Science Memes

11161 readers

1681 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1060

Maths (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Is the ending s kept on abbreviations of other singular nouns ending in s? Or is that unique to maths?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I would say we disagree with the premise of the question. Mathematics is not a singular noun. It's a plural. It's the field of all mathematics. Therefore you preserve the "s" because you abbreviate the singular and re-pluralise it.

So somebody in the UK might (not commonally) say "it's a math(matic) concept", but more likely to say "it's a concept from math(ematic)s" or "it's a mathematical concept".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

That’s interesting. What about talking about it as a subject or a class? Would you say maths are my favorite subject(s?) in school? Maths are my favorite class?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Good one, no way say maths is... I guess it's the subject of mathematics is my favourite.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

To the best of my understanding, mathematics isn't referencing a singular object but is used as an encompassing term to refer to content from multiple schools of mathematics e.g. geometry, statistics, calculus, algebra etc. Or in other words, all the subjects covered in math/maths class! 😊