Posted on 11/27/2015 10:34:12 AM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
My folks owned a grovery store when I was growing up. I have no idea when I first learned to count change. That's the key phrase by the way; "count change". Making change is merely an exercise in counting. No math is actually involved.
that sums it up.
Saying what is the profit just by the sale of the wood is a bit misleading. You have the subtract out the price of the cost of cutting the wood like fuel for the truck, maintenance, etc., it could be asked: what is the cost of cutting down one tree. But that would be too hard for today’s brains of mush.
When i was taught math the logger question didn’t ask the students how they felt about the logger’s views on homosexuality.
And in the 50’s you didn’t have Baskin Robbin gender....you know...57 flavors
Successive approximation was the only method I ever used but I like the direct method from your link. Of course, today the problem with successive approximation is that memorizing multiplication tables are considered “drill and kill” by the Common Core Cultists.
We had that happen at an upscale restaurant. My wife picked up the check, and it was a whole dollar amount plus eight cents, so she put down some currency plus a dime or a quarter. The server, a young girl maybe around 18, had no idea what to do with it.
The direct method is also a form of successive approximation, one decimal place at a time. Newton Raphson approximately doubles the number of significant places per iteration. Of course, you never get more figures than the significance of your representation, i.e., about 52 for double and 24 for single, using a computer.
Thank you! This is the way I learned it, but with the use of hand-held calculators and enough time, I managed to forget it. When my son was getting to the age when he should have learned this, I asked his math teacher who stared at me like I was crazy and told me you CANNOT do a square root by hand. Since that day it has bothered me a lot, I knew I used to do square roots by hand but I asked a number of high school and college instructors and they all acted like I was crazy. Thank you for posting this, you made my day!
I had a Buddhist hot dog vendor tell me that change must come from within.
Fabric stores in California often have, in my experience, the least eductated staff in retail.
I presented a 50% off coupon to the clerk who had just cut sections of fabric for me. She didn’t recognize the coupon so naturally, she bellowed in a long shoreman’s voice “You can’t use that! That’s not good!” and to prove it to me - she passed the coupon over the scanner and my $48 purchase was reduced to $24. She pointed to the reduced amount and said “See, that’s not 50%!” I was staring at her involuntarily - not knowing what kind of response I might give.
I pointed to the screen, “Well, uh....$24 is 50% of $48 dollars...” She interrupted me at earsplitting volume again, this time ennunciating each work for slow-witted me, “You. Can’t. Use. This.” and she ordered me to watch while she cleared the scanner again and re-scanned. Once again, the $48 value was reduced to $24 and she said, “See! It doesn’t work! YOU.CAN’T.USE.THIS.” I said quietly, “Well, then you’ll want to stop scanning the coupon because it reduces my purchase by 50% each time....’ She gave up trying to explain it to the troglodyte (me) and printed the ticket for me to take to the cashier with my fabric. I paid the cashier the $24 plus tax, as specified on my ticket, and left. Later I heard the clerks all hide bolds of fabric under the tables at the back of the store so they don’t have to shelve them at the end of the day. Wasn’t surprised.
The ladies were all white, undereducated women with, apparently, small children at home and were otherwise unemployable.
I love Tom Apostol’s Advanced Calculus textbook. All of Apostol’s books are great.
I wonder how all those papyrus and cuneiform tables of square and cube roots compiled four thousand years ago were created? Must have been ancient aliens, it's the only thing that makes sense.
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