bfchat.brainformation.com

Brains work like that. Some retain it; some lose it; some never have it in the first place.

have what...?

Er .......

Well my memory's generally OK really, but a mental block stops me from remembering most mathematical things - apart from all but the most basic stuff. Learning how to play chess etc. - forget it.

I see a lot of simple math questions on Farcebook that most of those responding seem to always get wrong.

Especially when they break the lines in ways not expected, such as the number 11 being shown with a 1 ending on one line, and the next 1 starting on the next line. Technically this isn't fair, but is something to watch for on trick questions.

If you can remember the phrase:
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
PEMDAS
You can answer most of these math question like a pro.
Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Additions, Subtractions.
This is the order to perform all simple math problems.

Exponents? Parenthesis?

An example of an exponent is 15 squared, represented by an elevated 2 I cannot properly show here.
Or in math the 2 would mean squared.

Parenthesis are a number inside like (12x5) or (10+20)

Here is an example:

8+10x2-12+(16x5)-11=?? (Note: the x is not an algebraic expression but means multiply.

In the above example, the first thing to do is what is inside the parenthesis (16x5)=80
Now the example would read 8+10x2-12+80-11=??
There is a multiplication component, but no division, do the multiplication 10x2=20
Now the example would read 8+20-12+80-11=??

I did make a mistake in how I wrote PEMDAS longhand. There should be an AND sign between Addition and Subtraction.

In other words, your answer should be 85, not -75

If you did the addition first by itself, it would render the question 28-92-11=-75
This is not correct, you do addition and subtraction in the order presented.
8+20-12+80-11=85

Thank you Gary. Some of that was as clear as mud ..... (not your fault, I assure you).

One thing that irked me about school and math was PI...

I actually took the time to memorize PI to seven decimal places, using the figures we were taught.
3.1428571 - and that figure still sticks in my head today.

The only problem was, we were taught the wrong number.

It wasn't until I was in college that I learned the correct number.
3.14159265359 - and for the life of me, I cannot remember it over the one I was taught.

I just had to chalk it up to how they taught the classes when I first started going to skewl.
You probably remember one of your earliest teachers telling you that 2 does not go into 1!
You move up a couple of grades and the teachers now said 2 does go into 1, it goes 1/2 times.
Move up another grade or two and they change the story again 2 goes into 1, 0.5 times.

Being the troublemaker I was back then, I told the teacher to go talk to my other teacher, because she taught us 2 does not go into 1, and who am I to question the authority of my first teacher, hi hi...

Then they wasted more time teaching us about Remainders. Something else we found out was a waste of our learning time.

I realize we had not attained enough about math to understand quantum theories.
But the teacher could have told us, 2 does go into 1, and we will learn about that next year, instead of telling a lie.

Then came English class, and they had all these 29 cent words to describe the parts of speech.
Participle almost sounds nasty. I still have no idea what it is, and don't much care...
That's what we have editors for. Like auto mechanics, for when the car makes weird noises.
When your writing makes weird noises, you take it to an editor to fix, hi hi...

LOL!!!! There's some truth in all that. Much of what we learn isn't needed, especially these days, but I think everyone should have a basic understanding of both maths and English. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can be quite important in every-day life. Participles, pluperfect and clauses .... oh come on!!! I'm grinning as I type this. So long as a person can string a "proper" sentence together, and knows where to start a new paragraph/has basic punctuation - what the heck!

...and let's not start on the spelling!

oh, that reminds me: finnish has phonetic spelling, so when a word evolves, the spelling follows automatically. when I was in school, we had pitempi - which is now pidempi, with a d.

no argument, lol!

Well, as they say Fonics is Phun!
Mind you I never said that, hi hi...

Unfortunately, if children learn to pronounce from phonics, the written word isn't going to be correct. Sure it helps to start off like that, and I often spell things as they sound - but that's for fun, amongst people I know.