For me, a lot of it has to do with how it’s presented in schools
Pi, for example. One day my teachers just kind of dumped this magical 3.14… number on me without any real explanation. Just basically “use this number to do stuff with circles,” no real explanation on what pi actually is on anything, just “remember this”
Years later I found a gif of a circle sort of unraveling that showed how the circumference is π × the diameter of the circle
And sure, mathematically, the formula tells you that, but actually seeing that animated out made a hell of a lot more sense to me.
Now I got most of my basic math education before those gifs were so readily available, and smart boards were just becoming a thing when I was in high school, so it would have been a little hard to show that to a bunch of elementary or middle school students without having us huddle around a desktop.
But that’s something that could have been illustrated pretty well with a couple circles of different sizes (cardboard cut-outs, printed on paper, different jar lids, etc,) a piece of string, and a ruler.
And the same goes for a whole lot of different math things.
You would probably enjoy 3Blue1Brown’s videos. He explains math, including some very advanced math concepts, in a very simple and accessible visual way that even I can understand.
For me, a lot of it has to do with how it’s presented in schools
Pi, for example. One day my teachers just kind of dumped this magical 3.14… number on me without any real explanation. Just basically “use this number to do stuff with circles,” no real explanation on what pi actually is on anything, just “remember this”
Years later I found a gif of a circle sort of unraveling that showed how the circumference is π × the diameter of the circle
And sure, mathematically, the formula tells you that, but actually seeing that animated out made a hell of a lot more sense to me.
Now I got most of my basic math education before those gifs were so readily available, and smart boards were just becoming a thing when I was in high school, so it would have been a little hard to show that to a bunch of elementary or middle school students without having us huddle around a desktop.
But that’s something that could have been illustrated pretty well with a couple circles of different sizes (cardboard cut-outs, printed on paper, different jar lids, etc,) a piece of string, and a ruler.
And the same goes for a whole lot of different math things.
You would probably enjoy 3Blue1Brown’s videos. He explains math, including some very advanced math concepts, in a very simple and accessible visual way that even I can understand.