BBO Discussion Forums: Math Education, elementary - BBO Discussion Forums

Elianna, on 2016-November-02, 16:38, said:

Indiana tried to pass a law about math, it's commonly known as the Indiana Pi Bill because one of the implications of the law would be to set th value of π to 3.2.

barmar, on 2016-November-03, 08:54, said:

There are some good reasons for legislating that pi should be a larger value than it really is, for example if you're building narrow circular chimneys with rectangular bricks to deal with wastage in calculating the number of bricks. I seem to recall somewhere legislated it as 4 at one point.

barmar, on 2016-November-03, 08:54, said:

That was a great read Barry!

barmar, on 2016-November-03, 08:54, said:

From that source:
"However, the bill does imply various incorrect values of π, such as 3.2."

This has been my understanding of it. It is so incoherent that "such as 3.2" is about the best that can be said. I once fielded a telephone call from someone who had found the exact value of pi. I could not figure out where on earth he got the number from until somehow, experimenting around, I found that my calculator gave his number as its approximation to the square root of 10. He just said something like "Oh, ok". and the conversation ended.

It's sometimes hard to tell whether we are looking at an hones mistake or some sort of pi psychosis, or what.


An amusing variant on this: In the summer of 1961, after a year of grad school, I had a job as math support for an engineering group. I was to take their problems and get numerical answers. Someone came to me and needed the value of the integral from 0 to pi/2 of sin(x). I told him the value was 1. He wanted me to "put it on the computer". I showed him why the answer was 1. He still insisted. Being low man on the totem pole, I did as I was told. Of course the computer answer was something like 0.99999987. I always figured he told his buddies "That kid is pretty good, he did it in his head and almost got the answer right."

billw55, on 2016-November-02, 07:12, said:

The word I take offense to here is 'nonsense'. First, before you totally ignore me, let me say that it is possible, maybe even likely, that what I am about to describe isn't about to happen in the USA in the near future.

However, for a capitalistic society to become a socialist society, do you think it's more likely to happen because the people vote for it, or through the government taking too much power and overriding the will of the people? If you think the first, let's agree to disagree. If you agree with me that it's the second, then there are steps that a government can take to make socialism happen and the list that was presented seems like a reasonable set of steps to take to achieve that goal. So while the fact that it's happening now might be far right conspiracy theory, the steps themselves are not nonsense.

By the way, I apologize for those who wanted to discuss education, it seems as if the other posters think it's more important to belittle or "enlighten" me.

billw55, on 2016-November-02, 12:17, said:

No sympathy even for those who didn't vote for Trump and even actively campaigned against him in the primaries? I had a good feeling that Trump was bad news. On another site, I spent many hours telling Republicans that they should pick someone else to no avail; the only thing I accomplished was to get Democrats in open primary states to vote for Trump as the only person Hillary could beat. Sadly, my vote didn't mean squat as Trump won Florida by a landslide. So you are simply rubbing salt in the wounds, although TBH I believe that wasn't your intent.

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-03, 10:00, said:

That's because you sound like you have some sort of irrational fear of "socialism" where what you describe as socialism is some totalitarian communism. And also because you think it's more likely that Hillary will single handedly make all this happen while Trump who's an unstable nutcase will not cause that much damage if he wins.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

If that is what I am doing, it is only to a few people who don't believe me anyway. On the other hand, the mainstream media spouts left wing talking points as if they were valid arguments or valid facts and many naive listeners lap it up.

Don't believe me? When the "pussy" (omg, she said it!) tape came up, NBC, CBS, and ABC news spent 23 hours talking about it. When the Hillary-damning Wikieaks came up, NBC CBS, and ABC news spent less than 1 hour talking about it.

But that's perfectly all right, the news is slanted in the direction you want so everything is good and anybody that disputes it is a right-wing nutjob.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

And you will note that I did in fact allow for that possibility.

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-02, 11:18, said:

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

You are correct, I would be just as unhappy with Obama's policies if he were white. Although if he was white we would have already had our 8 years of Hillary.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

I do not consider socialism an insult, I consider it an ideology that I would prefer not to live under. If a socialist country's people are happy, more power to them.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

My problem with single payer is my own experience. I have a Canadian friend who had heart issues which frequently quickly lead to a heart attack and had to wait four months for an appointment.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 13:26, said:

Few politicians tell the populace that this is their intention. Do you think that Harry Truman told the people in 1948 that he intended to nationalize the steel industry? He might not have even known it himself at the time!

I'm in no way saying that I think Hillary is going to nationalize anything, so don't go jumping all over me on that one. However, it wouldn't surprise me either and I'll bet most of you would be shocked. Fortunately, her great indebtedness to Wall Street donors will probably prevent her from nationalizing anything (at least some good comes out of it )

kenberg, on 2016-November-02, 14:07, said:

Well, I would have guessed it to be true, but apparently it is not. And as I pointed out, I allowed for that possibility.

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-03, 10:00, said:

It is not nonsense in the same way that the majority of science fiction is not nonsense, possible in theory but so unlikely as to be irrelevant. Actually I would say the majority of science fiction is considerably more likely than your scenario and that includes the possibility of Darleks and Cybermen attacking London at the same time.

mikeh, on 2016-November-02, 14:24, said:

While I believe that all of the posters are ignorant to some degree, I am willing to change my mind when the evidence proves my ideas wrong. I have changed my mind about several things through the reading and gathering of information. Even some posters have caused me to reconsider my position.

