Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:59 AM PST by RBroadfoot
None, according to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post.
EXCERPT: I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo. ... failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it.
The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra ...
Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. ...
Gabriela, sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not. The proof of this, Gabriela, is all the people in my high school who were whizzes at math but did not know a thing about history and could not write a readable English sentence. ...
Algebra ruined many a day for me. Now it could ruin your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Price per ounce = 24/2.17
or
x = 24oz/$2.17 = $0.70, or 70 cents per ounce.
Check you work! 24 times 0.70 is $16.80
Actually, you have it backwards.
x = dollars per ounce
24 ounces times x dollars per ounce = $2.17
So x = 2.17/24 = about .09
Check: If it were $0.10 per oz, 24 oz would be $2.40. So we're in the right ballpark
I said grammer class, not spellun.
If you have three beans and I give you two more beans, what do you have?
--Some beans.
But what does it make?
--A very small casserole.
These are sold in large sizes, but in reasonable amounts that won't spoil or go to waste with the average family. If Costco sells it, is it the cheapest that you will get it?
The answer is: probably not.
Sadly, the one thing that Unit Prices on the shelves won't tell you is how the price is affected by coupons. Sales, usually, but not coupons. Likewise, you can't compare the Unit prices if one is on the shelf at Costco and the other is on the shelf at Walbaum's. And the fact that Costco doesn't take coupons (except it's own) tips the balance of the equation.
Now, you can fake it somewhat by keeping track of what should be rock-bottom prices. For example, if you can get Tide for less than $5/100 ounces, that's not only a good deal, it's cheaper than Costco. Use the coupon on top of it.
Pepsi is easier. NEVER buy it at Costco. It's a loss leader for the grocery stores and supermarkets. Stock up when it's on sale for $2.00-2.25 per 12-pack of 12 oz cans.
But one other problem for the bigger is better crowd, which I use with my students ever sememster: which is a better buy - a $.25 bag of chips or a $.50 bag of chips?
Answer the quarter bag gives you more, while they are still available. They won't be around much longer. The $.25 bag has been 1 ounce of chips for years. Wise and the other companies will NOT sell a bag with less. (They tried 25 years ago and gave up.) HOWEVER, the 50-cent bags are down to 1.5 ounces. You get more with two 25-cent bags. Worse yet, the .99 cent bags have dropped from 3.5 to 3 ounces.
There are plenty of other examples that consumers are totally oblivious to. After all, they don't use algebra in their real lives.
?? Did your secretary type that for you?
Funny you would mention that. I used to get Andy Capp Hot Fries in 1 oz bags for a quarter, or a 4 oz bag for 99 cents. Then they shrunk the big bag to 3.5 oz at the same price.
Like you say, at that price, the quarter bags are a better deal if you can find them.
Last time I saw the big bag it had returned to 4oz with a banner declaring it was giving you "extra."
SD
Do you realize what that number is?????
It's the largest palidromic triangular number composed of a single digit!!
Why, yes, I am a math teacher. Why do you ask?
TS
8-)
It's a trick question. Specials usually have no rifling, and therefore no specific pattern to trace. Besides, this aspect is a metal shop question, not math. Although some schools have moved these issues into the "health" curriculum.
. . .
Less esoterically, there's simply no way you can write about the budget, or tax policy, or Social Security, or whether or not the health care system suffers from too much "adverse selection" unless you understand some math. You can't really write about anything sensibly unless you grasp the difference between a one percent change in something and a one percentage point change or whether or not 100 milion dollars is a lot of money relative to the size of the federal budget or the American GDP. Sadly, Cohen is more-or-less correct to say that an inability to grasp these kinds of mathematical concepts does not, in practice, seem to impede one's career as a political journalist in contemporary America. But that says a lot more about the poor state of journalism than it does about the value of algebra.
. . .
A moose once bite my sister, really it did, she was carrying a cheese wheel at the time.
See, that's the thing. A teacher can teach it to you, but it doesn't relieve the student from making the material their own.
bump
BTTT most excellent algebra thread.
LOL! Am I a complete nerd for thinking that was funny? Oh well!
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