X+Y = logical testing

Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne ^ | April 20, 2007 | the editors

[Wuli]

Someone in Indiana is thinking logically.

[Red Badger]

If Takesha take 3 kilos of coke to her pimp and her cut is 40% how much will her profit be after her visit to the free clinic?.........

[CarrotAndStick]

If Takesha take 3 kilos of coke to her pimp and her cut is 40% how much will her profit be after her visit to the free clinic?"

I'm guessing Takesha will get stuck at the word 'kilos'.

[Labyrinthos]

I'm guessing Takesha will get stuck at the word 'kilos'.

Either that or she'll name her next child "Threekila."

[Smogger]

At around $12,000 a kilo wholesale, her profit will be $14,400. More if she cuts it.

[Red Badger]

$12k/kilo?.........that’s pretty steep.........

[Atlas Sneezed]

[Smogger]

That’s cheap since the wholesale price of cocaine is probably closer to 18-19K a kilo (it was 21,500 in 2003.)

[LexBaird]

Fitty cen?

[Red Badger]

That enough to get a tu-pak........

[Popocatapetl]

The flaw in their plan is that algebra should be taught not as one subject, but as several. That is, every algebraic equation should be rationalized to real world examples. Algebra can be widely applied, but if it is taught in the absence of application, it is meaningless abstracts.

Each equation should have associated with it first a visual example, and then a text based description of the visual. This would give the student three different approaches to the same problem, strongly improving comprehension, retention and the ability to apply the abstract in the future in different circumstances.

Finally, the specialized language, the vernacular, of algebra needs to be applied to the equation, to restore it as a descriptive abstract. This should only be done after the student has a deep understanding of the thing-in-itself and its application.

For example, the vernacular of the quadratic equation from the wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_equation

Being able to use the vernacular to describe the equation is far less valuable than being able to apply the equation or understand how it functions in the real world. But it is the final piece of the puzzle needed to understand algebra.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Would she be diggin’ it, if’n we calls it three keys?

[randog]

ROFLMAO!!

[randog]

Good point. You don’t learn to play a piano by reading a book.

[LexBaird]

Bingo. I learned how to do quadratic equations by rote, without ever learning what their use was. Once out of the course, I promptly forgot them.

Geometry, whch I was taught with concrete applications during a concurrent drafting course, stuck with me.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;

[SoftballMominVA]

Well, Takeisha ain’t be selling that shizzle straight up - she be cuttin’ it wit’ bakin’ soda, sugah, flour, or rat pizen. Whateva be handy. You gotta be factorin’ that in on yo’ ‘quation.

[Red Badger]

It was a trick question..............

[Rush4U]

Isn’t algebra racist? /sarc

[Wuli]

“Isn’t algebra racist? /sarc”

Don’t laugh. There is a “non-profit” outfit in California that has been developing math programs to teach the “social justice implications of using math”. They write a math curriculum that places all math questions in a “social justice” context. My recollection is that they have been able to get their program into some local California schools and are now seeking state funding.