CNET — Math! It’s hard! For some people it’s really...

Math! It’s hard!

For some people it’s really hard. They remember taking pre-calculous in High School and… just, oh man, it all comes rushing back! The anxiety, the frustration. Dear God, it’s too much for a mere mortal to bare.

Other people are more, “Calm down! Sure it can be confusing, but it’s not wizardry.”

“Yes, it is,” the fearful cry. “People who are good at math must be wizards! ”

But the thing is, math nerds aren’t, in fact, wizards. They’re just brave:

Using brain scans, [scientists at the University of Chicago] concluded that the mere thought of having to solve a math problem causes quasi-physical pain.
Medical XPress quoted Ian Lyons, a psychology graduate from the University of Chicago and a postdoctoral scholar at Western University in Ontario, Canada: “The brain activation does not happen during math performance, suggesting that it is not the math itself that hurts; rather the anticipation of math is painful.”

There is nothing to fear but the fear of math.