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Measuring Intelligence (1 Viewer)

Shoot4stars

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Measuring intellignece ; Math vs English

Ok so my brother is a math gun; he did 4unit in school went to uws then got into usydney for statistics and me well i dislike math with a passion lol.

Ok so we got into a arguement about english measuring intelligence beter than maths he claims its a measure of formulae's organising information and they use it in iq tests and well my arguement was simply that intelligence in math is retained via your memory basically just remember the way to do an equation or problem and well in english there is never 1 set answer there could be a million ways to write something creativity and structure comes into the mix and the way in which you analyse a situation is tested example ; you sit a genious who has never attended a math lesson in his life and a guy who has done math up to year 10 and dropped out in a test of intelligence with math problems the dropkick will win although the genious fails due to lack of knowledge over math therefore math = fail :) feel free to prove me wrong :shoot:
 

Nikkay75

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+1

I've always supported the humanities as a closer measure of intelligence. This thread will just get people doing the alternate subjects attempting to justify why their subject measures intelligence more accurately.

I'll happily support your view tho haha. This stance obviously supports the fact I did all humanities subjects. :)
 

LordPc

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Measuring intellignece ; Math vs English

Ok so my brother is a math gun; he did 4unit in school went to uws then got into usydney for statistics and me well i dislike math with a passion lol.

Ok so we got into a arguement about english measuring intelligence beter than maths he claims its a measure of formulae's organising information and they use it in iq tests and well my arguement was simply that intelligence in math is retained via your memory basically just remember the way to do an equation or problem and well in english there is never 1 set answer there could be a million ways to write something creativity and structure comes into the mix and the way in which you analyse a situation is tested example
except in hsc english, this path isnt always the one of choice

you sit a genious who has never attended a math lesson in his life and a guy who has done math up to year 10 and dropped out in a test of intelligence with math problems the dropkick will win although the genious fails due to lack of knowledge over math therefore math = fail :) feel free to prove me wrong :shoot:
proving this wrong is trivial.

using your exact argument you can also argue that testing intelligence through the humanities is pointless. what if one super intelligent guy never learnt to read or write, and he was up against a 5th grader. who would produce the better essay?

what if the super intelligent guy couldnt communicate? eg, stephen hawking 200 years ago would be much smarter than a 5th grader, yet the 5th grader could move his hand
 

Shoot4stars

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Ok Creavity and structure maybe a misguided example although assesing a situatuon and a creation of an answer in fact is yes intelligence not a measure of memory which essentially is what math is ? the guy that cannot communicate in any form ? Ok if the SUPER GENIOUS had no way of communicating then he is not a genious therefore you proved my point thus the year 5 kid is working off memory yes ? the genious would create something unique and great.
And these examples even mine i admit is poor lets just keep this simplistic as possible math is not a true measure of intelligence i believe and this idealogy will never change that simply analysing situations and relating it measures intelligence rather than finding the area of a circle ?
 

sickk

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this is deep
one of those, no one thing is a true measure of ones intelligence, "Intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. There are several ways to define intelligence. In some cases, intelligence may include traits such as creativity, personality, character, knowledge, or wisdom. However there is no agreement on which traits define the phenomenon of intelligence agreed upon by a majority across the various concerned disciplines."

Intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

kaz1

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Measuring intellignece ; Math vs English

Ok so my brother is a math gun; he did 4unit in school went to uws then got into usydney for statistics and me well i dislike math with a passion lol.

Ok so we got into a arguement about english measuring intelligence beter than maths he claims its a measure of formulae's organising information and they use it in iq tests and well my arguement was simply that intelligence in math is retained via your memory basically just remember the way to do an equation or problem and well in english there is never 1 set answer there could be a million ways to write something creativity and structure comes into the mix and the way in which you analyse a situation is tested example ; you sit a genious who has never attended a math lesson in his life and a guy who has done math up to year 10 and dropped out in a test of intelligence with math problems the dropkick will win although the genious fails due to lack of knowledge over math therefore math = fail :) feel free to prove me wrong :shoot:
Says the General Maths student.

Your argument is flawed. Think of your two guys as computers, the dropkick is a shit computer and had a maths software installed in it so that it can do maths while the awsesome computer doesn't have maths installed on it so it obviously can't do Maths. So the two computers have to have the same software before their power can be compared.

Maths can determine intelligence if both the people have the same mathematical knowledge.

English is a shit subject altogther and there is no way it can measure intelligence.
 

youngminii

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Yeah it depends on how you define intelligence.

In everyday life, you can tell the stupid people from the smart people, based on the way they speak.

Whether or not they understand Maths is a completely different sort of intelligence.
 

annabackwards

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@OP - please use full stops and commas when making paragraphs. I find that i have to stop and re-read your paragraphs because it's just one windy paragraph =='

Says the General Maths student.

Your argument is flawed. Think of your two guys as computers, the dropkick is a shit computer and had a maths software installed in it so that it can do maths while the awsesome computer doesn't have maths installed on it so it obviously can't do Maths. So the two computers have to have the same software before their power can be compared.

Maths can determine intelligence if both the people have the same mathematical knowledge.

English is a shit subject altogther and there is no way it can measure intelligence.
LOL.

I agree - you can only measure the difference in intelligence of people with the same amount of knowledge. But doing that is almost impossible, so in IQ tests they just use the common age groups to roughly achieve this :)

@OP - You probably don't understand seeing as you do general maths (sorry if i sound condescending) but maths isn't all about remembering and applying a formula. Even if it was, when you get to real maths (the harder maths, not simple general maths) then it's about recognising which formula to apply and what to do next. It's simply not as easy as general maths (yes i am familiar with the HSC general maths course).

