40% of College Students get this question wrong. AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY!
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Yeah, I'm a music major. I have no idea about this stuff, and I don't really care.
In fact, I would wager there are a lot of majors, apart from the math, science and engineering that feel the same way.
I could drop a music question, then rage because a load of collage educated people couldn't get it right, it would make about as much sense as this.
In fact, I would wager there are a lot of majors, apart from the math, science and engineering that feel the same way.
I could drop a music question, then rage because a load of collage educated people couldn't get it right, it would make about as much sense as this.
As many others have said, it really doesn't make sence out of context especially to someone who doesn't use maths on a regular basis. I had to go look in the maths curriculum to find out what it was called in Australia to jog my memory. I can't even think of a single reson you would want to expand it, and I'm studying a Ba. Science.
I would assume you wanted me to solve what x= and then tell you I need more info.
I would assume you wanted me to solve what x= and then tell you I need more info.
Well, once I figured out that ^2 meant to the power of 2, I got it. High school math. We were doing parabolas at the time, I believe. But being in a FAKE major and learning how the "Free World" is run, I don't have time for lines on graphs.
I'd wager that over 40% of college graduates will never need to use this anyways. That doesn't mean that they should have basic algebra skills, but I can see it not being a big deal for them. No real reason to get too worked up. BTW I'm a senior in engineering, so I have almost a minor in mathematics, and yes I answered it right before I looked at the solution.
Heh I couldn't do that right off the top of my head, but I can run a spreadsheet with 100s of debits and credits find errors, create graphs, plot the trends, isolate variables, and create any kind of graph you want, etc using peachtree or excel, which is infinitely more useful than foiling things 
Lack of knowledge in something even as "basic" in this isn't so bad. As a poli sci, and business major there are areas where I could run circles around people, and feign anger that people don't know basic aspects of my study but I don't.
Lack of knowledge in something even as "basic" in this isn't so bad. As a poli sci, and business major there are areas where I could run circles around people, and feign anger that people don't know basic aspects of my study but I don't.
I know the answer (though FOIL might throw some people off because that's a pretty specific mnemonic), but why is this even remotely depressing?
This is a largely pointless exercise for the vast majority of people that relies not on any deep understanding of mathematics, but on simply learning a step-by-step procedure to produce the expanded form. In fact, you are EXPRESSLY asking for that unthinking, mechanistic procedure by asking them to FOIL it rather than just expand it. Being able to FOIL means NOTHING. You can teach anyone to foil so long as they know/have access to a basic multiplication table. They may have no idea what they're doing, but they'll still be able to do it. A better question would be how many people STILL can't grasp the concept of variables.
But really, the main point is still that this is a pretty useless bit of information for the vast, vast majority of people and it doesn't sadden me at all to know that 40% of people studying completely unrelated things in college don't know it. In fact, I'm surprised the number is so low.
This is a largely pointless exercise for the vast majority of people that relies not on any deep understanding of mathematics, but on simply learning a step-by-step procedure to produce the expanded form. In fact, you are EXPRESSLY asking for that unthinking, mechanistic procedure by asking them to FOIL it rather than just expand it. Being able to FOIL means NOTHING. You can teach anyone to foil so long as they know/have access to a basic multiplication table. They may have no idea what they're doing, but they'll still be able to do it. A better question would be how many people STILL can't grasp the concept of variables.
But really, the main point is still that this is a pretty useless bit of information for the vast, vast majority of people and it doesn't sadden me at all to know that 40% of people studying completely unrelated things in college don't know it. In fact, I'm surprised the number is so low.
Well yay I got it right, but I know at least two college students who probably wouldn't get it (and one definitely wouldn't, but she's in art school and had a total crap public school education plus was misdiagnosed ADD instead of AS). Oh, and I'm 32. College was a while ago, and I have certainly not done much to keep math skills up.
It was Calc 2 that killed math for me. The teacher walks in, first day of class and first time I'd had him for anything, and the first thing he says is, "Well, we really can't prove that the number 1 means anything at all. Thus, all of mathematics is pretty much bogus." I said to myself, "I'm so failing this class." And I did.
It was Calc 2 that killed math for me. The teacher walks in, first day of class and first time I'd had him for anything, and the first thing he says is, "Well, we really can't prove that the number 1 means anything at all. Thus, all of mathematics is pretty much bogus." I said to myself, "I'm so failing this class." And I did.
Basic quadratics. This is the stuff that's taught at 13/14 years old.
Mind you, some people hate Maths so much they'll never touch it after they passed their mandatory exam.
Mind you, some people hate Maths so much they'll never touch it after they passed their mandatory exam.
Frankly im not surprised that people can't remember or never learned this. Im guessing this topic was probably aimed at the straight outta school college demographic, because there's no way you can expect a 20-30 year old who's done arts/music all their life to know this. However, anyone younger than this really should know that regardless. It's a basic maths problem that's been shoved in my face since 10th grade, and they've taught it every single term since then, to everyone, even now in 12th grade.
A lot of math does, but that is all the basic stuff. The question that was posted has never, and most likely will never appear in my life again.StBishop said:
And before anyone says "Lawl, music = math"
Unless I study really advance theory or sound engineering, I can avoid that side of it.
To be fair OP, 90% of degrees will have basic algebra in the course and people get rusty from not doing it over time.
I have an AS level in maths so I know but I know a lot of people who have more creative and less logic based qualifications (such as art, photography and media).
Not once is algebra ever used in any of these subjects, also there are a lot of fake qualifications such as surfology (there is one university in the UK that does it) which will never use it either
However I do agree that it's so basic that 40% seems ridiculous but hey there must be more reasons along with my own
X^2+6X+(
Not once is algebra ever used in any of these subjects, also there are a lot of fake qualifications such as surfology (there is one university in the UK that does it) which will never use it either
However I do agree that it's so basic that 40% seems ridiculous but hey there must be more reasons along with my own
