Professor Hacker’s The Math Myth Condensed

Professor Emeritus (Poli-Sci) at Queens College, Andrew Hacker (b.1929), received his PhD from Princeton and later worked at Oxford. While not a mathematician, Hacker has taught university-level math and stats. He’s authored 10 books and written for the New York Times and New York Review of Books.

His forte includes the popularization of statistics and the politicization of education. Hacker had been compiling notes and conducting interviews regarding mathematics instruction for 15 years before the New York Times solicited an Op-ed on the topic.

His Is Algebra Necessary? (2012) generated near record responses, spurring him to write The Math Myth (2016).

Mandarins

Most “Mandarins” are tenured Math profs at universities renowned for grad studies and research. Other Mandarins haunt lesser campuses but sit on scholastic and education committees. Mandarins are Math’s power elite – a self-perpetuating priesthood awed as sages blessed with higher orders of intellect. This unaccountable caste dictates how an entire realm of knowledge is taught, from kindergarten to postdoc.

Mandarins deride those not sharing their proclivity for abstract mathematical thought. They believe their intellects license them to dominate all education – an agenda founded on the supposition that mathematics unveils the mind at its finest. Mathematics is their ideology; their Theology.

Having imposed mandatory ‘Math 101’ onto universities, Mandarins command commodious budgets. Math 101 instructors are low-waged, overworked, cubicle-dwelling adjunct profs or grad students. To Mandarins “academic freedom” means freedom from teaching; a chore beneath their talents. Mandarins while away the hours on research, sabbaticals, conferences, and paper publishing.

Esoterica within these papers is terra incognita even to adults with reputable educations. SUNY’s Math Department concedes: “information with which a mathematics research project deals is usually inaccessible to undergraduates.”

Stanford’s Keith Devlin surmises Math: “has reached a stage of such abstraction that many of its frontier problems cannot be understood even by experts.” Mandarins can’t communicate with each other. Hilbert spaces, Reimann zeta functions, Calabi-Yau manifolds etc exemplify “academic” in its pejorative sense.

Mythmakers

Illusions surrounding the powers of mathematics constitute a defining mythology of our times. In 1957 Sputnik launched the spectre of an America falling behind in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). Mandarins, claiming computational education inadequate, demanded students learn mathematical theory. Thus begat “New Math” which, according to Suzanne Wilson (Michigan State U), “ failed because it was led by mathematicians not by math teachers.”

Modern Mandarin fronts include: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Math and Science Initiative, American Association of Universities, Achieve Inc. et al. Achieve Inc.’s Math Works (2008) spouts spurious stats about alleged multitudes of jobs requiring advanced math. Achieve Inc. lobbied the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Bill Gates kicked-down $200 ml.

Also in 2008, a 20-member panel selected by the US Education Department issued its 857-page Foundations for Success (F4S) to address K-12 shortcomings. Fifteen panelists were profs from universities emphasizing doctoral studies. A lone teacher tokenized the panel. F4S recommended prepping students for advanced algebra starting in Grade 6. F4S precipitated Common Core, with its universal math hurdles.

Common Core architect, Achieve Inc., demands: “All students – those attending a four-year college, those planning to earn a two-year degree, or get some post-secondary training, and those seeking to enter the job market right away – need to have comparable preparation in high school.”

Common Core’s high-denominator, one-size-fits-all requirements sets up many students for disaster. Inflicting “Math for Harvard” on everyone is like demanding everyone play concerto violin.

The research-oriented American Association of Universities (AAU) sent copies of Standards for Success (S4S) to 20,000 high-schools. S4S warns students are often shocked by the math skills universities expect.

S4S lists 68 skills (quadratic functions, trigonometric shifts) all students must master, even Art majors. The agenda is radical. Every student must conquer advanced algebra. Between 1982 and 2016 the percentage of high-schools demanding 2 years of algebra rose from 55 to 76 percent. College administrators prove their rigor by piling on algebra. Most now use SATs which presume 3 years of advanced math.

