Incomplete picture link, Steve. I always liked your photos. Please fix.
Thx,
djm
Je ne comprends pas. The pic is popping up all right this end!
When I check the source for this page, the link just says photobucket.com. There is no data to specify user/folder/image. Perhaps you can see it on your PC, but I am not seeing anything that would allow me to see it.
djm
Is that a dog with barnacles on it?
Math is being able to count the barnacles.
As a first grader, I told my teacher “I don’t need to know math, I’m going to be a scientist”.
So far so good.
Einstein said: “Calculus is simple, algebra is easy and arithmetic is impossible!” A man after my own heart. 
Doc
Why, that would be little Winnie Cooper! My kids loved that show. Is it true that Paul grew up to become Marilyn Manson? 
I don’t understand the problem, djm. Are you saying you can’t see the photo at all? sbfluter can see it and so can I. I don’t know what else to do! Can everyone else see it? 
Here’s the link again
And it’s a bit of twisted metal shaped like a dog sticking up out of the sand, about 18" high, with barnacles and seaweed. I thought it bore an uncanny resemblance to dwest’s doggie avatar!
Especially if your child is an atheist.
Huh… I always figgerd them Brits said “Maths” cuzza on acounta they got a lisp… or sumthin’.
I think so too.
But not all of them 
Physics and maths 
David
Another math geek, checking in. Where’s the new thread you mentioned?
I agree with what others said about speaking to a 6-year-old in terms she can understand. As to the broader question of “what is math?” (or “what are mathematics?”) in general, that’s a tough one. You’ll probably have better luck getting the NON-math geeks to commit to an answer – to those of us who love math, the field is so vast and beautiful that we have a hard time knowing where to begin a description.
As for the picture, I never knew an Irish Water Spaniel would hold still long enough to develop barnacles. 
(It IS an Irish Water Spaniel, isn’t it?) Having had golden retrievers for several decades but now owning a Labrador retriever, I no longer make jokes about Labs being for people who don’t have the gumption to groom a golden. That’s me now, and loving it!
I’ve wondered, does math exist in the universe or only in our thoughts? If we never discovered it, would it exist? You could ask the same about music.
Tony
I have one word: fractals. I personally can’t look at a photo of a snowflake or any number of other things that exhibit fractal growth without thinking of math. Putting it into terms we understand is a human thing, but the actual stuff of math is intrinsic to nature.
Ah, one of the big questions in philosophy of mathematics: is mathematics “created” or “discovered”? I lean toward the “created” camp.
“God made the integers, all else is the work of man.”
I can half agree with that
Something along the lines of the tree falling in the forest; do the numbers exist if there is no-one to count them?
djm
Which is an irresistable opener for:
If a man says something in the forest and no one hears him, is he still wrong?
aw…you’re teasin’…you know he is
Hey, wait a minute. I loved math, biology, and physics.
What’s that make me?