Modern Algebra

BBShark

BBShark

Garage Monkey
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So, I'm talking to my GF's son about school. He is 17 and is taking Algebra II. He tells me that he has an assignment to do that evening to turn in the next day. I asked him about it and he said he would just look it up online and copy and paste the answer!

I asked him more specifically what was the assignment and maybe I could help him. He told me that his teacher said that modern algebra is more "advanced" than the algebra I took, so I wouldn't understand. :nuts:

I asked him if he had ever heard of a quadratic equation, he said no. If I recall correctly, this was taught in Algebra I back in the stone age (when I went to high school).

For the most part I think he sleeps in class when he is not texting his friends. If he has homework, which is rare, he looks it up online.

So, the next generation is going to become expert at looking information up not learning!

I guess that must be the "more advanced" part of modern schooling that I can't understand.
 
Odd that you mention that.....here is a post off facebook from my son who is working as a mechanic in taking the advanced ASE course in hybrid cars/battery stuff....

Looking at the # of classes I'd have to take before I could apply to an engineering school. Looking like at least a year and a half. Depending on class availability, I may start this summer. Would have been easier had I stayed in high school and passed calculus there, but then, a lot of my high school friends have been to jail. I think it worked better this way.

:hissyfit:
 
It's just a part of the "New information age." I watch guys at work "ask" their phone a question, and it tells them the answer.:censored:
 
Learning? Didn't you know that's what China and India are for?
The next couple generations are going to really wonder what happened when they're making cheap crap for their foreign masters.
 
clutchdust said:
Learning? Didn't you know that's what China and India are for?
The next couple generations are going to really wonder what happened when they're making cheap crap for their foreign masters.
Click to expand...

Most of us 'curmudgeons' know the answer to THAT already.....

:hissyfit: but we never get a kid to answer up on that point, they are 'entitled'.....


:nuts:
 
BBShark said:
I asked him more specifically what was the assignment and maybe I could help him. He told me that his teacher said that modern algebra is more "advanced" than the algebra I took, so I wouldn't understand. :nuts:

I guess that must be the "more advanced" part of modern schooling that I can't understand.
Click to expand...

MSEE here. I've tried to help my 17 year old grandson with math and a few years ago, my wife's daughter with her Junior College math home work. There's a new language and terminology that I'm not familiar with. If it's a math problem with words, you know, if A can dig 6 feet of trenches in 2 hours and B can dig 5 feet of trenches in 1.5 hours...that sort of problem description, I have problem reading the way a math problem is presented today. I don't understand the syntax. I suppose they're trying to introduce concepts of set theory, etc. I think they're making things overly difficult.

Today's math is done on computers. In my day in college, it was slide rules. One thing about slide rules, is that you have to carry the decimal point along in your head. Using a slide rule you become sensitive to getting an answer that is an order of magnitude off if you haven't carried the decimal point alone in your head correctly. A couple of years ago, I listened to a PhD guy give a discussion of his analysis concerning water outgassing from multi layer insulation blankets in a vacuum environment. Very lengthy detailed discussion and impressive to listen to. He developed a math equation and used input data and a computer to calculate results. However, his results were about a factor of 100 in difference from what we were experiencing in the real world. He actually got annoyed when pointed out the discrepancy. He was so proud of his math model that he overlooked the computers erroneous calculation!
 
68/70Vette said:
A couple of years ago, I listened to a PhD guy give a discussion of his analysis concerning water outgassing from multi layer insulation blankets in a vacuum environment. Very lengthy detailed discussion and impressive to listen to. He developed a math equation and used input data and a computer to calculate results. However, his results were about a factor of 100 in difference from what we were experiencing in the real world. He actually got annoyed when pointed out the discrepancy. He was so proud of his math model that he overlooked the computers erroneous calculation!
Click to expand...

GIGO!!!! every damn time....

:club::clobbered:
 
I see a lot of lack of basic reasoning on car forums. And its not just kids. Everybody knows the answers because someone told them one day "never do that", "always do this", "be careful you'll blow yourself up" yada yada yada. The same stupid information and stories keep getting passed around and down from generation to generation.

Troublshooting skills, logic and reasoning aren't being used anymore.

Bottom line, there are a lot of dumb muther fers out there.
 
turtlevette said:
I see a lot of lack of basic reasoning on car forums. And its not just kids. Everybody knows the answers because someone told them one day "never do that", "always do this", "be careful you'll blow yourself up" yada yada yada. The same stupid information and stories keep getting passed around and down from generation to generation.

Troublshooting skills, logic and reasoning aren't being used anymore.

Bottom line, there are a lot of dumb muther fers out there.
Click to expand...

Some years ago, when playing with water in the gas tank problems, on a recurring basis, it was TT that said to use a shop vac to suck the last of the gas out of a drained tank.....we went back and forth over that for a few notes, and sure enough he was right@@! HOW, I dunno, but it was a clean tank, and no problems.....I took precautions just for shits and giggles, LONG hose vac out in driveway, etc....not a issue....

:clobbered::hissyfit:
 
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