Meanwhile, students flee this once leading discipline. Between 1970 and 2013 annual awards of Math BAs fell from 27,135 to 17,408 (from 3.4 to one percent of all BAs). Awards of Math MAs fell 5,145 to 1,809 (2.5 to 0.3 percent). Math PhDs fell from 1,052 to 730 (3.5 to 0.5 percent). As Princeton entrants must hit sky-high SAT Math scores, this cohort should teem with algebra-philes. Three percent major in Math.

Mandarins fail spectacularly in transmitting their love of Math to students. They blame Math’s unpopularity on pampered students, fearful of difficult subjects.

Carnage

Math-dense SAT and Common Core exams raise insurmountable barriers for students whose aptitudes lie elsewhere. In many states 60+ percent of students fail Common Core math. Most students fail high-school Algebra; although most eventually squeak through. First-try failure rates at Algebra in Los Angeles high-schools is 65 percent. In Arizona its 64 percent; in Washington: 61 percent. These are senior-year students!

20 percent of high-school students drop-out. Math is the chief academic culprit. Math is also the main barrier to entering college. Mandatory algebra can be a nightmare of enigmatic abstractions that turn kids off Math… and off education. Listen to Math teachers:

“I will have close to 200 students who now believe they are failures because they did not meet excessive math standards.”

“In my 40 years as a math educator, I have seen too many capable people crippled by this algebra curse.

We are losing too many students to the gatekeepers who push algebra as some kind of miracle drug for success.”

The National Center on Education and Economy complains:

“…many community college students are denied a certificate or diploma, because they have failed in a mathematics course irrelevant to the work these students plan to do or the courses they need to take….

(algebra) is being used much as Latin was used a century ago, as a screen to keep the unwanted out of college.”

Algebra and Calculus anguish rich and poor.

Expensive tutoring, however, helps privileged kids succeed. Corporations like Kaplan and Princeton Review rake in billions for tutoring. Additional billions go to freelancers – mostly for Math prep. Tutors teach test-taking techniques i.e., back-solving exam questions. With shrewd tutoring students with scant Math knowhow fetch decent SAT scores. Parental ability to pay tutors segregates students. Affluent and impoverished districts exhibit gaping Math disparities.

Failure rates for university Math are over twice that of any other discipline. City University’s mandatory Algebra 101 inflicts a 57 percent failure rate. Math is the principal academic reason why 45 percent of university entrants leave without degrees.

Few attend Math 101 voluntarily. Most end up in Remedial Math. Huge class sizes deprive students of one-on-one explanations. Mandarins feel no obligation to help struggling students or to make Math appealing. Math is designed for failure. Mandarins love abstract algebra because many students can’t do it.

They brag about weeding-out weaklings. Mandarins can afford such behaviour because each autumn yields a fresh crop of involuntary pupils. Screening students based on algebra ability dumps millions into the career landfill.

Uselessness

Hacker tells of an aspiring veterinary technician, with a knack for animal care, who had her hopes crushed by algebra. No veterinarian Hacker interviewed recalled any need for algebra. Numbers figure in prescriptions and treatments, but determining such quanta requires only arithmetic. Harvard’s Tony Wagner studies what businesses want from employees. Even at high-tech firms:

“knowledge of mathematics did not make the top-ten list of the skills employers found important.”

Mandarins claim Math degrees equal higher earnings. Any degree equals higher earnings. Reading Dickens equals higher earnings. According to Rutgers’ Math prof Joseph Rosenstein:

“It is hard to make the case that topics like complex numbers, rational exponents, systems of linear equality and inverse functions are needed by all students.”

Rosenstein asks policy wonks: “When was the last time you needed to factor trinomials?