Maths is all about using existing equations and forming new ones. It's about being creative and finding new solutions for emerging problems - just like Einstein came up with E = mc^2. No one had ever thought of the energy-mass equivalence before but using his creativity, Einstein did. But wait, Einstein didn't have a formal tertiary education like his counterparts.... how is this possible? His natural intelligence and curiosity allowed him to understand the books he chose to read.

So there you have it, maths is all about thinking outside the square and using logic to solve problems. This as in Einstein's case is not restricted to the educated - the uneducated geniuses will eventually emerge through one means or another.

Oh and you do realise that humanities use maths also? They use statistics, dates/times etc. etc. to qualify findings or compare trends. Humanities (believe it or not) are also based on logic - one thing happened which had these impacts, causing this to happen etc. etc. OR this is used to cause this impact because etc. etc. So there you go, humanities is based on logic too.

If you are referring to art which is all about expression, i'd categorise art under creativity, but not intelligence.

Intelligence is a mixture of creativity and logic - if a person is purely creative or purely logical then they are not intelligent. How do we measure intelligence then? Asking questions based on logic - as logic is a mixture of maths and the ability to think creatively.
 

bored of sc

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Mathematics is not simply remembering formulae/methods of doing questions. If that was the case I'd get 95%+ every time. Maths involves thinking creatively and using abstract ways of thinking like english (no two problems are ever the same). It's just that in maths thinking creatively and in an abstract manner is logical and sequential.
 

-may-cat-

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This is silly, people are intelligent in many different ways, intelligence is not bound to a single discipline.
 

sam04u

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Here is something that some of you might find startling, language in and of itself is a form of mathematics. You learn patterns of language and then reorganize these patterns and words into strings (you can even call these formulae) which make up sentences, that are a larger part of paragraphs, etc. You follow the same structure as a mathematical proof even -- with an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

So it is incorrect to say a specific language is a better measure of intelligence than mathematics, that would be like kicking yourself with your kicking foot ie; thrusting one's own heel into the back of their knee. Numbers/algorithms are a language we use in mathematics they don't have an inherent property that makes them unique. Again there are countless examples, such as computer programming (different programming languages), etc etc.

Universal intelligence is a hard thing to measure. It's like a camel, hard to describe, but you know one when you see one.
 

Kakuzu11245

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I made a really long passage of all the things that I thought about Anna's response and this topic, I realised that my opinion just like all of yours would be too byist, because intelligence is a personal thing that can't be measured.

A wise sensei once told me

"You only need to be smart at what your doing"

;O GG

My own belief is that you can tell smart people not from the obvious things, but the simple things.. like being able to read a book and notice all of the techniques and details in there in an intelligent way, or understanding why someone hates you even if they seem to other people like they're being irrational. but w/e ;) MAKE YOUR OWN CHOICE!!!
 

Aerath

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The HSC is really not a good indicator of intelligence.
 

annabackwards

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Here is something that some of you might find startling, language in and of itself is a form of mathematics. You learn patterns of language and then reorganize these patterns and words into strings (you can even call these formulae) which make up sentences, that are a larger part of paragraphs, etc. You follow the same structure as a mathematical proof even -- with an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

So it is incorrect to say a specific language is a better measure of intelligence than mathematics, that would be like kicking yourself with your kicking foot ie; thrusting one's own heel into the back of their knee. Numbers/algorithms are a language we use in mathematics they don't have an inherent property that makes them unique. Again there are countless examples, such as computer programming (different programming languages), etc etc.

Universal intelligence is a hard thing to measure. It's like a camel, hard to describe, but you know one when you see one.
Hehe yeah. Maths is everywhere but it's really hard to measure intelligence.

I made a really long passage of all the things that I thought about Anna's response and this topic, I realised that my opinion just like all of yours would be too byist, because intelligence is a personal thing that can't be measured.

A wise sensei once told me

"You only need to be smart at what your doing"

;O GG

My own belief is that you can tell smart people not from the obvious things, but the simple things.. like being able to read a book and notice all of the techniques and details in there in an intelligent way, or understanding why someone hates you even if they seem to other people like they're being irrational. but w/e ;) MAKE YOUR OWN CHOICE!!!
**biased ;)

The HSC is really not a good indicator of intelligence.
*nods*
 

Shoot4stars

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Wow,ok I'll admit when I've been crushed the Nobel prize goes to Anna:)
 

fliick

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Maths is a science, English is an art.
Cooking on the other hand, is both an art and a science. It's be the best way to measure intelligence, comprehension and memory. And I use my knowledge of food EVERY DAY. Unlike belonging, and surds.
 
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As much as I love humanities, measuring intelligence should never boil down to whether being adept at maths or english signifies greater intelligence.

Intelligence exists in many forms, and is appreciated in different ways by different cultures. All maths or english can signify in this context is the way your brain works, as opposed to whether one way of thinking is better or worse than how another person decodes and interprets information.

Both maths and english disciplines are equally valid measures of intelligence in this argument, but for different reasons. :)

Even though the person who's had experience in Maths may be able to better handle the exam compared to someone else unfamiliar with the content but perceived to be more intelligent, does not in itself suggest Maths cannot measure intelligence as much as English. Just like English, Maths is a discourse which if undertaken can be understood and utilises certain aspects of intelligence. An English exam would not require as much prior knowledge simply because it is a language which is integrated into our socialisation experience, so we understand its content subconsciously. In a non Western country where English is not as common it would probably be equally unfamiliar as Maths and frustrating to use as a measure of intelligence :p
 
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