Fear

Math Essay

This one takes a bit of explaining. You see, my Math teacher gave us these projects with mind-numbingly stupid questions. We had to work in groups. In no time flat we'd finished the problems. But then we had to write this essay... one page requirement, explaining how we got our answers. Our answers to questions that any mouth-breathing idito could answer them in a glance. So I wrote this. And yes, I did hand this into her.

And now for my explanation on “…how we went about getting our solutions to the problems…” (Previte, 1): Together, my partner and I solved all of these problems in the same fashion. We looked at them, wrote down the equations that we would need to perform, and then assigned values to the numbers to prove that our equations would work. I do hope that reading the above answers offers enough information as to the process. All of the problems were very easy and the entire assignment took less than 20 minutes of group effort (most of that was spent on the even and odd section, as writing down three proofs per problem was a lengthy, if incredibly simple, process). This essay on the other hand has taken a good half-hour of my time already, because I’ve had to think of ways to put into words concepts that are so brain-numbingly simple that a well-educated 4th grader could understand them, more on that in a moment.

What about “…problem solving strategies…”(Previte, 1) would you have me say? I didn’t have to think about how to do these problems; they were all so simple that I had only to read the problem to instantly know the answer. In comparing these problems with others that we’ve discussed in class, I find that the ones in class were often nearly identical, the only difference being that in class it was enough to see and comprehend how a problem was done and to be able to do another, similar problem. No explanation was asked of “…how we went about getting our solutions to the problems…”(Previte, 1). That we had them at all was enough. This comprehending of basic concepts is difficult to explain. Let’s put it into mathematical terms. The problem will be the Variable A. The process we use to get to the answer will be B and the answer will be c.

Many people can get from A to c without worrying about B, because B was programmed as an absolute truth of the universe into their minds at a very young age, taken on faith, like any abstract concept such as time, or gravity. Why does 10/5=2? Because it does. Because we, as a people, have decided to work out of a base 10 math system (convenient, because we have 10 fingers with which to count) in which the symbol 10 represents a specific number of abstract units, and in which the symbol 5 represents a different specific number of abstract units. The symbol 10 happens to represent exactly twice as many abstract units as the symbol 5, and therefor 2 5’s make a 10. Everyone has agreed that this is how we, as a people, will transcribe an abstract concept (math) into concrete matter (writing). This is the same reason we call a table a table, or a desk a desk.

I understand the idea that you’re trying to illustrate, but I don't appreciate the futility of writing a complex essay on such a strait-forward topic. Sometimes jumping to conclusions is ok.

P.S. Problem j in part one was particularly entertaining and took us all of 40 seconds to figure out, whereas the others took only 20. There is no X variable or finite answer, because we apparently have neither a finite number of quarters nor a finite number of nickels. With 500,000,000 nickels I could purchase the same amount of candy as with 100,000,000 quarters; that is, 250,000,000 candy bars. The only achievable answer is to equate a value to Q in relation to N.

Works Cited Previte, Elaine A. “Project I worksheet” Math 102- Essential Algebra Fall 2001.

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