Mathematician Lynn Steen adds:

“…mathematics teachers simply do not know enough about how mathematics is used by people other than mathematicians … What current and prospective employees lack is not calculus or college algebra, but a plethora of more basic quantitative skills that could be taught in high school…”

Manufacturing scholar, John Smith, argues:

“Mathematical reasoning in workplaces differs markedly from school mathematics… the algorithms taught in school are often not the computational methods of choice for workers… few teachers have any idea what goes on in the work world.”
Two skills experts echo Smith:
“Higher levels of abstract mathematics are required for access to certain professions even when high-level mathematical procedures are unnecessary in the day-to-day work of those professions.”

The ‘E’ in STEM, Engineers, are shrinking in numbers relative to other professions. Universities graduate more Engineers than the economy needs. Graduates often work in sales or management. Moreover, experts estimate only 15 percent of practising engineers use advanced math. N.Y. Polytechnic’s Dean of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering reckons 10 percent of his fields’ tasks require advanced math.

Arizona State U Engineering’s Dean, Mitzi Montoya, complains students lack functional numeracy not advanced algebra. Montoya:

“…go out and look at what engineers use, it’s not calculus or differential equations. Even if you go into a big company that’s building sophisticated rockets, you will still find only a very small percentage doing mathematical analysis.”

She speaks of students who did exciting robot-building in high-school yet flunked Calculus. She fears losing incipient Edisons. The inventors who hitherto became industrialists couldn’t pass through schools today with their mind-numbing algebra and calculus obsessions. Another Engineering prof regularly asks alumni what math they use.

Their main response:

“addition, subtraction, multiplication, division ”
(i.e., arithmetic). Such revelations find support from the field:
“Many of the peers I work with are very good engineers, but have retained very little mathematics… because they do not need to use it.”
“I have been an engineer for all of my adult life. Algebra? Calculus? Differential equations? I have forgotten most of this stuff from lack of use.”
“I have worked in a technical capacity at Texas Instruments and Honeywell and have been awarded two patents. I have never had to solve a calculus problem or a quadratic equation.”

The ‘T’ in STEM, Technicians, are ordinary people doing ordinary jobs like: “pump system gauger,” “gynecological sonographer,” “avionic equipment mechanic,” or “cryptanalysis keyer.” Techs need

agility with numbers as applied to specific processes or equipment. Most have only high-school, or community college, diplomas. Techs get on-the-job quantitative instruction. German and Japanese carmakers locate uber-modern plants in states populated with high-school dropouts.

Computer techs are mostly coders. Beneath each creative designer crouch hundreds of coders who must get every symbol, letter and integer precisely right. This is spelling not math.

University of Georgia’s Dave Edwards teaches “Math for Computer Science.” He asked recruiters from a software developer what math they used. They responded: “none.” They used Math BAs to filter jobseekers. (Edwards contends most Engineers use eighth-grade arithmetic.) Hacker audited an “Algorithmic Problem Solving” class. No mathematic equations were mentioned. The class taught logical sequencing of a symbolic language.

One software designer quips that he only uses math to calculate his restaurant tips. Media drumbeats about tech shortages recall complaints about farm-labor shortages. It’s about lowering wages. (An article about a fabricating firm lacking technicians neglected to mention the jobs paid $10 an hour.) Boston Consulting jibes:

“trying to hire high-skilled workers at rock-bottom prices is not a skills gap.”

While Microsoft and Honeywell cry for computer grads, the American Association of Professional Coders complains half its members make under $41,000 a year. The Association of American Medical Colleges asked 14,240 medical students to rate the usefulness of pre-med courses. Biology and Bio-chem topped the list. Calculus came in distant last.

The Admissions Dean at Mount Sanai Medical School believes: “only arithmetic is needed in patient care.” Another Physician opines: “For medical school, one big hurdle was always calculus, a thoroughly irrelevant course. Any honest physician will tell you the last time he/she used calculus was on a final exam in the subject.”

