I am very sensitive about this thread, since I am teaching a course about "teaching Mathematics", so I am deeply interested in what people think - more or less consciously -about maths.
The first comment is about the relation
maths= equations
A lot of maths is done without equations or numbers at all, and usually mathematicians don't like to computate - indeed, there are a lot of attempts to let the computer computate even algebraic calculus, to avoid mistakes, and boring computations
All the greek geometry was developed without equations...
Just after Descartes, and the cartesian coordinates, they have been used, as a powerful tool. but even now, a proof made without coordinates is considered somehow more elegant.
In this context, we could say that an asymptote to a given curve is a "tangent" to the curve in a point "at the infinity".
The second comment is about "really smart math guys"
I know that it was not intended to say anything not polite, (please, please, don't be offended) but it seems express the idea that maths is a Male stuff. I deeply disagree with that.
