45 Times People “Didn’t Do The Math” And Got Roasted For It Online (New Pics)

Mocking people for not understanding math is apparently a popular pastime, as the “They Didn’t Do The Math” subreddit currently has over 26k members. From ignorant tweets that would disappoint these people’s former math teachers to companies proudly advertising miscalculations on their products, the page is full of posts mocking people for not knowing basic math principles. Whether these mistakes were one-time accidents or common occurrences for these individuals, we will never know, but unfortunately for them, the internet never forgets.

To gain some insight on this topic from a math expert, we reached out to Sofia Baca, one of the hosts of the Breaking Math podcast. First, we wanted to know what inspired this podcast in the first place. "What inspired us to start this podcast was simple: I was Gabe's tutor for electrical engineering at UNM," Sofia explained. "We started to talk about the moment where learning turns into understanding: the 'a ha!' moment. I was an avid math and podcast enthusiast, and couldn't find a podcast for math that I wanted to hear. Eventually, we ended up combining both elements into a podcast."

We also asked Sofia what she loves most about math. "It is symbiotic with physics: you start to notice that mathematical discoveries are often inspired by discoveries in physics, and vice versa," she told Bored Panda. "And what I love about this is that it tells us that, much like physics is understanding the world in terms of logic, mathematics is understanding logic in terms of the physical world. I also love how math that has no initial real-world application can crop up centuries later in something useful, such as is the case with discrete math in the 1700s and RSA cryptography in the late 20th century."

Next, we wanted to know if we should all care about math. "We should, but there are many ways to care about math," Sofia explained. "Math is crucial to the way that we run the world, and always has been. Tally marks were created because we wanted to keep track of how many things there are. But we should also care that we make people scared of math: this keeps some people at a disadvantage. If we don't care about math, we sweep the problem of educational trauma under the rug. We actually explain in our first episode some of the reasons why math has been made almost purposefully difficult to learn over time because of class issues."

We then asked Sofia if she knows any math fun facts that you pandas might be interested in. "If you know binary, you can count to 1,024 on your hands," she said. "Let your right pinky represent the number 1, your right ring finger 2, your right middle finger 4. Continue going left finger by finger, doubling each time until your left pinky is 512. I won't teach you binary here, but that's a start. This system becomes remarkably intuitive over time."

"Mathematics was used by every culture around the world, but it wasn't until the Ancient Greeks, with people like Pythagoras and Euclid, developed the idea of mathematical proof," Sofia added. "The ways mathematical statements were shown to be true or false was by repeated examples. An ancient Chinese text shows various different right triangles to prove the Pythagorean Theorem (the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the remaining sides). This is in contrast to Euclid's proof, which not only shows this theorem to be true for all possible right triangles, but for all possible right triangles in a range of geometries that wouldn't be developed until the 1800s."

Lastly, Sofia noted, "If you want to learn math, don't be afraid to play around on paper. And don't be afraid to make mistakes! I once heard it said that mathematical proof is often like trying to find your way to a store that you can't quite remember where it is: first you go down the block, then you accidentally get stuck in a dead end, then you wind up lost on the moon, then to a shop that looks similar, then to marks, and then finally you make it to the store. Be kind to yourself when you teach yourself anything. and be kind to those who you teach."

If you'd like to check out the Breaking Math podcast to strengthen your math skills and learn more from Sofia and her co-hosts, you can check out their website right here.

We all had it drilled into our heads from an early age how important math is, so how is it possible that some of us are so bad at it? Well, despite taking math classes for at least 12 years of our lives, some of us just did not see the point. According to Oxford Learning, there are several reasons why it’s common for students to dislike math, but there are also logical reasons behind them. One common reason people cite for not being interested in math is because they simply find it boring. “They don’t get excited about numbers and formulas the way they get excited about history, science, languages, or other subjects that are easier to personally connect to,” Oxford Learning explains. “They see math as abstract and irrelevant figures that are difficult to understand.” 

Learning math formulas may be less interesting than reading 1984 or hearing about the tragic details of World War II, but that does not make them any less relevant. Oxford Learning recommends that educators find a way to connect real-world scenarios to lessons in math classes to help students become interested. Introducing classes to people who actually use math in their careers, like accountants or architects, can also help them see the relevance in understanding certain concepts. Even showing them everyday uses for math like balancing a budget or telling time can help peak their interest. It is hard to understand the importance of math when you sit in a classroom for 7 hours a day as a kid, but those students will surely be glad they paid attention ten years later when they actually know how to do their taxes.