*I'm reminded of this recent entry at http://learningcurves.blogspot.com, by a math professor who taught "Mathematics for Teachers" this semester: -*snip*- Question:* Which of the following four statements is *true*? Circle the true statement. * 1/13 < 0.13 * 1/13 > 0.13 * 1/13 = 0.13 * 1/13 can not be compared to 0.13 *Answers:* All four choices were popular, with each being selected by about a quarter of my students. *Source of Question:* This question was taken directly from the item sampler provided by my state's Department of Education for the State Comprehensive Assessment Test given to all 8th graders. -*snip*- Richard Guy wrote:
In such matters, context is everything.
I've been intrigued for many moons by the fact that each morning I hear the market analyst reel off the changes in bond rates in 32nds and then give the resulting rates in % to two dec places. Does his machine quote these things thus?
R.
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Henry Baker wrote:
John:
I'm not so worried about his inability to do 3/8 + 3/8 -- after all, most of us can't do present value analysis in our heads, either.
What would bother me would be if he couldn't get his calculator and/or spreadsheet to do these calculations.
Henry ----- At 11:39 AM 12/13/2004, you wrote:
I was recently asked by a senior manager of purchasing for a large school district - What is 3/8 + 3/8 ?
I expect this manager deals in many millions of dollars annually.
It makes me wonder how important math is for the non- mathematician.
John McKay
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