REASONS WHY PEOPLE RUN AWAY FROM MATHEMATICS

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The reason why people run away from maths is because it is abstract. E.g. when we say 1+1=2 then we explain giving an example like one apple plus one apple is two apples. The latter statement is much less abstract. You can touch an apple, physically feel it and experience the event of one apple plus one apple creating two apples. But the moment you remove apples, the equation becomes abstract.
The  main reasons for hating mathematics ere difficulty in understanding the subject, poor instruction and demand of more time to grasp, but even after which they easily forget what is learnt
Now mathematicians take the abstractions to various levels. e.g. Log of a number makes it slightly difficult to reduce it to real life examples.
E.g. we try to understand Log of x to the base 10
1. Log of x means - to what value should I raise number 10 to so that the result is x
2 . Raising 10 to a number means multiplying 10 by itself some number of times
3. Multiplication itself means repetitive addition.
4. We know addition of course. One apple plus one apple is two apples.
What is happening here is multiple layers of abstraction. Last abstraction is understandable. The layers of abstraction prior to that, keeps taking you away from your apples. That is where the fear creeps in.
There is only one method I can see and that is to practise hard. Mindless repetitive practice. Just keep solving problems. Again and again. This helps you to climb the layers of abstractions without always going back to the apple level. With enough practice you intuitively start seeing through these layers. But more importantly you will start appreciating some very beautiful things in mathematics and that is where addiction may set in.

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