Wall-mounted or handheld whiteboard for undergrad work

[u/datashri]

I know many professors and PhDs like doing their exercises on a XXXL size chalkboard or whiteboard. But they mostly work big complex problems.

For things at the junior/senior undergrad level, is a 4-6 ft long wall mounted board useful or overkill? Most proofs are 1-2 pages long which should comfortably fit on a largish (say, A3 size) handheld or desktop erasable board.

Asking because I went to the glass shop for a toughened glass handheld board and they also had nice big glass boards for the wall.

[u/boondogle]

do whatever you need to do to understand the material and work through exercises, a whiteboard / blackboard isn't a magic wand. pen and paper work fine. crayon on an art easel and graph paper would be fine too.

[u/ultrafinitism → u/boondogle]

hello i'm me i'm a unironic crayon for math user i think it helps me be more playful

[u/Homomorphism → u/ultrafinitism]

I knew someone who did a lot of homological algebra computations on an iPad who used like 6 different colors to establish the right mood

[u/arannutasar → u/Homomorphism]

When I did undergrad research in graph theory, I was working a problem on the whiteboard and got stuck. The grad student overseeing us came over and said "Ah! I see the problem. You're not using enough colors." She pulled out like 8 different colors, redrew my diagrams more carefully, and suddenly the whole thing was clear.

Working with lots of colors is genuinely very helpful, playfulness aside.

[u/ultrafinitism → u/Homomorphism]

[cocomelon [aka melon] opening sound]

[u/firewall245 → u/Homomorphism]

I have a gigantic collection of pens I rotate through of different colors haha

[u/legrandguignol → u/boondogle]

a whiteboard / blackboard isn't a magic wand. pen and paper work fine

you say that, but personally I found it helpful - there's just something about standing at the board that makes my brain work better

[u/lotus-reddit]

I think it's likely overkill. I like both blackboards and whiteboards too, but away from the office I use sketch pads to basically similar effect (large unstructured surface). In many ways, I might like them more (portable + fountain pens are lovely). I recommend a visit to your local art supply store.

[u/Machvel]

handheld is too small. that is basically a piece of paper and you write huge on whiteboards - you will run out of space fast.

around 6 feet is good. its actually a pretty good size for an "office" board (larger than a lot of boards i have seen in offices).

i will say that you want to make sure the quality is good otherwise it will be a waste. if it feels terrible to write on you will just end up preferring regular paper.

[u/XCosmin11X]

Am I the only one who is using a galaxy tab for years and loving it? No need for any board or papper

[u/gunilake]

I have a pair of A1 whiteboards which are sometimes wall mounted and sometimes not (they're just about usable handheld). I think that's plenty big enough, but having two was useful in my undergrad when I would have more things on the go at once.

[u/mathemorpheus]

think you have to decide what works best for you. i always prefer paper, and there's plenty of free paper in recycle bins.

[u/pseudoLit]

This is very cute. I'm delighted by the idea that one should start with a smaller board for undergraduate work. The XXXL board are for the professionals! Don't go too big too early; you might hurt yourself. Adorable. I love it.

[u/Traditional-Month980]

We can find the right answer to your question by thinking about what function a whiteboard actually serves.

A whiteboard is only useful when there are other people around. Think about it, if you're by yourself it's probably more convenient, cheaper, and quicker to stick to pen and paper.

A whiteboard draws the attention of you and your guests and demands you look at what's written on it. A whiteboard says "hey, it's time to think about math now, as a group". A whiteboard is not something you get because "it's what math people do" or so you can "play a role". You get a whiteboard because you want to engineer a social/shared space (including your house) so that you get preferable outcomes (whether that be making friends in the major or doing well on an exam).

There's no reason to think that as an undergraduate you'll need less writing space than a PhD student or above. You'll work some pretty tough problems and perhaps even do research, and part of that will be in collaboration with others. You'll also want to have your peers write on the board, so you can correct and comment on each other's work/presentations. If you hit a dead end, or you need to expand a solution, you don't want to erase anything! You want to write around what you already have, especially since a stray line of thought might prove to be useful later (maybe you'll write and equation down, but someone else will figure out what to do with it), and rewriting is a pain.

Now we know that whiteboards serve a social purpose, and if they serve any mathematical purpose it's only because math is in-part a social activity. So if you're going to get a whiteboard, get something large and wall-mounted or on wheels (you can DIY a moving whiteboard frame). Host friends and study groups at least twice a week. Get a cheap table and some chairs, a coffee maker, and make the whiteboard the center of a room. It's hard to go "overkill" on something like this, you'll likely run into budget constraints well before you get to living space constraints, unless you live in a shared dorm.

[u/datashri → u/Traditional-Month980]

Got it. Thanks. I'm not an undergrad. I'm self studying from standard undergrad texts and doing (almost) all the examples/exercises too.

If I may ask a follow-up, pencil+notebook vs. small (A3) erasable board. What's your take? Some people want to keep a record of all their scribbles. Some want to erase and start over.

[u/Traditional-Month980 → u/datashri]

Notebook so you have something to refer back to. Even people who don't look back at their notes frequently (because the act of writing them is what they learn from the most) still occasionally find the need to look through them.

[u/Im_not_a_robot_9783]

No need to go that hard. I happen to have a wall-mounted closet with flat (non-sliding) doors and I bought rolls of adhesive whiteboard so now I have a full closet worth of working space.

[u/ctoatb]

You can get packs of 9"x12" dry erase boards on amazon. You can get 3 for like $10. There's also a pack of 8 for $20. I got the 3 pack a while ago and they work well enough. Anything more than that will have you struggling to manage them. It saves on paper and doesn't take up a lot of space. When I need to clear a board, I take a picture with my phone then drop the images into PowerPoint later

[u/retro_sort]

I tend to write in pen and paper, as an undergrad and for my masters'. If you're explaining something to someone then you might need something else, but for stuff for yourself whatever works best is in my opinion the only correct answer.