Martha
----- Original Message -----
From: Nic LaHue <LaHue@PENNVALLEY.CC.MO.US>
To: <mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu>; <mahlerp@middlesex.cc.ma.us>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 1999 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [MATHEDCC] Marilyn Vos Savant
> Phil and fellow mathedcc listers,
>
> I'm glad to see Marilyn reply. I will put a plug in for a book I found for
my 13 year old daughter Hope. The book is called "Algebra Unplugged", sorry
I don't remember the names of the the authors. I purchased the book at
Barnes and Noble. A mathematician and a writer worked together and really
have some nice ways for people to look at many of the beginning algebra
concepts.
>
> Now I may not relay this the same way they did, this is from memory. The
introduce the idea of positives and negatives in terms of a hot air balloon.
A positive would be adding heat or helium, which would cause the balloon to
rise. A negative would be adding a sandbag, which would cause the balloon to
go down. I think they would say then, consider what it means to take a
sandbag off the balloon. What effect would this have? Subtracting a negative
would cause the balloon to rise. Now what if we took off several sandbags.
This would be equivalent to multiplying a negative by a negative.
>
> Well, atleast that's the way I remember it. My daughter still had and has
questions but this book opened her eyes to some of these beginning algebra
concepts.
>
> Nic LaHue
> Usually just a lurker on the list.
>
>
> Nic LaHue
> Mathematics Department
> Penn Valley Community College
> 3201 Southwest Trafficway
> Kansas City, MO 64111
>
> >>> Phil Mahler <mahlerp@middlesex.cc.ma.us> 11/07 4:12 PM >>>
> >From today's Newspaper in the Ask Marilyn, Marilyn vos Savant column.
Nice
> to see this in the popular press - that's more important than the actual
> question.
>
> Of course maybe someone has a better answer to Sandy's original question.
>
> Phil Mahler
> Middlesex CC
> Springs Road
> Bedford, MA
>
>
> Here's a question from my 83 fifth-grade math students, who keep asking me
> what your answer is: "in real life, when would you ever multiply (or
> divide, for that matter) two negative numbers?" The closest I've come up
> with is, "if you didn't get what you didn't want, that's positive."
>
> -Sandy Hindy, Westlake Village, Calif.
>
> Forget this kind of justification for studying math. It's as irrelevant as
> asking a question like, "In real life, when would you ever do a sit-up?"
> Unless you work as a trainer, you wouldn't. That doesn't mean you should
> complain about doing sit-ups as part of physical conditioning.
>
> People need to be in good intellectual condition too. Even if you're not
> going to make heavy use of math in your profession, you still need to know
> how to think logically. Tell the kids I said that studying math
> accomplishes two goals: It prepares some kids to think like scientists,
> and it prepares all the rest of them to think, period.
>
>
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