However, I wonder if the same can be said for any of you. Most of you will never see the other side's point because once you see that the source is right-wing, you ignore it as bulls***. There is a reason that 40% of Americans will vote for Trump and it's not because they are stupid. They realize that a lot of what they are fed by mainstream media and taught by liberal-leaning professors is not the gospel truth.

I am under no delusion that if all the liberals died tomorrow and the country was always run by conservatives, that it would be euphoria. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and frequently temptation gets the better of those in power no matter what their political leaning, and problems would ensue. They would be different problems than the ones I see facing the country today, but indeed because there are humans involved, who are both infallible and subject to temptation, you won't have a perfect society. The Republican Party has its share of scoundrels too. Plus, I am totally aware that right-leaning media outlets are presenting biased material. You all are aware of that too. I'm also aware that left-leaning media outlets (which include most of the widely read or watched or listened-to media) are presenting biased material. This is where they disagree - I am willing to admit that "my" side has bias, I don't think many of you are willing to admit that "your" side has bias. Which I believe is naive. And yet I am the one being called naive here.

And yes, thanks Diana - while many have told me that Snopes is liberal-leaning, I have to think that this account is true because if it were crap, they likely would have called out on it and you might have found that with Google instead.

Elianna, on 2016-November-02, 16:38, said:

I couldn't agree with you more.

And yet, who is politicizing the Climate Change issue?

that would be our attorney general

Seems to me that it's a scientific issue, not a law issue. Plus, don't we have free speech in this country?

cherdano, on 2016-November-03, 03:26, said:

Most sciences would be okay too, I expect.

kenberg, on 2016-November-03, 06:48, said:

One of the Beatles' songs does have math in it. Which one?

diana_eva, on 2016-November-03, 10:12, said:

I believe that socialism is a system under which the community (i.e. government) controls production and consumption. While it sounds good in theory, I believe it promotes laziness as innovation isn't rewarded to the extent necessary (IMO) to keep it happening. I would prefer to live in a society where innovation happens frequently simply because it is rewarded, and also where hard work is rewarded. Note that I don't benefit from such an arrangement; I'm not particularly hard working, preferring to spend time on bridge problems for I/N players than doing something that benefits mankind more profoundly, but those that work hard should be rewarded and I don't believe that either socialism or totalitarian communism (which I also don't want to live under) does that.

I don't think Hillary will single handedly make this happen. I do believe that she will take us further in that direction. Demographics are telling me this is an unstoppable train because the youth seem to think this is a good direction for our country (look at all the Sanders supporters.) I don't think it's a good direction for our country, and am hoping that either the next generation will realize that. However, I won't live forever and if future generations believe that it is a good direction, then they will get their government of the people which will be more socialist and fortunately I won't be here to see what has happened to our country, but if that is the government that future generations want, they should have it.

I am continuing to stay out of the politics subthread, but I will remind everyone that when diana_eva talks about socialism and communism, she may have a better idea of what that means in the real world than most of us...

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-03, 10:00, said:

In the USA? We agree to disagree.

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-03, 10:33, said:

You original words were: "let me tell you a story which I believe to be true (but it might be some nutjob site propaganda!)". This sounds stronger than "I would have guessed it to be true".

In any case, it should not be that difficult to spot an internet chain mail/repost hoax. I recognized it for what it was immediately, without the 30 seconds of research needed to confirm it. That you were taken in shows a measure of gullibility related to your ideological bias. Perhaps you should reconsider some of the other content from similar sources in a more objective light?

mycroft, on 2016-November-03, 12:10, said:

I suspect it also means that I don't really "get" democracy

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-03, 10:33, said:

Would you be willing to think through the likelihood of it being true? Forget Snopes. I have heard the story before, but cannot recall anyone, regardless of their politics. believing it to be a true story.

A prof gives an exam, the first exam, before announcing his plan. Some students study hard, study like hell I believe you said, After the exam, the Prof announces that all students will receive the same grade, the average of the grade earned by all students. Put yourself in that class for a moment, as one of the hard working students who did very well on the exam. You and your fellow hard workers would do what? Meekly say ok? And then you would stop studying, trusting that what he did with the first test he will do with the others? Some might complain, some might drop, I doubt many would just take it. And how about the Prof? He has wasted the entire course to display this one lesson in socialism. Really? Is he expecting a raise fr next year? Tenure? Self respect?

You take offense that you are not taken seriously. But you present yourself as gullible beyond anything I have ever seen. I do not think of myself as unkind, but there is simply no way to say it kindly. I have had disagreements with liberals on BBO, ask Cherdano for example, and I have had disagreements with conservatives. But taking this story at face value, even with the caveat that it could be wrong (that applies to almost everything), really is an extreme case.

A while back Ken R was posting stuff and eventually gloated that we were really easy, he was just doing it for fun. I have been thinking you must be doing the same. So maybe I am the gullible one.

diana_eva, on 2016-November-03, 12:19, said:

You probably get it more than most Americans.