Math in dreams

I doubt anyone reading this has ever tried this, but can dream characters do math? I sure they could do simple things that you have memorized like 2 + 2 = 4, but do you think they could do problems like 13 x 17 or something like that?

That would be incredible if they could, it would really show how powerful the unconscious mind is, but I kind of doubt they can. I think they would probably very confidently give you a random number that is close to what you would think it would be.

Also do you think it is possible for you to do paper and pencil math in dreams? Could your mind actually keep straight what you have 'written' down? Again, I think that would be incredible if it was possible.

I remember, recently, that I was doing math in my dreams. I don't remember the exact results at all, but I think I was calculating my grades, like I often do IRL. Haha, I don't know if that really answers your question...

But it definitely shows what a big nerd I am, a math nerd especially XD

That's an interesting question. I actually had a lucid dream where a DC and I were playing a math game of some kind which involved adding/subtracting numbers. Although the DC in that dream was a sort of creepy, disembodied voice...

Regarding whether we could do math while lucid - again, I think the answer is yes. Although writing things in dreams can be unreliable. Sometimes it stays perfectly stable and consistent for me, but other times it might change or be difficult to focus on.

About a year ago, a member named nothin7 did a really interesting study on what people can do in lucid dreams. His hypothesis involved differences in brain hemisphere functioning. He even posted a PDF of the finished paper later in the thread. Good stuff, check it out:
Think you can do anything in a lucid dream? Participate in an empirical study!

Thanks DuB for that link, that was really interesting!

this is a (low priority) goal of mine, i think it would be interesting to know if i could do a bit of calculus in a dream.

You must already know the answer in order for the DC to give you one?
How about asking a question which you don't know the answer to.

I decided to try this last night and I was surprised at the results.

I became lucid while riding in the car with my parents. I asked my mom what 7x8 was and she said 6. I laughed and said, "6?" She wasn't sure of her answer after that, but she couldn't come up with a new one.

I then asked my step dad what 3x11 was and he couldn't come up with an answer, but my mom tried to reason through it. She started saying, "Well that would have three 11's..." I think she ended up saying 66 or something with a 6 in it again.

I was really hoping they'd be really quick at math. I guess I was using up that part of my brain at the time :P

Very interesting question indeed. The subconcious knows more than we do so who knows what could happen. What would happen if in a lucid dream you found a calculator and typed the following,

1921*417/3

pressed enter and got an answer. The CORRECT answer. That would be freaky. Freaky enough to wake up even. Who knows the power of the subconscious mind. If it's powerful enough to generate vast, elaborate, detailed dreamscapes, perhaps it can calculate 1921*417/3 : O

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Originally Posted by Lucid Lobster

The CORRECT answer. That would be freaky. Freaky enough to wake up even

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well, if you knew the result beforehand the brain could just put it there from memory, otherwise if you didn't then you wouldn't be able to confirm the result in the dream nd thus would not be freaked

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Originally Posted by yuriythebest

well, if you knew the result beforehand the brain could just put it there from memory, otherwise if you didn't then you wouldn't be able to confirm the result in the dream nd thus would not be freaked

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You could confrim it when you wake up.

It would be cool to summon a calculator and do some calculations on it.

Would it be possibly to make some kind of memorizing tool in a LD? Write something down on a computer or notepad, and then see if your brain can unconsciously remember it.

I don't see why that would be hard... I has seen many DCs do maths in dreams, mostly because I like to go and study in schools at lucids to see what I can find and has done operations myself, not that hard or at least not for me.
Then again I never did anything that great, like F(x)=2x^2+3 or 3w+5y+15x=9/5w+5y=4 that kind of things <.< (Yes, I wrote random numbers here)

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Originally Posted by John11

I decided to try this last night and I was surprised at the results.

I became lucid while riding in the car with my parents. I asked my mom what 7x8 was and she said 6. I laughed and said, "6?" She wasn't sure of her answer after that, but she couldn't come up with a new one.

