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On 29-5-2011 23:18, Stephen wrote:
> On 29/05/2011 10:03 PM, andrel wrote:
>> You do at the age you (or actually we, the old men in this group)
>> learned long division.
>
> I never memorised the tables, as in being able to say 3 X 4 = 12. I had
> to recite them and stop at the right place.
> Three nothings are nothing.
> Three ones are three.
> Three twos are six.
> Three threes are nine.
> Three fours are twelve.
> Three fives are, oops!
> Three fours are twelve.
>
Interesting, someone between old school and the calculator generation.
I think the most relevant question in this context is: Do you understand
long division and if so at what age did you learn it?
--
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per
citizen per day.
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On 30/05/2011 11:49 PM, andrel wrote:
> Interesting, someone between old school and the calculator generation.
> I think the most relevant question in this context is: Do you understand
> long division and if so at what age did you learn it?
It depends what you mean by "Old" school. When I was at school,
calculators were mechanical and you turned a handle to power them.
Yes I understand long division and I can generally divide by two digits
in my head if the dividend is not too big. I really can't remember when
I was taught it, at a guess I would say, about 9 years of age.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 5/25/2011 14:10, Alain wrote:
> It's a king of mental jogging :)
I used to be able to do 4 and 5 digit long division in my head, back in
grade school.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On 5/29/2011 4:12, Rudy Velthuis wrote:
> simply because it is not very pragmatic not to know them.
Indeed. Actually, there was one event that eventually convinced my very
smart wife that there are *actually* people in the world who are not very
smart. She'd never actually encountered it as a gut feeling before.
We're in a store. We're buying something that's $20, but 60% off. The clerk
is taking *minutes* to try to figure out the price. She finally digs out a
calculator, figures out the answer is 12, and then hopelessly says "But is
that the discount, or the price?" My wife finally snaps and goes "It's 60%!
It's more than half!"
So, yeah, I think you must have at some point memorized the multiplication
tables and used them a bit to get a feeling for such things.
Nowadays, I like to torture people when I buy $10.20 worth of stuff by
giving the person a $20, waiting until they've rung it up, then handing them
another $0.25 coin, and watch them struggle helplessly trying to figure out
what the change should be on their own. (Actually, there's a dilbert about
that that's pretty funny.)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On 5/29/2011 6:51, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> FWIW, my teachers also utterly failed to demonstrate that literature can be
> enjoyable.
My problem with many of those subjects is that nobody ever said why we'd
need to know that stuff. Why in the world do I need to read The Great
Gatsby? Or Macbeth? Now I know, and I regret not having actually read them
properly when I had the time to do so.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On 06/06/2011 04:27 PM, Darren New wrote:
> We're in a store. We're buying something that's $20, but 60% off. The
> clerk is taking *minutes* to try to figure out the price. She finally
> digs out a calculator, figures out the answer is 12, and then hopelessly
> says "But is that the discount, or the price?" My wife finally snaps and
> goes "It's 60%! It's more than half!"
Three words: Verizon math fail.
> So, yeah, I think you must have at some point memorized the
> multiplication tables and used them a bit to get a feeling for such things.
You don't need to memorise anything to be able to solve basic estimation
problems. You just need to *have* a frigging clue.
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On 06/06/2011 04:29 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 5/29/2011 6:51, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> FWIW, my teachers also utterly failed to demonstrate that literature
>> can be
>> enjoyable.
>
> My problem with many of those subjects is that nobody ever said why we'd
> need to know that stuff. Why in the world do I need to read The Great
> Gatsby? Or Macbeth? Now I know, and I regret not having actually read
> them properly when I had the time to do so.
OK, I'll bite: Why the hell should anybody, anywhere, *ever* read Macbeth?
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On 06/06/2011 4:51 PM, Invisible wrote:
>
> OK, I'll bite: Why the hell should anybody, anywhere, *ever* read Macbeth?
So that they can memorise their lines to put on the play.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 6/6/2011 8:51, Invisible wrote:
> OK, I'll bite: Why the hell should anybody, anywhere, *ever* read Macbeth?
Because it's full of words and expressions that are shortcut references to
entire sets of memes in educated society. Just like if someone truly ugly
walks past and I whistle the Wicked Witch of the West theme music, it brings
in a whole packet of memes and concepts which are incomprehensible if you
haven't watched the movie. If you hear something referred to as a "red shirt
assignment" in a military context, you'll have no idea what that means if
you're not familiar with Star Trek. If someone is complaining, and I tell
you "that's just sour grapes", you'll have no idea I'm telling you the same
thing as an "Ar Du" unless you were familiar with the literature of both
Grimm and China.
It's the same thing with shakespear and all those sorts of things. If I told
you he's got a scarlet letter on his chest, you wouldn't know what that
means different from having a scarlet letter on his mantelpiece unless
you're familiar with both those novels. It's just the educated man's way of
saying "African or European Swallow?"
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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>> OK, I'll bite: Why the hell should anybody, anywhere, *ever* read
>> Macbeth?
>
> So that they can memorise their lines to put on the play.
Well, that's why *I* read Macbeth. But that's a pretty stupid
justification...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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