@rover83?ÿ
Me either, and I actually liked it. I went to parochial school and we started beginner algebra in the 7th grade. ?????ÿ
I believe it was in the Eighth Grade when my teacher introduced me to algebra and logarithms so as to keep me challenged while my classmates were still mastering the basics.?ÿ I had a ton of fun working through the little puzzles that are the meat and potatoes of algebra.?ÿ We all do algebra all the time whether we realize it or not.
We all do algebra all the time whether we realize it or not.
Not where I live. Prior to idiot proof cash registers have you ever watched a cashier try and figure out sales tax on $1? ?????ÿ
Hey, Dude.?ÿ Help me out.?ÿ I snuck this $100 bill out of my roommate's wallet when he wasn't looking.?ÿ I need to put $30 worth of gas in my cousin's old beater.?ÿ How much good stuff can I buy at the dispensary??ÿ Like, when would it be gone?
Not where I live. Prior to idiot proof cash registers have you ever watched a cashier try and figure out sales tax on $1?
Where I live that would be $0.00. No sales tax in Oregon.
Algebra=most useless math class ever, hands down.?ÿ Never used one part of it outside of the classroom.?ÿ I don't hate much, but I have a special hate for algebra.
I assume you are being sarcastic? It's hard to be a surveyor without using some algerbra. What do you do when there is no evidence of a corner. Stub it in ar the record measument from one direction?
Critical thinking exercise: If I have 5 doughnuts on a plate and eat two of them, how many doughnuts do I have??ÿ
If you said 3, you're just applying rote arithmetic. Thinking critically, the correct answer is 5; 3 on my plate and 2 in my tummy.
For those who remember Popeye the Sailor Man, you might remember the occasion where he had to return to school and work his way through, starting with First Grade.?ÿ In some early class he was given this math problem:?ÿ You are given three apples to share equally with seven friends.?ÿ How do you do this?
He thought and thought and came up with: Ya makes applesauce.
Ya makes applesauce.
With Olive Oyl........ ?????ÿ
Everyone learns algebra in the first grade.?ÿ They just happen to use 1+1=? instead of 1+1=X
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I don't hate algebra, I use basic algebra often.?ÿ I did not do well with advanced math when it became abstract symbols and formulas.?ÿ Maybe it's because my High School Algebra teacher was a humorless middle aged man and my Geometry teacher was a cute 20 something young lady so I paid more attention to her.?ÿ My brother said Mr. So-and-So was the best math teacher in the world, sure I thought, for the first 2 weeks, after that it started getting too greek.
What I found from giving flight instruction was subjects I struggled with I was a better instructor, things that came naturally to me I had a harder time because it was difficult to break down the elements of what was obvious to me.?ÿ I think most math teachers are natural mathematicians which is why they are so hard to understand.?ÿ I think I would rather have a math teacher who struggled to get Cs and Ds in college. It makes no difference if the subject is obvious to you, it's me that is trying to understand it.
My Dad slept through college calculus classes and got straight As.?ÿ He got it by osmosis.?ÿ Why couldn't you pass those genetics down, Dad?
Did you enjoy or still enjoy the Martin Gardner puzzles from the NYT??ÿ Those things really lit a fire under me not just for math, but for real intrinsically driven problem solving.
Edit, I knew of the Scientific American, i was confabulating the NYT i think because I was picking up Some of the puzzles via NPR and Will Shortz, and he mentioned Gardner often.
Occasionally. A lot of Gardner's puzzles were too hard for me to solve in a few minutes, but they did make me think in different ways. A lot of them were counting problems and counting is hard. Just ask any HR person in a somewhat large company how many people work there.
I've probably learned more from Ian Stewart and Richard Feynman than any other authors. Stewart's style is compatible with my reading and Feynman demonstrated that it's ok for people to interject humor into their serious pursuits.
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