all Aspies are not mathmagicians

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I don't enjoy math... At all. Definitely my least favorite class.
I'm alright at it - though I wouldn't say it comes naturally.
But I see it as a necessary evil. Once you know it, it's very useful. You need it (calculus included, unfortunately) to understand chemical processes and quantum behavior. And nothing is better to me than those two things. So interesting! XD
I'm better at visual math - graphs, triangles and the like than I am at pure numbers/variables math. I like to attach the concept to an image and, if it doesn't come attached to an image, I have to make the stand-alone equation into an image of itself (if that makes any sense) to try and comprehend it. I have to bend my mind every-which-way to understand and thus remember how to use the many different things/operations. Very time consuming.
Math is just memorization of number relationships, that are later used to describe more important, real things. In and of itself, removed from scientific, monetary, and dimensional application, I don't feel it has any value. Numbers are made to do what they are needed to do - and they do their job well.
They're very useful things, but that doesn't mean I enjoy using them.

I'm not good at maths, I'm OK in basic maths but anything more complicated I'm crap at. What I hated about maths at school was when you had to show your working because if I did it in my head then why should I.

I'm a diagnosed aspie, and I am so bad at math, I had to drop a elementary algebra remedial course this semester at the college because there was no way I could pass it AFTER THE SECOND TEST! In other words, that stereotype is WAY off. Somehow though, I'm decent at computer programming (I thought math and computer programming were supposed to be linked together, heh guess not that much.)

It depends on what kind of math, at the moment I'm studying coordinate geometry in class and am having trouble with it. I understand the equations of things like slope, for example y2-y1/x2-x1 but I have trouble with drawing the graphs and I always forget which one is x and which one is y.

I was always fairly good at algebra, lots of patterns to work with...

In general I think that it depends on how you think. Not all aspies are great at math and neither are all NT's.

thats such a stereotype-

i was AWFUL at maths in school
i can't build a computer
havent made any major scientific discoveries

etc.

i'm good at art & music but i'm not gifted

I'm a weird case. I was bad with the math teach in elementary school. Multiplication tables was such a pain, and it's only beacause I repeated my 6th grade that I learned how to made a division. The calculations made with fraction are even WORST.

Later though, I mostly had no problem. Pre-algebra was really easy and I had no trouble getting perfect scores with it. I don't get why peoples strugle with pythagore, it's so simple. I do had trouble though for the part where you have to write a long serie of boring sentences such as why ABC angle is equal to the CDE angle, I just unable to write the proof in the way I'm supposed to. (Anyone else bad at this...)
But that part was boring anyway...

For calculus I only done the "differential calculation" part but not the "integral" part, but I was doing okay for the differential.

That you made it all in your head mean that your TOO GOOD at this. (For me I can't do the problems if I don't write them.) Maybe you're should self-taught it to yourself...

I never liked math, though I wasn't terrible at it. Social Studies was, and still is, my obsession. I am pretty good at doing basic calculations in my head, though; I know what I need to know in everyday life.

Hmm... I just did a test for Coordinate Geometry, it was out of 33. I got 36 (there was a bonus question).

I am horrible at math no matter how hard I try or how many tutors I hire I just can't understand it. When I took the GED(I was home schooled) I only passed the math section by a couple points although I did get a perfect score in both reading and social studies, a near perfect score in language and an average score in science.

I am functionally ret*d when it comes to math. The way i was diagnosed as being aspie was after I failed basic algebra for the 6th time.

When I was younger (pre-teens) I was way ahead of my class at school in math, recognising patterns and doing the sums in my head, but once they started teaching times tables at school I fell way behind because I've never been able to remember then and have to actually figure out sums in my head rather than just remembering the tables.

Heh, I am very slow at math and tend to make errors a lot, even with a calculator!

I recently passed a test that had mainly equations, but they had really complex, two-sided equations with the variable happening in more than one place (in both sides)... I can't really explain it, but that's in developmental math (at college)! I thought I hated fractions, but this... I usually make a stupid error in the long process to solve these problems!

I've already read Lockhart's Lament- it's an interesting commentary.

If the logical thought and theorem-proving were emphasized earlier on, then yes, more people would like math. Also importantly, we would all be much better at math. If you've ever sat through a rigorous class and proved theorems, and then gone back and looked at the material that simply required you to apply those concepts, it's astonishing how trivially easy it seems.

My first math course in college (linear algebra) was taught by a topologist. If you're not familiar with topology, let me just tell you that it's a subject which does screwy things to your mind. This guy definitely does not think in normal ways, or anything resembling them. He's a genius, don't get me wrong. But he's not normal. Same goes for the algebraist teaching me discrete mathematics this semester. Very bright guy, but his thought is on a separate plane from that of most of his students.

Depend on how are made the proofs... I was sucking in the way it was made. When the teacher had give us a optional homework on proving the pythagorean theorem (with the figure bellow), I was able to do it with algebra though.




But if you come up with proof LIKE THAT, then I really suck... (The school didn't give anything so complicated, of course, but you get the idea...)

1. Let ACB be a right-angled triangle with right angle CAB.
2. On each of the sides BC, AB, and CA, squares are drawn, CBDE, BAGF, and ACIH, in that order.
3. From A, draw a line parallel to BD and CE. It will perpendicularly intersect BC and DE at K and L, respectively.
4. Join CF and AD, to form the triangles BCF and BDA.
5. Angles CAB and BAG are both right angles; therefore C, A, and G are collinear. Similarly for B, A, and H.
6. Angles CBD and FBA are both right angles; therefore angle ABD equals angle FBC, since both are the sum of a right angle and angle ABC.
7. Since AB and BD are equal to FB and BC, respectively, triangle ABD must be congruent to triangle FBC.
8. Since A is collinear with K and L, rectangle BDLK must be twice in area to triangle ABD.
9. Since C is collinear with A and G, square BAGF must be twice in area to triangle FBC.
10. Therefore rectangle BDLK must have the same area as square BAGF = AB2.
11. Similarly, it can be shown that rectangle CKLE must have the same area as square ACIH = AC2.
12. Adding these two results, AB2 + AC2 = BD × BK + KL × KC
13. Since BD = KL, BD* BK + KL × KC = BD(BK + KC) = BD × BC
14. Therefore AB2 + AC2 = BC2, since CBDE is a square.

This proof appears in Euclid's Elements as that of Proposition 1.47.

There's a much easier proof with that picture.

Note, of course, that all four triangles are identical, so fill in "a" and "b" around the perimeter.
Now, (a+b)^2 = c^2 + 4*(1/2 * ab) (Area of whole square, expressed directly and as a sum of all its parts)
a^2 + 2ab + b^2 = c^2 + 2ab (simplify both sides)
a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (subtract 2ab from both sides)