this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Yeah but for those of us who actually studied math, it's silly. Rote arithmetic barely qualifies, you hardly even see actual numbers in math except for a handful of single digit integers for exponents, subscripts, coefficients, etc.
It's like calling a golf cart a "sports car".
how many people in the general population have mathematics degrees?
1.3 of undergrad degrees are in mathematics, and only about 40% of USA adults have a bachelors or higher, so about .053% of Americans have math degrees, or we can say 99.47% do not. so out of 2000 people, only 1 of them has a math degree.
This guy arithmetics!
The number of people who drive sports cars is also quite small, but that wouldn't make it less silly for the general population to use the term "sports car" exclusively to refer to golf carts.
Imagine being the guy who gatekeeps maths.
I'm not sure you understand my point.
No, I understand it, but you're still the guy who's gatekeeping maths, and your analogy is bad. A better one would be calling mixing vinegar and baking soda chemistry, which despite how basic (and acidic) it is any chemist will. Basic maths is still maths.
Then you certainly misunderstood my point, because that wasn't it.
Except that arithmetic still qualifies as maths even if it is only barely, whereas a golf cart doesn't qualify as a sports car. It's more like saying "vehicle" when you mean "kid's bicycle "; it's still technically true even though it isn't the most sophisticated.
It's a car you use for sports.
Ok, good point. So what are you trying to say? That the general public should use the more specific word for the benefit of mathematicians?
My only point is that it's silly to mathematicians that the majority of people use the word "math(s)" to refer exclusively to arithmetic.