40% of College Students get this question wrong. AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY!

[Maze1125]

I've an engineering degree and they never once mentioned FOIL. The question maker needs to be taken outside and publicly floged. The question is invalid due to FOIL not being a mathmatical operation.

Agreed.
Referring to expanding as "FOIL" would mean you couldn't expand anything beyond two terms per bracket set and two sets of brackets.
For example, it's impossible to apply the concept of "FOILing" to (x + 2y + 5z)[sup]2[/sup] or (x + 3)[sup]3[/sup] when it's not actaully any harder to expand those things provided you understand the concept of expanding brackets, rather than just learn a rule like FOIL.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

I've never heard of FOIL, but just expanding that is really easy.

Honestly, though, I can't see anyone in a non-mathematical profession ever needing to do this. I can't even think of what it would be good for in most mathematical professions, actually. I don't think you even need to know that to program computers. There are plenty of people who just don't choose to study math, and eventually end up forgetting a lot of math that they never have to use for anything. There are plenty of majors that don't require math and are still perfectly valid intellectual pursuits requiring a lot of work, like linguistics, anthropology, international relations, etc. Art majors can sometimes be a joke, but only if one really wants them to be, and formal artistic training is quite valuable in many types of work. We need people who specialize in math, obviously, but in the same way we need people who specialize in medicine or government: It wouldn't help that much if everyone did it.

Ultimately, a lot of math just isn't as important as most people make it out to be.

On the other hand, a lot of people are idiots, this just isn't a very good way of showing it.

 

[etherlance]

oh......God....it's.....it's......m-maths

*runs away screaming like a *****


I'm not too bad at maths but i suck at algebra and all of the "sqaure root of pie etc" kind of maths so when i think about it i actually do suck at maths
I did get D+ at it in my GCSE's
(That said i do have learning difficulties so try not to judge me too harshy)

 

[Seydaman]

FOIL? Um explain? Middle school math sucks >.<

 

[Seydaman]

I've never heard of FOIL, but just expanding that is really easy.

Honestly, though, I can't see anyone in a non-mathematical profession ever needing to do this. I can't even think of what it would be good for in most mathematical professions, actually. I don't think you even need to know that to program computers. There are plenty of people who just don't choose to study math, and eventually end up forgetting a lot of math that they never have to use for anything. There are plenty of majors that don't require math and are still perfectly valid intellectual pursuits requiring a lot of work, like linguistics, anthropology, international relations, etc. Art majors can sometimes be a joke, but only if one really wants them to be, and formal artistic training is quite valuable in many types of work. We need people who specialize in math, obviously, but in the same way we need people who specialize in medicine or government: It wouldn't help that much if everyone did it.

Ultimately, a lot of math just isn't as important as most people make it out to be.

On the other hand, a lot of people are idiots, this just isn't a very good way of showing it.

^ this
BUUUUT I have this theory that you can brake everything down into math, and I mean EVERYTHING like the entire human body, using the periodic table. But we don't have the tech yet.

 

[LockeDown]

FOIL is a memory-aid that is taught in high schools to try and make it easier to remember the process by which one does binomial expansion.

First
Outer
Inner
Last

The answer is simple, provided you are asking the proper question.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

I saw numbers and letters in the same equation and immediately gave up. I haven't needed to calculate anything other than my Pokemon's IV values in years, so fuck algebra.

 

[Nemu]

I've never heard of FOIL, but just expanding that is really easy.

Honestly, though, I can't see anyone in a non-mathematical profession ever needing to do this. I can't even think of what it would be good for in most mathematical professions, actually. I don't think you even need to know that to program computers. There are plenty of people who just don't choose to study math, and eventually end up forgetting a lot of math that they never have to use for anything. There are plenty of majors that don't require math and are still perfectly valid intellectual pursuits requiring a lot of work, like linguistics, anthropology, international relations, etc. Art majors can sometimes be a joke, but only if one really wants them to be, and formal artistic training is quite valuable in many types of work. We need people who specialize in math, obviously, but in the same way we need people who specialize in medicine or government: It wouldn't help that much if everyone did it.

Ultimately, a lot of math just isn't as important as most people make it out to be.

On the other hand, a lot of people are idiots, this just isn't a very good way of showing it.

This just about sums it up for me.
Along with a big ol' "Who gives a shit? Thanks anyway."

I'm willing to bet that a lot of the "smart" folks who are math whizzes don't know how to use proper punctuation, or know when and/or how Nero died.

Personally, and being 35, I forgot virtually all of the useless math I learned in high school, especially since I was a history (and to a lesser degree English) nerd. I certainly won't need to recall the more "difficult" maths when furthering my studies of religion, archaeology and linguistics.

Chances are, out of the 60% of the kids who DID remember how to solve that equation, 60% will forget it 5 years after they graduate. *shrug*

 

[buggy65]

I've an engineering degree and they never once mentioned FOIL. The question maker needs to be taken outside and publicly floged. The question is invalid due to FOIL not being a mathmatical operation.

