Maths? You any good at it?

[cee-dee]

Maths. Hate maths? Good at maths? Can't make top nor tail of maths?

When I was at school (yep, I went to school!) we had a nutty maths teacher who just lived for maths. The thing is, some of the things he taught I've never forgotton so I wonder what he would have made of the Common Core methods?

I was browsing the BBC website and saw this report:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-35788369

Which led on to this video :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSVTzQlqbp0

Now then, who the heck thought of doing things that way? How on earth can you visualise doing that mentally?

I think anyone contemplating changing anything should only promote changes which are simpler not more complicated. I wonder how many kids minds just went blank when they were trying to get to grips with that lot?

Next thing is they'll be trying to get kids to understand the significance of the numbers on a roulette wheel adding up to 666.

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@cee-dee wrote:

People who achieved something with numbers were trying to DO something, they weren't just juggling numbers for the heck of it.

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On what basis can you possibly claim that?  Pythagoras for instance played with numbers, classified them as odd, even, perfect etc.  It was out of this fascination with numbers that he proposed his famous theorem that in a right angle triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.  a theorem that is the basis of most civil engineering calculations and design.

Newton was a great player with numbers as was Galileo, Einstein and Hawkins.  It is out of this love of numbers many discoveries and practical uses have arisen.  

[cee-dee]

Post your working for each bet and someone might spot where the mistake is.

Like I said, it depends where you bet because some only pay a fifth, some others only pay a sixth for a place.

What does your bookie say?

[cee-dee]

Heck you can be hard work.

Those blokes were trying to do something, they weren't just playing around for no reason.

[jd.linklater]

I think I've just found my mistake. There were four winning single bets with the three horses, the ticket states 1/4 the odds for a place.

1) £1 win at 5/1 = £5

    £1 place at 5/4 (1/4 the odds) = £1.25

2) £1 place at 4/1 (1/4 the odds) = £4

3) £1 place at 4/1 (1/4 the odds) = £4

Making a total of £14.25

I forgot you get the stake returned so I should have added another £1 to each of them making an extra £4. It makes a considerable difference for the treble because you have to add the stake to each leg hence the large discrepancy. So I'm better off than I thought, think I'll have another go tomorrow.

[upthecreekyetagain]

So tell me what Pythagorus was trying to do when categorising numbers as odd, even, perfect etc.

You make an assertion but don't back it up - simply repeating it doesn't make it true!

[upthecreekyetagain]

Have a look at this list of perfect numbers and when they were discovered - they have only just started to be 'useful' in encryption algorithms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_perfect_numbers

[cee-dee]

So kids at primary school would find that useful?

[cee-dee]

So what do you make your treble worth and what's your take on the total?

Do you now agree with your bookie (or the calculator) or were you trying to work it out before collecting?

[evoman3957]

"Messing around with numbers is most certainly not a waste of time"....................................MMMmmmm did I say it was ??? I must be talking in my sleep again.

[evoman3957]

Oh and the equation is not this........The equation is x to the power of n + y to the power of n = z to the power of n...........as you stated. If it were, it would not be written xn + yn = zn.........the n would be written smaller and placed at the top right hand side of the first letter. Check this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation

[cee-dee]

We can't do superscript or subscript on here because James stopped it! The best I can do is, for example 5² or 5³.

[jd.linklater]

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@cee-dee wrote:

So what do you make your treble worth and what's your take on the total?

Do you now agree with your bookie (or the calculator) or were you trying to work it out before collecting?

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£2 at 5/4 = £2.50 + £2 staked = £4.50

£4.50 at 4/1= £18 + £4.50 staked = £22.50

£22.50 at 4/1 = £90 + £22.50 staked = £112.50

Adding £18.25 from the single bets makes the total £130.75 which is what the website stated. Not bad for a £10 layout.  

[evoman3957]

Just So

[evoman3957]

At least they weren't talking Horses................gawd knows we've got enough of those.

[dadio501]

If you love Maths, try working this one out.

Harry, Harold and Steve were off to Scotland for a fishing trip.

Steve made the booking for all 3 of them, for 2 nights at a local Hotel, Friday night and Saturday night.

When they arrived late in the evening, all 3 of them went into reception and were greeted by Mary, the receptionist.

"Good evening gentlemen and welcome to our Hotel, may I take your payment please" Mary said.

Steve had already got payment off Harry and Harold, and with his own payment handed over £300 to Mary.

Mary thanked them and handed over 3 keys to Steve, and said "all 3 rooms are the same, take your pick".

Steve then said to Mary "we won't be around in the mornings for breakfast on Saturday nor Sunday, we are off for early starts fishing".

Mary said "no problem, I'll let the manager know".

An hour later the manager appears, and Mary tells him what Steve had said, his reply was "Oh okay, as we have no other guests in my hotel, we won't be needing our chef. As breakfast was included in the price of their booking, can you give them this back" and gave Mary five £10 notes.

Mary said "of course, I will hand it over in the morning".

Saturday morning arrived and Harry, Harold and Steve were all set to leave for their first day fishing.

They got to reception and Harry and Harold both said they needed the loo, so off they went.

Mary said "good morning Steve, I hope all 3 of you enjoy your fishing today".

Steve said thanks and leaned on the reception desk, waiting for Harry and Harold.

Mary then thought of the £50 her manager had given her, and quick as a flash thought to herself sod it, I'm low paid, so I won't give them all the money.

Behind her back she craftily pulled 2 x £10 notes from the other 3 notes and said "Oh, by the way Steve, my manager has kindly offered all 3 of you a discount, in total £30 off your stay, as you won't be having breakfast this morning or tomorrow".

"Wow" says Steve, "how generous of him, thank you very much".

At that moment Harry and Harold appear from the toilet and Steve says "look guys, as we won't be around for breakfasts, the manager has given us a discount" and hands a tenner to Harry, another to Harold and holds his own note up in the air.

"Thats brilliant" say Harry, "so all 3 of us get a tenner knocked off our stay". Harold pipes up and says "so all 3 of us only paid £90 each for our stay, we'll all be having extra drinks tonight when we get back" and all 3 of them laugh as they go to their car.

Mary stands behind her desk and then says to herself in a very puzzled manner, "hang on, if they all had a tenner back, they did indeed only pay £90 each per room, well 3 X £90 is £270, but I only sneaked £20 in my pocket, where is the other £10"?

Where indeed ?

[cee-dee]

That's an old one.

[5129frederick]

We had a maths teacher at my boarding school who really knew his job.  He'd set the class into three.  The top four he would give them GCE O-level work to stop them getting board and disruptive.

Then there were the mainstream pupils, and then there were the real dunderheads who, through no fault of their own wouldn't pass a normal math's problem in a million years, so he set them very easy problems to stop them dreaming away for the next hour doung nothing.

I was behind in my maths, not greatly, but enough for him to notice, so our master set me slightly different problems.  Once I'd mastered the art of basic multiplication he then decided to upgrade me - longhand multiplication using decimal points.  For example

107.4432 X 2.755.  I gulped when I saw the sum, to which he smiled to himself.

"Do you know how to do it, how to carry the decimal point?"

"No, Sir."

"Well don't be nervous, Woody.  Sit down next to me and I'll show you how it's done."

He did - just three times.  After that, he knew I was on my way.

Where oh where are the teachers of the early sixties?