Tales of Mathematical Inadequacy (Just imagine if he gave her $20.02!)

Happy Fun Pundit ^ | 8.6.02 | Dan

[mhking]

Tales of Mathematical Inadequacy

A couple of days ago, I stopped at a local 'Taco Time' restaraunt to pick up a family load of one of my favorite foods: Tacos slathered in hot sauce. A lot of hot sauce. Enough hot sauce to drown a cat. A cat that would be, afterwards, very tasty.

Anyway, my session began pleasantly enough. A nice young girl punched in my order ("You want HOW MANY containers of hot sauce??!!"). The total was $14.72. I handed the young woman a $20, and waited for my change.

Then disaster struck. As the woman pressed the 'total' button, a look of fear and confusion swept across her face. A look not unlike the one the cat used to get when I came home with a bag of hot sauce. This girl was clearly troubled. Nay, frightened.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"The cash register! It's.. It's not giving me the amount of money you need. It must be broken." she replied changelessly.

A quick subtraction in my my head. "You owe me $5.28".

The girl looked up, startled. A number? The man just said a number? How could he know? After all, the machine won't give the number! "Uh, I better find a calculator."

And before I could stop her, she was off into the back of the store, digging around for a calculator. She couldn't find one. Finally, she called for her manager. "Susan, the till won't tell me how much change to give this customer. The total was $14.72, and he gave me a $20"

The manager, being a take-charge kind of woman, decided to take charge. "Okay, so that's...uh... Did you look for the calculator?"

I decided to step back into the fray. "Ladies, the amount you owe me is $5.28."

"It is? Okay, let's see, 20 minus 14.72, and... no, you can't be right."

At this point in the story, I think it's important to stop and remind you that I am not making this up. This is exactly what happened.

I decided to give it one more try. "Okay, look. If it had been $14.00, you'd owe me $6.00, right?" Hesitant nods from the ladies. "Okay, so subtract 72 cents from $6.00. That will give you the total."

I think they were with me on the 20 minus 6 thing. I really do. But when I added the incredibly confusing second step of taking the result of that and subtracting another 72 cents, I lost them. I could see their eyes glazing over, like Zacarias Moussaui trying to understand a judge. I could tell that they just weren't getting it. Not even a little bit.

This must be what my high-school advisor must have felt like when he tried to convince me of the need to have a spotless attendance record. Minus his blind rage, that is.

In the end, they took my word for it, and when I left I think they were engaged in a debate over whether or not I was some form of possessed demon for being able to pull the numbers out of the air.

And now, just to make everyone's day, I'd like to point out that Canada scores near the top of international standardized tests in high school mathematics. So however bad it is here, it can only be worse elsewhere. Society is doomed.posted by Dan | 4:51 PM

[mhking]

I've had similar problems as "fast" food joints.

[biggerten]

I had to show a teenage girl how to use a rotary phone a few months ago.

The lack of buttons to push overwhelmed her.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The reason airport security was invented was to provide safe employment for people like this.

[Michael_S]

I see this constantly. As a former Math teacher this is the kind of thing I used to try and teach all the time.

It is amazing how simple arithmetic subtraction has become MATH.

[luckodeirish]

This reminds me of when the local newsies do a "man on the streets" and ask questions like "who is the VP of the US", or "why are we celebrating the 4th of July". The answers they get terrifying.

[RadioAstronomer]

Absolutely!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Maybe the cashier was cashiered from Arthur Anderssen.

[tictoc]

I laughed my head off when I read this story. What morons! In today's hi-tech society, should they even be allowed to vote?

Then I remembered that I never mastered calculus...

[Phantom Lord]

I had to show a teenage girl how to use a rotary phone a few months ago.

Whats a "rotary phone" as you call it?

[FreeTally]

I was in a liquor store one day not too long ago, and the cashier told the young guy in front of me that his license did not indicate he was 21. His license said something like August 10, 1980(and this was June 2002). The young guy had to explain that he had turned 21 in 2001, and he would be 22 in August of this year. I really couldn't believe it.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

The Democratic Party should be offering her a job as a vote counter any day now.

[Physicist]

OK, they should have been able to do that in a pinch. But as a rule I personally always do calculations by machine.

I daresay I do arithmetic in my head better than most people. I don't often make mistakes. The key point, though, is that I do make them, and they can be important.

Moreover, any calculation involving my money is important. I'm much happier when public school students who handle my money hunt around for calculators rather than attempt to get it right.

[FreeTally]

This also reminds me of the story/joke about the person who tried to pay with a $2 bill in Taco Bell, and the cashier told him it was counterfit money.

[longshadow]

Now you now why the modern cash registers at fast food joints have little pictograms if the food on the buttons, instead of just having a numeric key pad to enter the prices.

My rule of thumb for calculating the average IQ of a fast food joint worker: take the # of calories in a typical fast-food "value-meal," and divide by 10. The result usually lies somewhere between room temperature and the national average.

[Cacophonous]

On the good side, I actually had a young lady count change back to me the other day. You know, where in your case she would look at you, and say, "Fourteen seventy-two...", then count back the change, "seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five, a quarter is fifteen dollars, and five makes twenty. Have a nice day."

I was stunned. I had thought this was a lost art; back when they knew how to do this, they didn't need calculators or to be able to apply basic math skills (well, except for counting).

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

My wife had an interesting experience at K-Mart a few years ago.  She bought a blue-light special item that had been marked down to 50 cents, but the special also gave 50% off it.  When the cashier wanted to charge her the total 50 cents, my wife pointed out that she should get 50% off of the total.  The cashier replied by saying that "Kmart don't give nothing away for free."

[Billthedrill]

Aw, he should have rounded it off and made it more convenient for everyone. As in "I gave you a twenty and I owe you $14.72. Give me a ten back and we'll call it even."

[Nateman]

This bit of ignorance brought to you by your local state indoctrination camp, (otherwise know as a public school.) If this had been a voluntary organization paid for by the parents of the people it was suppose to serve instead of being paid for by looting property owners en mass and then turning over the tainted cash to a monopoly shakedown this problem could have been avoided. Thank you.

[PsyOp]

"one ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy..."

[longshadow]

I'm much happier when public school students who handle my money hunt around for calculators rather than attempt to get it right.

That's the spirit; damn them with faint praise!