Humans Hard-wired for Geometry

hcg50a writes "An article on MSNBC reports that, according to a new study, even if you never learned the difference between a triangle, a rectangle and a trapezoid, and you never used a ruler, a compass or a map, you would still do well on some basic geometry tests, because we are hard-wired for geometry, rather than learning it from teachers or cultural influences."

Now I understand why...

[Anonymous Coward]

People are always calling me square.

Tell my teacher that, sheesh

[Jim in Buffalo]

We're hard-wired for geometry? Sheesh, let's tell my 10th-grade Math teacher that... she'd point over to me and laugh in your face.

Re:That's nothing. We're hardwired for calculus.

[CentraSpike]

who says dogs can't solve problems that humans can - i'm sure it's just a question of motivation :)

Re:3D world

[SIGFPE]

I remember reading once about how the brain will recognize faces in natural formations (i.e. face on mars, clouds, etc).

Um...if you have a brain of your own (borrow one if you don't) you could try this out for yourself. It's not exactly some obscure experiment that you can only "read about".

Actually

[Anonymous Coward]

God compiled geometry into our kernel.

Re:Now I understand why...

[Wolfrider]

Arr, my hardwiring sucks; I failed geometry -- twice. But it was teh teacher, I tell yaz - I got a C in night school and an A in summer school. So put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, Mister Moor from Gordon Tech!

[ God, I feel old - I just looked up the faculty list and he's STILL THERE! ]

Re:Yes

[Kierthos]

No, no... dogs can't. Cows can't. Cat's won't. Why should cats bother when people will do everything for them?

Kierthos

Re:old news

[rob_squared]

Yeah, but everyone knows he did his best work as a zombie.

Re:Signal to noise

[LoverOfJoy]

Are we sure those cats and dogs really can't find their way home? Maybe they just don't want to go home. :)

Re:That's nothing. We're hardwired for calculus.

[ozbird]

If I gave you a board, a piece of string, scissors, and a saw, you could cut the board exactly in half in a short amount of time. How? You'd lay the string out on the board, cut them to match length, fold the string in half, and lay the string out on the board again, making the cut at the end of the string.

Sounds overly complicated to me - I'd just cut it corner to opposite corner.