Actuaries endure exams comparable to Princeton’s Math PhD program. An actuary for a multi-billion dollar pension fund confides: “the test covers mathematics that people will never need in their jobs.” He has seconders: “ I am a retired finance type of guy with an MBA. In my forty years of work, I never had to solve or use quadratic equations. The times tables and long division usually sufficed.” Famed Biologist, E. O. Wilson, reminds that Darwin lacked mathematical talent; adding: “Many of the most successful scientists in the world today are mathematically no more than semiliterate.”

Math requirements: “deprive science of an immeasurable amount of sorely needed talent.” Nobel-winning Physicist, Carl Wieman, says real Physicists use: “sophisticated mathematics less and less.” 70 percent of working Americans lack degrees. They somehow drive UPS trucks and manage Safeway’s without advanced algebraic training – which isn’t to say they don’t use algebra.

Elementary algebra is ubiquitous.

Right-sizing a recipe requires algebra. One researcher studied carpet-layers. Pros conserve carpet and minimize seams by deploying: coordinate geometry, tangency points and computational algorithms. They evince intricate algebraic competence sans high-school diplomas.

A study of odds-beating racetrack handicappers found astonishing abilities to combine variables (i.e., algebra). Handicappers were drop-outs who performed poorly on math tests. Scholars concluded academic tests are: “unrelated to real-world forms of cognitive complexity.”

Supremacists

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics contends:

“a person who has studied mathematics should be able to live more intelligently than one who has not.”
Renowned mathematician, Morris Kline doubts this, as does colleague Peter Johnson:
“There appears to be no research whatever that would indicate that the kind of reasoning skills a student is expected to gain from learning algebra would transfer to other domains of thinking…”
A DePauw Mathematician adds:
“To assert that mathematical training strengthens the mind is as impossible to prove as the proposition that music and art broaden and enrich the soul.”

A university-level Biologist is adamant:

“We are told that if we could think logically about triangles, we could think logically about all sorts of things. What nonsense!”

Proving Math theorems means securing Mandarin consensus. Proofs run to hundreds of pages of argumentation detached from earthly experience. Conversely, legal and scientific proofs involve more than pondering.

They involve evidence. Legal proofs apply trying standards of doubting and balancing evidence. Scientific verdicts are more tentative than Math verdicts. Harvard’s Astrophysics Chair asserts:

“In physics, you are required to base what you do on proven facts. In mathematics, you are allowed to go in all directions that have no connections with reality.”

Students with high Math scores aren’t any better at, say, History. High SAT Math scores don’t correlate with high scores across the board. (High literacy scores do.) Are math-nurds the most reasonable, well-informed people you’ve met?

International competitions correlate math proficiency with authoritarianism. China and Iran shine; as do authoritarian cultures like South Korea where tutoring is universal; tonnes of homework the norm; and where kids suffer sleep deprivation and commit suicide.

Children from aspiring immigrant families excel at Math because they arrive with unquestioning willingness to jump through arbitrary hoops. One educator describes Math instruction as “teaching how to spell without knowing what the words mean.”

Math instruction opposes: subjectivity, creativity and curiosity. Mandarins are suspicious of classes students enjoy. They disdain entertaining instructors. They want students seated in grid rows, working alone toward the one correct answer. They extol Math’s compatibility with standardized machine testing.

Denunciations of Hacker’s New York Times article fulminated with bellicose superiority about the perseverance needed to conquer algebra and calculus. None spoke of their utility or beauty. Pointless Math drills were a rite of passage they’d endured. Math favors acquiescent drudges.

Escape

Academic luminaries confess:
“little is know about what effective teachers do to generate greater gains in student learning.”

Debates centre around “Discovery” versus “Drilling.” Discovery instills love of learning. Discovery students analyse problems and create solutions as communities of learners. Teams explore concrete problems encountered by students. In Japan, Math assignments are done together in class – not home alone. Whizzes help strugglers.

In 1999, after the US Education Secretary endorsed a panel report praising Discovery, 200 Math profs signed a letter complaining about the panel’s dearth of “research mathematicians.” They demanded elementary schools prepare students for the Math encountered in grad studies. Every first-graders was reckoned a budding research mathematician.

