Question

What would you change about math?

Answer 1

It would be a really fun idea to figure out how would the greeks and ancient civlizations would react to set theory as a foundation for mathematics. The greek in particular with their geometric bias I find it would be a bit hard to convince in light of the apparent contradictions that show up.

But I wonder if there would be a point in between where you could try to formalize a geometric algebra ( like in Artin's book ) and convince them that this makes sense and see if maybe that kickstarts some giant development more algebra focused than geometry/analysis focused as we had in history.

On the other hand Id be too woried to introduce my own biases , I think I would be much more curiou to learn about how they think about things than me trying to set them on my 21st century ways.

Answer 2

I'd keep the term imaginary from ever being applied to complex numbers. You'd be surprised by how many people I've met who believe "complex numbers don't exist" just because when they learned them in school, the word imaginary was used.

Answer 3

blasphemy.   
not the disrespect for the direction of time and entropy,   
that little symbol between the  τ and the 6.28

Answer 4

Whenever I go, I’m staying away from the Pythagoreans. I’m not trying to get disappeared for revealing math secrets!

Answer 5

Make 51 prime

Answer 6

execute anyone with a strong opinion on tau vs pi (it's inconsequential and they are deeply insufferable)

Answer 7

Make pi equal to three

Answer 8

Teach linear algebra in high school before calculus.

Answer 9

Linear Algebra. Vectors (as arrows) and their properties would probably feel quite natural to someone like Euclid and I'd be interested to see what they come up with from the axioms of a vector space. It would then give them a frame for all the math they discover later (e.g. Calculus).

Answer 10

Cumulative Distribution Functions will be left continuous by the appropriate change in definition.