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Post by seniorcitizen007 on Feb 6, 2023 3:29:35 GMT
Here's one for you:
A man lives on the 6th floor of block of flats. Every day when he leaves for work he takes the lift down to the ground floor. When he returns he takes the lift up to the 5th floor and uses the stairs to get to his flat.
Why?
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I worked as a barman in the 60s ... and had no problem adding up the total in my head when people ordered lots of drinks in one go. If they queried the bill I just went through each drink price adding to the running total.
One day one if the elderly regulars ordered a drink and when I told him how much it was he just said: "I've paid you" ... and went to a table and sat down. He got a free drink.
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Dyscalculia is the inability to do simple calculations or even understand numbers, sometimes called "math dyslecia". Some people of normal intelligence, or even above normal intelligence, are born with it. Elderly people, who seem otherwise OK, often lose the ability to do simple arithmatic, or comprehend which is larger ... ten or ten thousand? My landlord, who is in his late 70s, who is a retired businessman, became convinced he was not making any money out of the house I live in ... he compared the weekly rent total with the quarterly Council Tax bill ... which are about the same. He made a big fuss about an £80 bill to repair a toilet ... but didn't bat an eyelid when the bill for a later major rebuilding of the same toilet came to over £2,000. Eight is a larger number than 2. My wife, who had an acquired neurological condition, could spell any word in the dictionary and had an astonishing ability with language, couldn't do the simplest of calculations ... 3 plus 4 was completely beyond her ability to work out the answer.
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Post by Equivocal on Feb 6, 2023 5:18:47 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? Pretty easy bit of algebra for anyone with a decent IQ (say over 110) Shame that GB News and many of its readers are too thick to understand that median IQ is 100 so many people didn't qualify 55 years ago and won't now. Appalling that GB News made a supposition about maths teachers and offers no evidence to back that. But then they knew many GB News followers wouldn't spot that. It would be closer to sixty years ago in my case. I don't recall being taught algebra as a ten year old, but I'm quite sure I would have known then that the difference between two thirds and a half was, and is, one sixth.
I'd hazard a guess that £12 was the deduction because children were expected to know multiplication tables up to 12 by rote. (12 pennies being a shilling or 1lb of boiled sweets - depending on one's point of view.)
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 6, 2023 7:02:31 GMT
That's very basic algebra, but What Sunak should have said is that people need to learn arithmetic. In other words they need to become numerate. You learn this by learning your times tables and doing mental arithmetic - not by learning algebra. But I don't think that they teach multiplication tables any more.
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Post by Steve on Feb 6, 2023 9:24:24 GMT
Here's one for you: A man lives on the 6th floor of block of flats. Every day when he leaves for work he takes the lift down to the ground floor. When he returns he takes the lift up to the 5th floor and uses the stairs to get to his flat. Why? . . . A classic oldie, he's a midget. |
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Post by Orac on Feb 6, 2023 11:06:25 GMT
This video starts with a warning not to bother, but if you are at all maths curious, you can't help spinning it about in your head
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Post by Red Rackham on Feb 6, 2023 11:34:11 GMT
At school I was rubbish at maths, I accepted that tangents & cosines etc were beyond me. It was only in later years I discovered that my lack of ability regarding maths was largely down to poor teachers. I left school accepting the fact I couldn't do maths and got on with my life. A few years later, now in the army, I knew a certain course was fast approaching, it was a promotion course that included a maths module. I was terrified of doing this course because I knew I couldn't do maths. So I put it off, I would always volunteer for other courses to ensure I was never available for the most important course. In the end after a couple of years of dodging it the OC practically ordered me onto this education course.
Their were about a dozen of us on the course, it's called EPC course [Education Promotion Certificate] It was an all arms course which means there were soldiers from several different regiments on the course, and to make matters worse the maths tutor was a gorgeous young captain from the Education Corps. Anyhoo, the maths module started and the first thing the tutor asked her new students was: does anyone struggle with maths? I was sweating like a turkey in November, and raised my hand. I felt as if everyone was starring at me, but to my immense relief no one laughed, and I turned to see half a dozen arms raised.
This wasn't quantum mathematics, I'm sure anyone who is good at maths would have considered City & Guilds maths as pretty basic stuff, but I was absolutely over the moon than I, thicky Rackham, had for the first time in my life got a maths qualification, and all because that young captain from the Education Corps was a brilliant teacher. Even though half the lads on that course struggled with maths everyone passed because unlike my school teachers, she new how to teach.
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Feb 6, 2023 13:50:06 GMT
That's very basic algebra, but What Sunak should have said is that people need to learn arithmetic. In other words they need to become numerate. You learn this by learning your times tables and doing mental arithmetic - not by learning algebra. But I don't think that they teach multiplication tables any more. In today's economy you need more than the shit taught to seven year olds. We have not even got as far as vectors. |
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 7, 2023 8:20:18 GMT
I disagree. If you know the basic "times tables" and understand division, fractions and decimals that's all you need most of the time. That's "basic numeracy".
