Posted on 12/30/2006 9:36:31 AM PST by achilles2000
Math pop quiz stumps Randi
BY ERIN EINHORN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Talk about a high-stakes test. The radio audience was live and the question for teachers union president Randi Weingarten involved sixth-grade math: "What's 1/3rd plus 1/4th?"...
Mike Pesca, who was filling in for Lehrer, introduced the show's education topic by saying American college grads can't do basic math while high school grads in Canada and middle-schoolers in India have no trouble.
After Weingarten stumbled, another guest quickly produced the correct answer: 7/12ths, leaving Weingarten to explain herself.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Their. LOL.
only works with single fractoral integers.
teeman
"Just for the helluva it, could someone please post the method of adding 1/3 and 1/4??????"
Here ya go.
| ADDING FRACTIONS | PROOF | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Numerator (on top) | A | + | C | A | + | C | + | E | A | + | C | |||||||||||
| Denominator (on bottom) | B | D | B | D | F | B | D | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | + | 4 | 7 | + | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| Multipy EACH Numerator times the Denominator of all OTHER fractions. Add the results (this is the NEW Numerator) |
(AxD) + (CxB) | (AxDxF) + (CxBxF) + (ExBxD) | (AxD) + (CxB) | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | x | 4 | = | 4 | 1 | x | 4 | x | 7 | = | 28 | 7 | x | 7 | = | 49 | ||||||
| 1 | x | 3 | = | 3 | 1 | x | 3 | x | 7 | = | 21 | 4 | x | 12 | = | 48 | ||||||
| 7 | 4 | x | 3 | x | 4 | = | 48 | 97 | ||||||||||||||
| 97 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Multipy the Denominators of all fractions. | BxD | BxDxF | BxD | |||||||||||||||||||
| The result is the NEW Denominator. | 3 | x | 4 | = | 12 | 3 | x | 4 | x | 7 | = | 84 | 12 | x | 7 | = | 84 | |||||
| Write the above results as a fraction. | 1 | + | 1 | = | 7 | 1 | + | 1 | + | 7 | = | 97 | 7 | + | 4 | = | 97 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 84 | 12 | 7 | 84 | |||||||||||||
| Reduce it to it's lowest common denominator. | = | 7 | = | 1 | 13 | = | 1 | 13 | ||||||||||||||
| 12 | 84 | 84 | ||||||||||||||||||||
The excuse of needing paper to show her work rings hollow on two counts: first it takes a real idiot to not be able to get 12 as the product of the denominators as a common denominator, see that the numerators when over the denominator 12 will be 1 x 4 = 4 and 1 x 3 = 3, and add them to get the numerator of 7 all in one's head.
Second, public school teachers actually seem to go out of their way to discourage showing work: the grade on the basis of the answer only, no partial credit for substantially correct work, don't dock students for not showing work, and accept papers where the work and/or answers only are packed into space that makes such work as is shown unreadable.
For Kennedy, no matter the question, the answer will always be..... a fifth.
N and N+1 never have a common factor, so their LCM is always N*(N+1).
E.g. 104 = 2*2*2*13 and 105 = 3*5*7 .
Note also 1/N - 1/(N+1) = 1/( N*(N+1) ), which is a lot of fun.
Notice this provides a proof of the above!
...for those who choose to join his merry band.
I teach in Virginia, we are a 'right to work' state. We cannot be compelled to be in any union as a condition of employment or continued employment. You may be in what is considered an 'at will' state where you can be compelled to be in a union.
In fact, in my school of about 65 teachers, about 15 or so are in the NEA (or VEA). In my type of state unions have no teeth and are nothing more than professional organizations.
* Alabama
* Arizona - (established by state's Constitution, not by statute)
* Arkansas - (established by state's Constitution, not by statute)
* Florida - (established by state's Constitution, not by statute)
* Georgia
* Idaho
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Oklahoma - (established by state's Constitution, not by statute)
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Virginia
* Wyoming
LOL! Of course, if you find the appropriate common denominator, you are also not guaranteed to have a fraction in lowest terms. (Example: 1/3+1/6. Common denominator is 6, so 1/3+1/6=2/6+1/6=3/6=1/2.) By the way, in school you are taught to find the least common multiple of the denominators by factoring them. This works fine with small numbers, but truth be told, factoring numbers can be extremely difficult if they have more than several digits. The efficient way of finding the least common multiple of two numbers is to use something called the Euclidean algorithm, but this is not taught in grade school.
I teach in Texas.
Any so called educator who can't do this in their head in one second or less then shouldn't be part of the education system, because they are the problem.
Certification is a joke. It stands as a barrier to otherwise competent people who might provide competition to the "certified ones." I'm not "certified" in math, but I can assure you that no "certified" math teacher scored higher on his/her Math SAT than I did, and most of them probably didn't come within 200 points of my score on the "Advanced Math" (As it was called in the 60s) test. Am I looking for a teaching job? No. But it might be nice to be able to teach for a couple of hours a day when I retire. The current system makes that almost impossible.
ML/NJ
METHOD 1: (Hardest)
Do it in your head with common denominators and all that stuff but, to remember how to do that, you first need to have a 1960's flashback.
**********
METHOD 2: (Easier)
Start Button on your Windows tool bar.
All Programs
Accessories
Calculator
3
1/x
=
M+
4
1/x
=
M+
MR
Look in the white area for the answer
**********
METHOD 3: (Easiest)
Call C.P.A.
Tell him you need 1/3 and 1/4 added up and to have his people call your people with the answer.
If I have a 1/5 on the 4th what do I have on the 5th?
Ha! This one's easy!
If you have a fifth on the 4th, you will have another fifth on the 5th! Tried to trick me didn't ya?
Only if I were Teddy Kennedy. The answer for the rest of us (most of us) would be a hangover.
The "Womens Movement" has cursed everything it has conquered, with education being its trump card.
Aw, you looked in the back of the book.
You are right about the certification. I didn't mean teacher certification. I meant that teachers of middle school math don't have a math degree.
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