Hacker wants higher education to teach: adult arithmetic; functional numeracy; quantitative reasoning. Beacons of hope include Toyota’s collaboration with a Mississippi community college on a “Machine Tool Math” course which ditches abstract algebra in favour of equations essential for machinists. Berkeley Biologist, John Matsui, created a Biology-oriented Math course. Matsui contends that science disciplines:

“need a mathematics course tailored to their discipline, which few mathematics faculties are willing, let alone able, to teach.”

Bemoaning 50 percent drop-out rates among Science and Engineering students, the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended Math be taught by professors from outside Math departments. The American Mathematical Society erupted in outrage, insisting only possessors of advanced Math degrees teach introductory and vocational Math.

The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a public stats course as an alternative to algebra. Mandarins loaded it with “chi-square homogeneity” and “least square regressions.” Failure rates persisted. When Harvard showcased “quantitative reasoning,” 92 of its 94 Math profs boycotted.

Arizona State U Engineering designed an in-house “Math for Engineers” course. The Math faculty killed it!

Conclusion

We each arrive with sufficient intelligence and imagination to excel at some endeavour. Some possess aptitudes for abstract algebra. Some can dance. Speak not of more or less intelligence. Speak of multiple intelligences. Imposing so prolonged a sequence on algebra suppresses opportunities, stifles creativity, and denies society a wealth of diverse talents.

Mandarins impose abstruse mathematics on every student even though basic arithmetic is all that is needed for 99.9 percent of careers. Students are sacrificed to advance the Mandarins’ agenda.

Sources

The above article in not a work of original writing or research. All facts, quotes and insights are taken from:

Hacker, Andrew. Is Algebra Necessary; New York Times, July 28, 2012.

Hacker, Andrew. The Math Myth and other STEM Delusions ; The New Press, New York, 2016.

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

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Comments (18)

  • Avatar

    D. Boss

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    I’ve said this before and repeat it again here: At the local University where I grew up, there were two “factions” the Engineering stream and the Pure Mathematics stream. They were of course always at odds and heaped derogatory insults at each other on a regular basis. The Maths considered the Engineers as alcoholics and jocks, while the Engineering folks simply referred to the others as “Matholes”.

    In my view this term applies universally to those consumed by mathematics as god, who fail to recognize that math is a tool to symbolically represent reality. It is NOT however, reality!

    Reply

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      Herb Rose

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      Hi D Boss,
      Math isa very poor representative of reality. There are an infinite number of integers. Between each integer there is a larger infinite number of fractions. Between each fraction there is a larger infinite number of unreal numbers. Everything in the universe is unique so there’s never 2 of anything.
      Herb

      Reply

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        William Kay

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        Very important point Herb. Those who reject the infinite universe model often say that in an infinite universe there would ultimately be an infinite number of every separate thing i.e., an infinite number of planet earths just like this one. Where the physics separates from the abstract math is that there is also a capacity for infinite variety. We have yet to find two snowflakes the same.

        Reply

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          Tom O

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          “We have yet to find two snowflakes the same.”

          I’ve heard that statement many times, and have always wondered – who, exactly, is running around in a snow storm looking at snowflakes to see if they happen to be identical? I suggest that no one ever has. It is just another idiotic statement. As for algebra, if you can make change, you have already learned the rudiments of algebraic equations.

          Reply

          • Avatar

            William Kay

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            American Meteorologist Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley (1865-1931) published 5,000 photos of snowflakes. You can find samples online. Remarkable diversity – convinced Wilson of the infinite variety of the infinitesimal.
            I consider making change to be arithmetic not algebra. Hacker discusses this but he is definitely of the view that we all use elementary algebra on a daily basis. Beyond high-school level Algebra – probably one in 10,000 jobs require this. As for post-BA Math (Algebra) outside Academia – no one is using this.

