Math Help

[Namine]

This is why I failed algebra II 3 years in a row and proceeded to math money in my 5th year. >_>....

No no, the wording is pretty poor to begin with... this is what happens in university/college when a professor is really hired to research and is only forced to teach (or a lazy teacher who uses a testbank without editting it.)

[Scaregasm]

"Find the number whose double exceeds 70 by as much as the number itself is less than 140."

Double 70 is 140 which is 70 more than 70 itself.??By this logic I think the wording is rather spot on for the answer.??

Math is easy.??You just have to stop thinking so hard.??Seriously, our brains??do astronomically complex mathematical equations in its subconscious processing centers second by second.??It just doesn't have to deal with complex wordings, symbols, and formulae.??So it does it much more efficiently and better than our conceptualizing conscious.??

[Namine]

"When a number is doubled, it is greater than 70 by the difference between 140 and the number. Find the number." I'll rather reword it like that. I know for a fact that my 2 grade 12 class will not get this question at its current wording.

Math wording is much harder than you think Scaregasm. It's great that it works for you automatically, but to some, it's a real challenge to be numerically literate and translating word problems into numbers/equations and vice versa. Just today class got the biggest problem with "20 degrees north of east" and what does that mean on a coordinate plane for vector diagrams.

[Sepharius]

Math wording is much harder than you think Scaregasm. It's great that it works for you automatically, but to some, it's a real challenge to be numerically literate and translating word problems into numbers/equations and vice versa. Just today class got the biggest problem with "20 degrees north of east" and what does that mean on a coordinate plane for vector diagrams.

Physics be a-rectifying that, be a done deal.

[Namine]

Physics be a-rectifying that, be a done deal.

The physics class on the other hand...

Something like v = 4.99t^2, need to solve for t for time let's say.

What's the next step?


"v - 4.99 = t^2"


Dont' expect another subject to fix things for you, it just slides downwards worse and worse XD Math is the gateway guard for science. When the kids enter science, the science side expects the math to be there. It's just how it goes... science is like math in application in itself. You really can't do it the other way around (at least, not very well at it... though last year I had to teach slopes and linear equations in science class too, but not because I wanted to...)

[Sepharius]

Physics be a-rectifying that, be a done deal.

The physics class on the other hand...

Something like v = 4.99t^2, need to solve for t for time let's say.

What's the next step?


"v - 4.99 = t^2"


Dont' expect another subject to fix things for you, it just slides downwards worse and worse XD Math is the gateway guard for science. When the kids enter science, the science side expects the math to be there. It's just how it goes... science is like math in application in itself. You really can't do it the other way around (at least, not very well at it... though last year I had to teach slopes and linear equations in science class too, but not because I wanted to...)

Perhaps so, but Physics was the only class that had "20 degrees north of east" in it at all. My calculus class sure didn't use that.

[mahawirasd]

urgh...

http://xkcd.com/435/


-w-

[Namine]

urgh...

http://xkcd.com/435/


-w-

That's really just how it is. The context of math, is math. Yes sciences especially physics use it, but high enough level and math is done for math's sake, and the science use it *if* it lands right in to fit the formula. Since the time Newton organized calculus together to prove his physics theories (an example of math done for sake of something else, thus math with a context), math is just developed for sake of math heh.

It's the dying science out of the 4 high school main sciences for a reason ._.; As much as how I just said math's context is only math at the higher level, death of math at the lower levels will bring the other 3 sciences down with it.


Understanding and interpreting slopes for relationships in science? That'll always be a giant battle...

[Sepharius]

Haha Wira, you got me on that one. But honestly, I've never heard anyone in any mathematics class say "20 degrees north of east", unless it's for the sake of saying "20 degrees north of east" in a word problem. Most of the math professors I know talk about degrees with relevance to the unit circle.

Though the fact that your class seems to have trouble reading that is... worrisome. Maybe a reading comprehension problem? They're probably confused by the "north of east" and their brains are having trouble putting it together.

[Namine]

A good majority of people in heRO got into post secondary of some sort one way or another. We're talking about people who'll be getting their high school diploma in their low 60s, and post secondary in the form of a 4 year degree is not going to happen lol... and this level of math is not accepted by university (so you can't enter say the science faculty and definitely not engineering) unless you further upgrade your math after high school. It's pretty challenging to teach these classes this year for me too, but it's a totally different universe of schooling comapre to the school that we (as post secondary education students) know it as. Work we're doing right now is technically less theory, more geometry, trig, finance, probability, and statistics... and we have minimum algebra and definitely no pre-calculus.


It's just that you can't assume anything to be "obvious" for anyone. It's much safer to assume that everything is "hard." People all learn and accept things differently, and you just got to have that mentality in mind that there's always someone who have no idea what you're talking about XD