Agreed.
Referring to expanding as "FOIL" would mean you couldn't expand anything beyond two terms per bracket set and two sets of brackets.
For example, it's impossible to apply the concept of "FOILing" to (x + 2y + 5z)[sup]2[/sup] or (x + 3)[sup]3[/sup] when it's not actaully any harder to expand those things provided you understand the concept of expanding brackets, rather than just learn a rule like FOIL.

I will apologize for this, however my professors have always considered FOIL/BOMAS and Expand to be synonymous. If you understand "how" to FOIL (rather than simply what the acronym stands for) then you can expand polynomials.

 

[lacktheknack]

X^2+6X+9

Really? I'm in high school and... really? Maybe university won't be so bad after all.

 

[Red Right Hand]

So? This would only concern me if more than 60% of college students were studying maths related degrees. Outside of that it's not a necessary everday application, like counting or reading.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Hell, I might as well argue that a good working knowledge of politics and law is more useful, as everyone takes part in elections. At least in Australia. The effects of politics affect everyone on a daily basis no matter what they think of the system.

The failure the understand even simple mathimatical concepts is part of why the US government has taken the country from a downward spiral to a nosedive.

You can't be ignorant about everything in the world and still have a good working knowledge of politics.

It's good to see that's the only flaw you found in my post, or did you find issue with another part and decide not to address it?

Having said that it's not really a contradiction, you're just expanding upon my example and tacking maths on the end. Doesn't detract from the original point.

Also, is there any chance you could rephrase that last sentence? I can't make sense of it no matter how many times I re-read it.

Either way, it's almost midnight, and time for me to go to bed.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

It's good to see that's the only flaw you found in my post, or did you find issue with another part and decide not to address it?

Having said that it's not really a contradiction, you're just expanding upon my example and tacking maths on the end. Doesn't detract from the original point.

Also, is there any chance you could rephrase that last sentence? I can't make sense of it no matter how many times I re-read it.

Either way, it's almost midnight, and time for me to go to bed.

If you have the attitude of "if I don't need to know it in my daily life, it's not important" then you can't be knowledgeable about politics.

If you don't understand math because you don't use it daily then you'll wind up voting for people who promise trillions in new spending and a balanced budget at the same time. If you don't understand the basic principles and facts of science, you'll have no defense against politicians spreading scientific frauds to get votes. If you don't understand supply and demand then you'll believe politicians when they tell you that rising housing costs are a crisis, then again when they turn around and tell you falling housing costs are a crisis the next day.

Math isn't just about a few formulas and procedures. It's about an important way of thinking which the civilized world is beginning to lose.

 

[snide_cake]

Eh it's an easy high school algebra maths question but when it's framed in the context it was of "FOIL THIS!" then no wonder a lot of people went 'eeehhhhhh?'

 

[Danny Ocean]

If you have the attitude of "if I don't need to know it in my daily life, it's not important" then you can't be knowledgeable about politics.

If you don't understand math because you don't use it daily then you'll wind up voting for people who promise trillions in new spending and a balanced budget at the same time. If you don't understand the basic principles and facts of science, you'll have no defense against politicians spreading scientific frauds to get votes. If you don't understand supply and demand then you'll believe politicians when they tell you that rising housing costs are a crisis, then again when they turn around and tell you falling housing costs are a crisis the next day.

Math isn't just about a few formulas and procedures. It's about an important way of thinking which the civilized world is beginning to lose.

Maths is not logical, rational thought. Maths simply utilises logical, rational thought (And nothing else). You can think sceptically, logically, and rationally without maths. The entire subject of philosophy demands it, as does history, for example. Knowing the basic principles and facts of science is not an exclusively numerical area, with the same applying to economics.

But yes, I agree that not enough people think this way.

 

[Klarinette]

I'm willing to bet that a lot of the "smart" folks who are math whizzes don't know how to use proper punctuation, or know when and/or how Nero died.

This maked me feel less stupid for taking a while to get the answer to the question, especially since I haven't touched this stuff in almost seven years. Besides, I'm an Arts and English major, not Math, and that doesn't automatically make me an idiot.

 

[Threx]

College is supposed to be a place of higher learning. To get into college you must also pass high school and a number of exams. Yet, based on a recent campus wide survey conducted at my school 40% of college students cannot FOIL. I am a math major and this saddens and angers me. So Escapist, I ask you:

FOIL: (x+3)^2
EDIT: FOIL/BOMAS also means Expand...

Please put your answers in spoiler tags so people can't cheat without actively looking. To do a spoiler tag you place [mathspoiler]{content}[/mathspoiler] but remove the "math" part.

Remember, 40 freakin' percent fail at this. Try not to be one of them.

The correct answer is

Spoiler

{x^2+6x+9}

Spoiler

Foil is First outside inside last right. If so I'm only in a grade 10 math class and were just now getting to it. Give me a few days and I may be able to answer.

 

[The_Amazing_G]

This is Algebra I stuff. It is taught in High School!

Yeah but I'm 35. I forgot all that crap nearly 20 years ago because it's not used in the field that I now work in. My brain keeps the useful knowledge and discards the other stuff.

Good point, but these are high schoolers we're talking about.