveal themselves at the first touch. Solving is at the heart of mathematics, but meditating over resisting problems is what builds insight: any problem worthy of an attack proves its worth by fighting back.
The Hiker on Uncharted Peaks
Like a hiker charting a treacherous peak who must invent new paths when terrain is novel, we do mathematics by taking a problem, twisting it, breaking it, and stripping it to its bare bones until we recognise the underlying structure, then piecing it back together. Mathematics is built on the back of first principles, and it begins where the toolkit ends.
"Solving a large volume of problems and believing that this is a substitute for understanding is an illusion which is shattered at the first encounter with a non-routine problem. You learn more by sitting idly in the company of an unsolved problem that is not responding to your attacks than by swiftly razing through hordes of problems which reveal themselves at the first touch. Remember, any problem worthy of an attack proves its worth by fighting back."