Duke professors challenge term "miles per gallon"

The News & Observer (NC) ^ | June 19, 2008 | Eric Ferreri

[Fundamentally Fair]

Anybody who thinks today's youth are more educated hasn't taught undergrads very recently. I have: it's like running a high-school.

Amen. I'm currently teaching undergrads in Logistics Management. I don't know which is worse...their math or writing.

[MrB]

I’m homeschooling my kids,

and my overarching theme is going to be

“Impervious to Nonsense”.

Economics, logical thinking, and Biblical values.

[NewHampshireDuo]

It’d probably be more useful expressed as a logarithmic term, like sound levels in dB.

[Drango]

Mark Twain is a good way to measure also....

[MeanWestTexan]

Well, to quote my partner (when discussing a Citation), “if it flys, floats, or f!@ks, rent it!”

[LearsFool]

The best place would be your own kitchen table, IMHO.

Best answer I've ever heard. You deserve a prize, but your kids will be the real winners.

[Locomotive Breath]

To their credit, the B school faculty were not part of the infamous Gang of 88 lynch mob of faculty. To their discredit, they were silent.

[Wyatt's Torch]

I was trying to show that the increase in efficiency from 18 to 28 was greater (55.6%) than the increase in efficiency from 34 to 50 (47.06%) even though the first increased by only 10 gallons while the second increased by 14. I did not do a comparison of the two together like you did. But thanks for calculating it though.

[bornred]

Quick, how much gas do you need to drive 10,000 annual miles

But realistically, I'm more interested in answering questions like:

I only have cash on hand for 5 gallons. How far will that get me?

How much gas will it take me to drive 300 miles to visit my aunt?

What is the relative cost of driving to a store 25 miles away, versus the one 10 miles away?

The situations in which I have to deal with multiples of 1000 miles are rare.

[Gaffer]

There is money involved here somewhere. I'd bet my a$$ that these two are trying to get some kind of research grant or award/contract. They can't be this asinine to be actually posing this new 'revelation'.

[FredZarguna]

Amen. I'm currently teaching undergrads in Logistics Management. I don't know which is worse...their math or writing.

You probably have the toughest comparison of anybody who needs to make one. I suspect in the Liberal Arts and Humanities Colleges of various stripes they're so innumerate they don't even know there's a problem with basic arithmetic -- let alone mathematical reasoning and skills.

Having taught Physics to (mostly) science and engineering students, I had an easy read. Their math was mostly just average to poor, but they were functionally illiterate. Some of them even had the temerity to argue with me about it when I corrected them: "this isn't an English class," was a common refrain. My response essentially was, "if you aren't interested in being an educated person, that's your problem, but I can tell you that you're going to make a lot less money when your boss learns you can't write or spell." Many were actually skeptical of that claim.

The disrupter claiming everybody on this thread is an ignoramus because we aren't impressed by everything done in academia cracks me up. Education, like youth, is often wasted on the wrong people.

[Bob]

...he said they are so busy writing papers and trying to make tenure, no one is teaching anything.

Judging by this article, I wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing.

[Gaffer]

I’d say the people used in developing the ‘experimental results’ are plain idiots that deserve to buy the gas guzzlers.....

[TexasNative2000]

"Inches per ounce?"

No - wait. That applies to another important measurement. . . . . .

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Anybody remember this one?

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93qleagues.phtml

[okie01]

Amen. I'm currently teaching undergrads in Logistics Management. I don't know which is worse...their math or writing.

Several years ago, I had an adjunct gig at a major university in North Texas. It was a 3-hr course in Media Planning & Buying for Advertising majors -- an upper division course, required for graduation in the major.

It was a Monday evening course, opposite Monday Nite Football, but the kids showed up -- bright and eager to learn.

Except...they were incapable of doing so. I gave a test question the first night -- calculate a Cost/1,000 readers (CPM) for a 4-color page in Time magazine costing $40,000 and reaching 2,100,000 readers (or something like that).

Simple long division, what we learned in the 4th grade.

Calculators were allowed.

Of 36 students, six produced the correct answer. SIX!!! College Juniors and Seniors. Majoring in a trade which required mastery of simple (but not advanced) mathematics.

Neither could they write a coherent paragraph.

All those bright, eager-to-learn young faces had never been asked to learn a damn thing.

A very depressing experience...

[VOA]

Of 36 students, six produced the correct answer. SIX!!! College Juniors
and Seniors. Majoring in a trade which required mastery of simple
(but not advanced) mathematics.

I'd hazard a guess...maybe all but the six had never been exposed
to the joys of attaching units (descriptors) to each number in
in their calculation.
It wasn't till I got to grad school that I was indoctrinated
in that liberating concept.

And even rocket scientists that don't check each other's numbers
AND descriptors do so at their peril.
If I understand correctly, that's how NASA had one (or two?)
Mars probes did a "deep impact"...because of the two groups on
the project, one used metric units and the other used English units.

[mountainbunny]

“My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!"... Grandpa Abe Simpson.

[okie01]

Granted, with many it was a question of where they put the decimal point. Some, of course, ended up with the reciprocal.

But over half ended up with an incomprehensible number (in the sense of where it might've come from).

They simply didn't know how to do long division...

My beeber was stuned...

[Hoodat]

So basically, instead of saying “27 miles per gallon”, they want it listed as “1/27th of a gallon per mile”. Well, OK then.