Math Lesson

byndrsn · Post by **byndrsn** » Saturday Apr 23, 2005

Subject: Math for the Ages

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her.. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register.

I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help.

While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Please read more about the "history of teaching math":

Teaching Math In 1950
************************ A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1960
************************ A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970
*********************** A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980
*********************** A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math In 1990
************************ By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees. (There are no wrong answers.)

Teaching Math In 2005
************************ El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es.............

********************* Have A Great Day!!!

Jerry C · Post by **Jerry C** » Saturday Apr 23, 2005

Math is wrong and this is why;
3 people traveling together on a business trip were too tired to drive any longer, so they stopped at a motel. They asked the clerk how much a room for the night was. HE said $30.00. They each pulled out a ten dollar bill and went to the room. Realizing how late it was, the clerk thought to himself that he should have only charged them $25.00. So he called the bellboy and handed him 5 ones and told him to give them the money. As he walked to their room he thought, how can I split up 5 ones among 3 people. So he put 2 ones in his pocket and gave each person a dollar back. So now each person paid 9.00 for the room which makes 27.00 among the 3 of them and the bellboy put 2 in his pocket. So that makes 29.00 . One dollar is now missing and so the relation between addition and multiplication doesn't work.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Saturday Apr 23, 2005

When I worked at the local Vo-Tech as a member of the " Support Staff " aside from helping with the Vo-Tech studies I was to assist some of them with math. One of the kids just couldn't understand 1/4, 3/4, 1/8th etc. Until ............... I explained it like a gas guage then all the sudden he got it !!!! But in general I think the problem is the courses are laid out for the smarted than average kids, the others just get pushed through not really understanding what's going on.

And on the subject of screwing a cashier up with change, I had one flat out refuse to use my change cause she couldn't figure it out. It was something like $2.23 she had already punched $3.00 showing $.77 change, when I gave her the quarter she got all flusted and insisted I just take the $.77.

esa · Post by **esa** » Saturday Apr 23, 2005

God help them if the power is out as well. Case in point. Last year the Shoplift-and Save had it's power out to get something fixed (blown transformer?) but they weren't getting it done right away, so they had their cashieres in the lanes with calculators. Needless to say I took my grandmother there for groceries...and got to watch the saddest thing in my life. The cost came to about 52. 20. Gram handed over 55.25. meaning she'd be gettubg back 3.25. the girl couldn't figure it out. gram had to walk her through it. still brain-dead. I ended up going out to the car to fish up 2.20 in change so that gram could take back the 5 and a quarter...

do you remember the good old days when you could answer questions with out a calculator or a tutor? seriously, i love the kids i'm with where i work...but they are dumber than rocks (most of them) when it comes to reasoning things out...

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Saturday Apr 23, 2005

My mother works at a Dollar General store. I swear you have to be a freakin' MCSE certified tech just to run the cash register.

But on the original topic - I remember about a year ago I was purchasing a product (forget what it exactly was), and the total came out to something like $15.10. I handed the cashier a twenty plus a dime. She wondered why I handed her dime. I had to explain that I did it so I wouldn't get back almost a dollar in coins.

gymnast · Post by **gymnast** » Monday Apr 25, 2005

Jerry C wrote:

Math is wrong and this is why;
3 people traveling together on a business trip were too tired to drive any longer, so they stopped at a motel. They asked the clerk how much a room for the night was. HE said $30.00. They each pulled out a ten dollar bill and went to the room. Realizing how late it was, the clerk thought to himself that he should have only charged them $25.00. So he called the bellboy and handed him 5 ones and told him to give them the money. As he walked to their room he thought, how can I split up 5 ones among 3 people. So he put 2 ones in his pocket and gave each person a dollar back. So now each person paid 9.00 for the room which makes 27.00 among the 3 of them and the bellboy put 2 in his pocket. So that makes 29.00 . One dollar is now missing and so the relation between addition and multiplication doesn't work.

I had to explain this math problem to my coworkers a few years ago. The "So now each person paid 9.00 for the room which makes 27.00" part is where the trickery begins. There are 3 people, so if we add in the dollar they got back, 3 + 27 = 30. The three peoples relation to the 30 has nothing to do with the bell boy.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Monday Apr 25, 2005

I had the same thing happen to me at a burder place one time. the real kicker is I order a bacon CHEESE burger. then the person asked if I wanted cheese on it , my reply was I thought cheese was part of a cheese burger, then I gave the odd change with my order so I could get bills back and this person looked at me like I was nuts. so I screwed them up twice. the sad part is when they teach math they let kids use calculators and it teaches nothing. I refuse to let my kid use a cal.while doing home work I tell him to write the problem out and the end result is he gets good math grades because it comes to him its in his head and I think the schools should be doing more of that instead of calculators

rockerwannabe · Post by **rockerwannabe** » Monday Apr 25, 2005

GUITARII · Post by **GUITARII** » Monday Apr 25, 2005

A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with some co-op students, SENIORS mind you from the local high school, I won't say which, but I work in Claysburg.....

Anyhow, these two gals were proofing books for the person scanning the pages and they needed to measure the image on the page and let the scanner know how far to adjust each image to get the correct margin. Well, neither had a ruler and the one girl told me that they weren't taught how to use one!

I rambled for a little on how unbelievable I thought this was and asked the girl what she would do if someone asked her to measure something in 32nd's..... she answered, and I quote "I'd probably say that it wasn't enough time

" and she was serious

Later that week we actually argued over 16/16" is actually one inch.... insane!

ROCKPAGE

Math Lesson

Math Lesson

Every Thing WE were taught in math is wrong and this is why.

math works