I then asked my step dad what 3x11 was and he couldn't come up with an answer, but my mom tried to reason through it. She started saying, "Well that would have three 11's..." I think she ended up saying 66 or something with a 6 in it again.

I was really hoping they'd be really quick at math. I guess I was using up that part of my brain at the time :P

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That's awesome that you tried it! Thanks for your input. I guess the results aren't as spectacular as I was hoping, but that's one piece of information closer to understanding lucid dreaming.

I still wonder though if you can do math on paper with your conscious mind. That would be amazing to me if you can take advantage of your superior visual mind in your dream world to do math problems that are technically being done in your head that you wouldn't be able to do in the waking life.

I think the key here is getting the answer through a medium that your subconscious trusts, aka a calculator. If you do a problem on paper, it will be just as effective as doing a problem in your head in WL because you have to remember what you write down for it to exist in a dream. With a calculator, you are trusting an object in the dreamworld to perform the operation, aka your subconscious. I hypothesize that the answer will be incorrect, but who knows? If I can get my hands on a calculator in DW, I will first do simple problems, then increase the complexity gradually. This will minimize any experimental error.

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Originally Posted by TechDreamer

If you do a problem on paper, it will be just as effective as doing a problem in your head in WL because you have to remember what you write down for it to exist in a dream.

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What I mean is write down something like:

........13
.....x 16
.....------

**don't mind the periods, there there for formatting**

And then do the math while keeping you eyes on it at all times to keep it from changing. As opposed to trying to visualize that problem in your head in the waking life.

I see what you mean. In that case, I don't see any reason why you couldn't.

thanks for the clarification,
tech

Getting DC's to supply me with objects always works for me. It takes the burden of me having to believe anything and puts it on them. Hence, for all practical purposes, a calculator is essentially an inanimate DC. All I have to do is punch in some numbers and let it figure out how to come up with the answer. We still don't know how powerful the subconscious is. I'm sure that there's a limit to how "smart" it can be but as we all know, it's pretty darned clever. It knows answers that we in our conscious state do not know.

The next LD that I have, I will get somebody to bring me a calculator (or a laptop with Google on it) so that I can punch some numbers in. The hard part of this experiment will be, upon awakening, remembering not only the answer that I got but the numbers that I punched in. Not an easy task when dreams themselves are a bear to remember .. let alone extremely detailed numeric data viewed in a dream.

This is a great thread! I wish I had something better to contribute. I had a partially lucid dream where I was solving what I think was a quadratic equation by writing it down long handed. I remember that I was not able to read what I wrote down after a few lines of calculations.

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Originally Posted by Specialis Sapientia

You could confrim it when you wake up.

It would be cool to summon a calculator and do some calculations on it.

Would it be possibly to make some kind of memorizing tool in a LD? Write something down on a computer or notepad, and then see if your brain can unconsciously remember it.

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hahha, i'll try that tonight :D

ha well I had a non lucid dream a couple of weeks ago in which me and two other friends won &#163;50,000 in a competion. We had to split it between 3 and I got a calculator out and the answer came to &#163;21,225 each! it seems a bit odd that's it's an easibly workable problem and my subconscious didn't know the answer!

I actually have tried doing math in LD's just to see if its possible..And yes. It is. Only simple things though, like 2+3=5. Not much past that.

I tried doing maths in my normal and lucid dreams. For what I can say, maths in normal dreams is almost impossible for me (I once dreamt of a math test and well.. I failed miserably, got very nervous etc). In lucids, its different. I can do some simple tasks like 20x10 oder something, but not any where I have to think hard even iRL.

About the paper and pencil stuff... never tried that in ld's, but I once dreamt I was reading a newspaper article and for some reason I had to write it down again on a piece of paper. I already had problems just reading the article and remembering it's story, and couldn't write it down at all. My handwriting did always get longer, but also more blurry so I couldn't read it anymore...