'Some of you who have small children may have found yourself in the embarrassing position yt of not being able to do your child's mathematics homework...'Ugh, reactionary idiocy. First of all "New Math" came out in the 1960s, before this guy was even born. Or maybe he's doing a cover of something that came out in the 1960s, I don't know.
Never been in the grocery store with just $10 in your pocket and needed to know how many packages of 79 cent kim-chi ramen you could buy?Yeah I have been broke but this was never really a problem. You can estimate it pretty easily. No one would take out a piece of paper and actually calculate 1,000/79 using long division. It's easy to figure out because .79 is close to .80, .80 * 10 = 8.00 and that leaves you with $2. And you figure you can get two more for a total of 12.
This is an empirical question. You've made several pretty strong claims here; are you familiar with the research literature on this?I'm talking about what people do in real life, whether it's estimating stuff at the grocery store, or using computers while doing science and math. I would argue that learning a skill that will never be used, instead of learning skills that will be used is obvious, and the opposite is the extraordinary claim that needs lots of evidence. My 'empirical data' here is everyday life.
He gets paid by the hour. Shortcuts aren't to his advantage.Cashers get paid whether they are checking out or not. And by the way, when you actually do jobs like that you can't wait to get off work, even though you're being paid by the hour.
Writing out the 7 times table doesn't require any math. Draw a 3 x 3 grid. starting from the top right, working your way down to the bottom left by columns, write 1 – 9Sorry, that counts as math. Not arithmetic (in terms of what you learn in elementary school) but still math.
See, here's the thing. I can teach a high school student algebra. Totally. I can get down with the whole concept of that crazy unknown x, and the Cartesian coordinate system, and all the rest of it. Easy to teach. What I can't do is start from scratch and teach a kid how to add two damn numbers together, or their entire times tables.First of all, those kids actually did get basic mathematical education in school. It just didn't take, apparently. Apparently a lot of places teach elementary students math differently now then in the 1980s but if they just got the basic pencil/paper algorithm drills then and don't have a good number sense now then can't that be attributed to the type of math education they got. Teaching kids "number sense" is exactly what I'm talking about
But hey! Why not use a calculator, you say? Well, you've clearly forgotten just how much simple math is involved in basic algebra. Pull out a calculator for every single damn calculation and you're solving one question every half hour or so.Well, I had a graphing calculator that could solve algebraic equations in highschool. In fact in Algebra ii they gave everyone a Ti-83. By the time I got to calculus I had '92 that could differentiate and integrate for me.
α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω α γ ε η ι λ ν ο ρ τ φ ψ βα βγ βε βη βι βλ βν βο βρ βτ βφ βψ α δ η κ ν π τ χ βα βδ βη βκ βν βπ βτ βχ γα γδ γη γκ γν γπ γτ γχ α ε ι ν ρ φ βα βε βι βν βρ βφ γα γε γι γν γρ γφ δα δε δι δν δρ δφ α ζ λ π φ ββ βη βμ βρ βχ γγ γθ γν γσ γψ δδ δι δξ δτ δω εε εκ εο ευ α η ν τ βα βη βν βτ γα γη γν γτ δα δη δν δτ εα εη εν ετ ζα ζη ζν ζτ α θ ο χ βε βμ βτ γβ γι γπ γψ δζ δν δυ εγ εκ ερ εω ζη ζξ ζφ ηδ ηλ ησ α ι ρ βα βι βρ γα γι γρ δα δι δρ εα ει ερ ζα ζι ζρ ηα ηι ηρ θα θι θρ α κ τ βδ βν βχ γη γπ δα δκ δτ εδ εν εχ ζη ζπ ηα ηκ ητ θδ θν θχ ιη ιπ α λ φ βη βρ γγ γν γψ δι δτ εε εο ζα ζλ ζφ ηη ηρ θγ θν θψ ιι ιτ κε κο α μ ψ βκ βφ γθ γτ δζ δρ εδ εο ζβ ζν ζω ηλ ηχ θι θυ ιη ισ κε κπ λγ λξ α ν βα βν γα γν δα δν εα εν ζα ζν ηα ην θα θν ια ιν κα κν λα λν μα μν α ξ βγ βπ γε γσ δη δυ ει εχ ζλ ζω ην θβ θο ιδ ιρ κζ κτ λθ λφ μκ μψ νμ α ο βε βτ γι γψ δν εγ ερ ζη ζφ ηλ θα θο ιε ιτ κι κψ λν μγ μρ νη νφ ξλ α π βη βχ γν δδ δτ εκ ζα ζπ ηη ηχ θν ιδ ιτ κκ λα λπ μη μχ νν ξδ ξτ οκ α ρ βι γα γρ δι εα ερ ζι ηα ηρ θι ια ιρ κι λα λρ μι να νρ ξι οα ορ πι α σ βλ γδ γφ δξ εη εω ζρ ηκ θγ θυ ιν κζ κψ λπ μι νβ ντ ξμ οε οχ πο ρθ α τ βν γη δα δτ εν ζη ηα ητ θν ιη κα κτ λν μη να ντ ξν οη πα πτ ρν ση α υ βο γκ δε δω ετ ζξ ηι θδ θψ ισ κν λθ μγ μχ νρ ξμ οη πβ πφ ρπ σλ τζ α φ βρ γν δι εε ζα ζφ ηρ θν ιι κε λα λφ μρ νν ξι οε πα πφ ρρ σν τι υε α χ βτ γπ δν εκ ζη ηδ θα θχ ιτ κπ λν μκ νη ξδ οα οχ πτ ρπ σν τκ υη φδ α ψ βφ γτ δρ εο ζν ηλ θι ιη κε λγ μα μψ νφ ξτ ορ πο ρν σλ τι υη φε χγ α ω βψ γχ δφ ευ ζτ ησ θρ ιπ κο λξ μν νμ ξλ οκ πι ρθ ση τζ υε φδ χγ ψβWhat?
| 9 | 9.0 | 4.5 | 3.000000 | 2.25 | 1.8 | 1.500000 | 1.285714 | 1.125 | 0.999999 | | 8 | 8.0 | 4.0 | 2.666666 | 2.00 | 1.6 | 1.333333 | 1.142857 | 1.000 | 0.888888 | | 7 | 7.0 | 3.5 | 2.333333 | 1.75 | 1.4 | 1.166666 | 1.000000 | 0.875 | 0.777777 | | 6 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 2.000000 | 1.50 | 1.2 | 1.000000 | 0.857142 | 0.750 | 0.666666 | | 5 | 5.0 | 2.5 | 1.666666 | 1.25 | 1.0 | 0.833333 | 0.714285 | 0.625 | 0.555555 | | 4 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 1.333333 | 1.00 | 0.8 | 0.666666 | 0.571428 | 0.500 | 0.444444 | | 3 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 1.000000 | 0.75 | 0.6 | 0.500000 | 0.428571 | 0.375 | 0.333333 | | 2 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.666666 | 0.50 | 0.4 | 0.333333 | 0.285714 | 0.250 | 0.222222 | | 1 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.333333 | 0.25 | 0.2 | 0.166666 | 0.142857 | 0.125 | 0.111111 | |---+-----+-----+----------+------+-----+----------+----------+-------+----------| | ÷ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |I find the division table simpler than the multiplication table in most respects, and it illustrates many useful patterns that I didn't figure out until much later. On the other hand, you can see that 7 is extra tricky here as well.
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posted by Wolfdog at 9:21 AM on September 27, 2011 [7 favorites]