    • Avatar

      William Kay

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      Thanks for the comment D. Love the phrase “mathole.” I’ve been collecting epithets for them as well; not all which I care to post.
      Your remark about “mathematics as god” is not hyperbole, Studies show Math Profs to be the most religious of all the non-theological disciplines. I’m just finishing the 700-pager “Mathematics and the Divine: A Historical Perspective” (a collection of 50 papers) and can attest that this “Math-God” phenom is deeply embedded and pervasive. These folks aren’t Bible-thumpers but they definitely, and passionately, hold the view that the most abstract algebraic equations reflect the mind and will of the creator (as interpreted by the Math PhD priesthood, of course.)

      Reply

      • Avatar

        Tom Anderson

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        “… they definitely, and passionately, hold the view that the most abstract algebraic equations reflect the mind and will of the creator …”

        It may be worth interjecting that Isaac Newton was of course a divinity student, and his curriculum involved extensive scriptural study – the composition and delivery of sermons, of reflection on spiritual matters. His spiritual writings – many on the prophetic books of the Bible, which he analyzed mathematically – were as extensive as his “Principia.” He was also an aggressive Unitarian who believed the trinity was a 4th Century heresy encouraged by the Emperor Constantine to better govern the empire. He found what he believed was evidence for the “heresy” in one of the early Bibles he scoured. It was an ambiguously placed comma in a verse in a chapter of John.

        Moses ben Maimon, the great Jewish sage and holy man believed that “created in God’s image” referred, not to two arms two legs and a head, but to the nature of human abstract thought. I find this not wholly unpersuasive.

        Reply

  • Avatar

    Bill

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    A good read! I can verify math is, for the most part, useless to adults and their jobs. I’m mid-40s in engineering and utilities. I’ve never had to use any advanced math, not once. Not a single time in 25 years! And word problems? Don’t even get me started on how useless those are/were, they were pushed heavily in 80s math classes for some damn reason.

    Math in my opinion is a gate keeper. And a horrible one at that. It’s funny to me that we demand kids learn this at an elevated and useless level but never once teach them how to balance a checkbook or create a home budget! Thus kids learn to take tests then purge the information. Modern education in a nutshell.

    But as long as 2nd graders can use twitter and facebook prior to 3rd grade we’re all good right? That’s the plan right now. Kids being graded on reading and writing hive-mind propaganda in-line with whatever the current narrative is.

    As a side; I’ve never met a single person with a higher level degree that didn’t admit to cheating on their exams or in their classes- many are proud to have done it. What even is the point then? It’s just to accrue debt I assume. Oh and continue the myth that higher education equals an intelligent person. It does not, it never will. Some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met only achieved a GED! And a large percentage of those were extremely successful in life, how odd.

    Reply

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      Tom O

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      “I’ve never had to use any advanced math, not once. Not a single time in 25 years! ”

      You never, once, was passed a dollar to buy an item and had to make change? Never once? In essence, that is an algebraic equation, but you never looked at it that way. You never worked with fractions or had to figure an angle? Just used your calculator, perhaps, then? You use “advanced math” many times a day, I am sure, but you don’t recognize it.

      If you have relied strictly on “devices” to do the work, then you really aren’t all that successful after all. but you still have to understand HOW to use the correct functions on the devices, and that still requires an underlying understanding of advanced math.

      Reply

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        William Kay

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        Tom – The issue here is whether the substance of what is being taught in high schools, colleges and universities under the heading “Math” is needed for most careers. Hacker makes it clear that leading doctors, accountants, engineers and technicians almost never use University-level Algebra or Calculus. Making these subjects mandatory, and deliberately difficult, is causing about 50% of students to drop-out.
        Hacker recommends students be taught “adult arithmetic” etc and he does discuss “making change” as a fertile source of math questions. He recommends having students list all the possible ways – using existing coins – to come up various gross amounts.

        Reply

      • Avatar

        lloyd

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        Please explain what equation you are talking about. Making change sounds like arithmetic to me,

        Reply

        • Avatar

          William Kay

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          I agree, it is arithmetic. There are, at the same time, various algebraic puzzles one can construct regarding the possible permutations and combinations of coins that can be used to arrive at the same final quantum. Great for quizzes but no one in the real world relies on such equations to calculate pocket change.