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 7, 2023 8:29:16 GMT
This video starts with a warning not to bother, but if you are at all maths curious, you can't help spinning it about in your head I always think it's odd that: 1/9 = .111 recurring 2/9 = .222 recurring, etc until 9/9 = 1 But 9/9 = 9 * 1/9. Therefore .999 recurring = 1. Which is strange - although true. |
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Post by walterpaisley on Feb 7, 2023 9:12:02 GMT
I can honestly say that, for one who barely knows my times tables, I don't feel remotely disadvantaged. Like everyone else, I use a calculator. Have done since school - the difference being that I now carry one with me everywhere I go.
Furthermore, everyone I know does the same. In my field, there are all sorts of tasks that involve mathematics - some pretty esoteric - from the casting agent who has to know what an actor's fee of (?) plus a first year residual payment of 2.5% of net profits, followed by a 1.25% bonus for the next 11 years, plus a one-off 4% fee for a sale to a broadcaster, etc, etc.. is likely to amount to, to the (film) Clapper Loader, who's job it is to log the film stock left in a 400'magazine - based on (for some bizarre reason) an imperial measurement of "feet" of film exposed at a rate of 24 frames per second... (Thankfully, since the advent of digital technology, this is all redundant.)
And guess what? ALL of these people use calculators. It may be an impressive party trick to do it in your head, but it doesn't make any practical difference to the task at hand.
(My own brother - a real, live, scientist, no less - used calculators (and a slide rule, for years - one of his eccentricities) throughout his working life as a metallurgist.)
I remain unconvinced that the ability to solve complex and exotic sums in one's head gives the great life advantages it once did.
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Post by sandypine on Feb 7, 2023 10:27:42 GMT
I can honestly say that, for one who barely knows my times tables, I don't feel remotely disadvantaged. Like everyone else, I use a calculator. Have done since school - the difference being that I now carry one with me everywhere I go. Furthermore, everyone I know does the same. In my field, there are all sorts of tasks that involve mathematics - some pretty esoteric - from the casting agent who has to know what an actor's fee of (?) plus a first year residual payment of 2.5% of net profits, followed by a 1.25% bonus for the next 11 years, plus a one-off 4% fee for a sale to a broadcaster, etc, etc.. is likely to amount to, to the (film) Clapper Loader, who's job it is to log the film stock left in a 400'magazine - based on (for some bizarre reason) an imperial measurement of "feet" of film exposed at a rate of 24 frames per second... (Thankfully, since the advent of digital technology, this is all redundant.) And guess what? ALL of these people use calculators. It may be an impressive party trick to do it in your head, but it doesn't make any practical difference to the task at hand. (My own brother - a real, live, scientist, no less - used calculators (and a slide rule, for years - one of his eccentricities) throughout his working life as a metallurgist.) I remain unconvinced that the ability to solve complex and exotic sums in one's head gives the great life advantages it once did. It is not the solving that is the problem. It is the inability to deal with an issue when things go wrong in the electronic world. Sometimes if one is overcharged in a supermarket the kerfuffle involved in righting that wrong is quite amazing and there is a lack of perception of what should be. The correct calculation of change if an error is made is also quite embarrassing as the till operator struggles with basic arithmetic. |
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Post by walterpaisley on Feb 7, 2023 10:34:52 GMT
The correct calculation of change if an error is made is also quite embarrassing as the till operator struggles with basic arithmetic. "Change"? I'm not sure I remember the last time I used cash in a shop.. |
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Post by steppenwolf on Feb 7, 2023 13:49:34 GMT
I can honestly say that, for one who barely knows my times tables, I don't feel remotely disadvantaged. Like everyone else, I use a calculator. Have done since school - the difference being that I now carry one with me everywhere I go. It's the difference between looking up the answer on google and knowing the answer by understanding the basic principles and working it out. I use a calculator if I need a dead accurate answer or if I need confirmation of a fact - but the point is that I know broadly what the answer is anyway. It's called numeracy. And most of our politicians don't have it. That's why they make such stupid decisions. |
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Post by Orac on Feb 7, 2023 13:57:51 GMT
Here is a good one and it has nothing to do with ability to do arithmetic. Try to work it through in your head. If you enjoy the challenge, you might be into maths
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Feb 7, 2023 14:13:41 GMT
I can honestly say that, for one who barely knows my times tables, I don't feel remotely disadvantaged. Like everyone else, I use a calculator. Have done since school - the difference being that I now carry one with me everywhere I go. Furthermore, everyone I know does the same. In my field, there are all sorts of tasks that involve mathematics - some pretty esoteric - from the casting agent who has to know what an actor's fee of (?) plus a first year residual payment of 2.5% of net profits, followed by a 1.25% bonus for the next 11 years, plus a one-off 4% fee for a sale to a broadcaster, etc, etc.. is likely to amount to, to the (film) Clapper Loader, who's job it is to log the film stock left in a 400'magazine - based on (for some bizarre reason) an imperial measurement of "feet" of film exposed at a rate of 24 frames per second... (Thankfully, since the advent of digital technology, this is all redundant.) And guess what? ALL of these people use calculators. It may be an impressive party trick to do it in your head, but it doesn't make any practical difference to the task at hand. (My own brother - a real, live, scientist, no less - used calculators (and a slide rule, for years - one of his eccentricities) throughout his working life as a metallurgist.) I remain unconvinced that the ability to solve complex and exotic sums in one's head gives the great life advantages it once did. Maths is more than sums. You just remain uneducated. |
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