Poll: Lack of basic mathmatical skills

[Dryk]

I don't understand how people can go through daily life without being able to do arithmetic and geometry, but apparently they can so good for them.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Math makes my brain hurt. I understand everything my teacher tells me in class. Then next class I forget all about it. Either, I don't store information well or don't have many brain smarts.

 

[barbzilla]

I do agree though that there's a serious shortage of people who are good at and interested in math, especially here in America.

Something that's an actual relevant test at basic math skills that's particularly relevant in the U.S. is tipping. If you can't figure out a 10/15/20% tip on a bill, you need to go back to middle school.

I was told it was a crocodile.

Don't be stupid, it's obviously an alligator.

Okay smart guy, you obviously don't know your crocodilians.

Alligators have a broad snout, while crocodiles have a thinner snout.

That's a pretty thin snout --> (<)

Sounds like a caiman to me. They truly have thin snouts.

 

[Auron225]

Multiplication and Division can be swapped without anything happening, as can Addition and Subtraction since they can be the same thing.

Take 2, divide it by 2, and you get 1
Take 2, multiply it by 1/2, and you get 1 - no difference

Take 1, add 4, and you get 5
Take 1, subtract -4, and you get 5 - again, no difference

 

[Godhead]

Well even though I'm not an engineer, I am planning to be an astronomer. So pretty important I guess.

 

[the_hoffs_ego]

I agree with some of you that the problem is often the teachers dumbing it down for students at every turn. While little tricks to remember things aren't always bad to start, relying on them at deeper levels stunts further mathematical growth. I like to think the teachers at my school work well in tandem. One (who I got for algebra 2/trig and geometry) doesn't go into the way math works very deeply. However, that makes the material easier to learn at these lower levels. The other teacher (who I have for calculus now) takes a lot of time to show how everything fits together (how equations are derived, lots of "why does this work" type of stuff). For me at least, the combination really deepens my understanding of math and eases the strain on the brain when learning new things.

 

[Indecipherable]

I'm only a few months away from finishing a double major in Economics and Finance so I'd put my maths as 'good'. Others might rate my maths higher. The more you know, the more you realise you don't know and all that.

Frankly all the Facebook maths puzzles strike me as a lot of people with really basic maths trying to think they are smart for writing something in a stupid format that they should only earn a kick in the teeth for. If you think that doing the correct order of equations makes you bright then your standards are low. How about you write it appropriately first and then we can talk.

 

[Zen Bard]

Frankly all the Facebook maths puzzles strike me as a lot of people with really basic maths trying to think they are smart for writing something in a stupid format that they should only earn a kick in the teeth for. If you think that doing the correct order of equations makes you bright then your standards are low. How about you write it appropriately first and then we can talk.

Yes! You sir, (or madam, in case I have incorrectly guessed your gender. You are "Indecipherable" after all) are my hero!

Mathematics is like any other language and must be written properly to make sense and avoid ambiguity.

And I'm one of those engineer types, so I pretty much use math on a daily basis (whether I like it or not).

 

[barbzilla]

*sigh* Once again, I am not trying to argue that they are using proper syntax, I am only stating that I thought the O of O was taught fairly rigorously around the world. I don't disagree with you on the format of the questions being intentionally misleading, but isn't that kind of the point? Not everything in life will be laid out for you on a nice shiny platter. Sometimes you have to work to get your dinner.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

fractions and decimals hurt my brains, I need help getting them to stick still ><

 

[Alleged_Alec]

I'd argue that I'm pretty good at maths (which I need to be, with my systems biology major). Basically, there aren't many math problems I cannot solve. One thing I am chronically unable to get in my head is the matrix calculations though. I can do basic stuff like multiplication and the like, but don't ask me to calculate the inverse of a matrix, or the determinant of a matrix larger than 2x2.

 

[lordmardok]

I voted on somewhat important but replace "I work at a bank" with "I'm a DM". So few people understand how important basic algebra is when you're playing ANY tabletop game.

 

[Gergar12_v1legacy]

Natural gas Engineer uses lots of math. One of the the maths is trigonometry which is need to make tunnels.

 

[Phantom Kat]

I'm an economics major so it's somewhat important, though I took enumeration for fun so I doubt I have a problem with it.

 

[PrototypeC]

I'm always afraid someone will call on me to solve some "simple" equation, and I'll be able to do nothing but stare at it and just try to will the solution into appearing. Those skill testing questions they use to make sure you're really an adult? Can't do them.

I can just bet that I'd be the one and only human plucked from Earth to satisfy alien curiosity about our competency as a thinking race. They'd disappointedly consider us non-intelligent and bulldoze Earth in a manner of minutes. I'd be to blame.

Seriously, I worry about this.

 

[Spearmaster]

I was taught PEMDAS but ill be damned if I ever had a use for it once I left the classroom

 

[Insomniac55]

Frankly all the Facebook maths puzzles strike me as a lot of people with really basic maths trying to think they are smart for writing something in a stupid format that they should only earn a kick in the teeth for. If you think that doing the correct order of equations makes you bright then your standards are low. How about you write it appropriately first and then we can talk.

While you are correct, the fact remains that everyone should arrive at the same answer with these 'puzzles'. Regardless of the confusing, braindead stupid way that they've been written, they are not ambiguous, and those that claim otherwise are showing a fundamental misunderstanding of how the order of operations works. The fact that so many people get them wrong shows that the 'low standard' of knowing order of operations is still one many people haven't reached.

It's not an entirely useless skill to be good at interpreting equations written out like this, either. As an example, I'm a first year uni student studying engineering. In my math course, we have a weekly, online WebAssign quiz. Sometimes the answers are moderately long equations, and we have to enter these as a single line of plain text. Understanding when brackets are needed and when they're not can significantly de-clutter the box you're typing the answer into. While we can click a button to show the computer's interpretation of what we've written in symbolic form, it's far quicker to get it right the first time.

 

[MetalMagpie]

I did (and still do!) have to use soh-cah-toa for trig though.

I can't remember anymore what SOH-CAH-TOA is used for, but thanks to TWEWY, I can't get the frigging thing out of my head..

To work out angle 'a' of a right-angle triangle using the lengths of the sides:
Sin(a) = Opposite / Hypotenuse
Cos(a) = Adjacent / Hypotenuse
Tan(a) = Opposite / Adjacent

TWEWY = The World Ends With You?

 

[cookyt]

PEMDAS is essentially a linguistic convention. So long as we all use the same convention, we will all get consistent results. I wonder if some of the people who struggle with learning and applying it simply have a problem with the arbitrariness of the whole thing. If they come up with a consistent model of how to apply the operations, then they are 99% there, they will just need to learn to use the same notation as everybody else.

FINALLY, someone who understands this: the order is arbitrary! Stop acting smug just because someone else is tripping up over it! It's like laughing at someone for not knowing the password to the tree-house. What are we, five!

Sorry, it just annoys me to no end how people point and laugh when some mathematically illiterate schlub doesn't apply the order correctly, or when people purposefully write things out ambiguously to force others to think about the order. I have never seen a single scientific paper which did anything that wasn't completely obvious with their equations. Even when there might be the slightest bit of ambiguity, most people just use parentheses to clear it right up.

The formula above would be written in Lisp as (- (+ 1 (* 3 (^ 2 4))) 5). Evaluating between each parenthesis pair leads to consistent, easily verifiable results

That's interesting, is all LISP math written in prefix notation? I'm more familiar with postfix notation (oddly called reverse polish notation in some places). There's no need for parentheses: 2 4 ^ 3 * 1 + 5 -
Reading that over, I can see why we don't use it for most situations.