          Reply

        • Avatar

          William Kay

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          The question always goes something like – how many different permutations of coins in circulation (nickel, dime quarter et al) can come up with $1.55? If you “Google” the phrase “coin change permutation” and there are efforts to solve this with single equations. Personally, I would solve the problem by creating sets and projections which is quasi-algebraic.

          Reply

      • Avatar

        Bill

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        “You never, once, was passed a dollar to buy an item and had to make change?”

        Of course I have. This was taught to me but not in the way you want to imagine. It’s common sense built upon a very basic teaching of math learned in grades 1-4. Much like reading. If you build a solid foundation you don’t really need to waste another 10 years fiddle fracking it- you can just read yourself and learn/retain what is important. Those very basic math rules I was taught are all I need to perform numerous electrical engineering calculations in my job 30 years later. I don’t need to study the concepts behind the equations to do them. It’s not abstract- I hazard only .01% of jobs need abstract math as we’re being “taught”. In school they worry about how many pickles equal a banana if you divide by an orange and wonder why kids get lost. It’s abstract BS with no meaning or practical use/explanation.

        Look at modern education and it’s “common core”. It seeks to teach kids common sense that we use to develop on our own after learning very basic and universal concepts. It’s a death sentence for our children’s future – they will have too rely on some “system”, likely google or a phone app. I’m seeing young adults enter the work force (college educated) that can’t even do basic long division in their head. It’s really a shame.

        Teach children properly and they will educate themselves.

        Reply

        • Avatar

          William Kay

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          Could not have said it better, Bill

          I’m wondering, having received all this positive feedback, where are all the Math-nerds who normally haunt this webzine? i.e. the ones who were so in a knot about velocity and C-squared a few weeks ago?

          Reply

  • Avatar

    William Kay

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    Hacker relays dozens of quotes from engineers verifying your first paragraph. He also quotes three or four Engineering college Deans to the same effect.
    True, Math is the gatekeeper – and is ruining the lives of millions of kids in so being. This begs: why Math? If we want 50% failure rates we could make History exams so tough half the class fails.
    There is a realm to this that Hacker did not reach. Math Departments colonized other university departments. Circa 1925 Physics had become Algebra. The same happened to Economics a few decades later.
    On your aside about cheating – no doubt the tip of the iceberg. Add to this the rampant purchasing of submitted papers by students from professional essay writers. Buy your papers, cram for the exams and cheat = degree.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Shawn Marshall

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    I was an engineer EE.
    Went to college on GI bill 6 years after high school.
    Did not know my high school algebra.
    Could not follow calculus derivations.
    Had to relearn algebra on my own in a hurry.
    Surprised to learn really only 4 basic rules. Did much better after self taught.
    Engineering maths are fascinating even if in a practice you seldom make use of them: Fourier transforms, LaPlace transforms, Maxwell equations, electromagnetic dynamic field equations in 3 dimensions and etc… humbling and edifying… work of talented geniuses.. good exposure and a lesson too.,, you need to have an understanding of the equations fundamentals if you are to use them or you might misapply a fairly simple feedback equation to a hopelessly complex nonlinear climate problem.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      William Kay

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      Good jab at the end. Is it not the hallmark of pseudo-sciences, such as contemporary climatology, that the perpetrators will ‘black-box’ their arguments behind complex algebraic equations? If one spots math errors, one should expose them.

      That said, the best arguments against the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis come from historical investigation:
      a) current warming trends are well within historically known temperature fluctuations;
      b) historic warming periods corelate with agricultural abundance;
      c) Climate Change is an historically identifiable information campaign undertaken by specific governments and businesses who are in need of a pretext for their Energy Transition (i.e., the oil and coal phase-outs).
      The Social History of Science remains commanding heights of all human knowledge.

      Reply

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