Wapsi Square Forum

Seems a reasonable fear to me . . .

Besides, all the really neat improvised weapons require higher math.

. . .

A zombie apocalypse . . . Has Nadette Seen a zombie apocalypse?

(Now where did I put my flamethrower?)

--FreeFlier

FreeFlier wrote:Besides, all the really neat improvised weapons require higher math.

Or an intuitive Spark-level understanding of mathematical relationships having equivalent power (I'm thinking of Agatha Heterodyne here).

Even simple algebra is highly useful in a zombie apocalypse. Without it, you would be facing the possibility that you managed to escape from the zombies to a safe and secure location, and then starved to death because you couldn't calculate the fact that 100 refugees times 3 meals a day times 120 days for the virus to die out, comes out to more than three cans of beans and one tin of tea biscuits.

"Math: It's Better Than Cannibalism!" will be the classroom slogan of the month.

I am more inclined to go with "zombies, taking a bite out of crime".

It would indeed be the cause of a zombie outbreak, because someone couldn't determine the difference between 10cc and 10,000cc...

jwhouk wrote:It would indeed be the cause of a zombie outbreak, because someone couldn't determine the difference between 10cc and 10,000cc...

That's a problem with hospital pharmacies and medications in hospitals today.

There ya go Atsali!!!! Positive Reinforcement!!!

So basically, worried that someone will cause a zombie apocalypse because they Did Not Do The Math? Valid concern. ICBM trajectories basically describe a parabolic curve, which can carry zombiefication serum. Or someone can fail their algebra while programming an AI, causing a Raccoon City incident.

As far as what use algebra has in a post-apocalyptic setting... it's got plenty of uses! Parabolic trajectories used in your catapult to land your payload on the zombies rather than overshooting, because you will NOT have time to reload. Oh, and grenades (be they launched by hand or from a grenade launcher) also map out a parabolic trajectory.

Someone blows a quadratic equation and it all goes to Hell.

Hey, I've seen some algebra problems get horrifically incorrect answers due to mistakes in order of operations or a +/- mixup.

It only gets weirder with more complicated math... A perfectly simple calculus problem turns into an unsolvable Eldridge Abomination of math crud with the tiniest mistake.

And because everything is basically applied math at some level, it's entirely possible an algebra goof-up could cause a zombie apocalypse.

Do your homework, kids, or you might end the world.

Not to be politically insensitive here, but how does Common Core algebra even work?

AmriloJim wrote:Not to be politically insensitive here, but how does Common Core algebra even work?

Algebra has always been fairly intuitive for me... Geometry and algebra just sort of "click" in my brain. Trigonometry is kind of tricky, but once I get into the swing of things, it gets easier.

Calculus sucks. It fries my brain every time.

Matrices are my mortal enemy. I could never understand them at all. Trying to get me to understand matrices is like trying to make the Cubs win the World Series. It's just not gonna happen unless you get a wizard involved.

I say all of this because, though I may have an intuitive grasp of algebra, your question has completely stumped me.

How?

Because I really haven't idea how to translate that intuition into words. The only way I know how to explain algebra, honestly, is to just do it until the person I'm trying to teach figures it out.

2+x=5
-2__-2
x=3

I... I guess the main point is you're presented with a math expression... There are two parts to an expression... A question and an answer. In this case, you're missing a piece of the question, but you already have the answer. So what you do is negate the part of the question you do know... When you negate that piece from both the question and the answer, you are only left with the piece of the question you don't know... And what's left of the answer is the same thing as the piece you don't know.

I'm not sure that made much sense... I was making it up as I went along, and I'm trying to explain this concept via text. That's the best I can do.

Anyway, that's the basis of algebra, as best as I can explain it here. It gets more advanced at first by simply adding more pieces to each side of the expression... And then it gets more difficult when there are missing pieces on both sides. And then things get really weird when the pieces you don't know are multiplied by themselves... That leads to two solutions.

To put a geek perspective, I think its a way to 'stretch your mind' - you may find it 'natural' like GlytchMeister, or a good teacher to explain it...

It also helps in complex programming (not the algebra itself, but being able to juggle many figures/ ideas at once!

you may need SQL to do paintballing!
http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autotwb2030.html then click next day ( cannot see how to refer to 'current' ??)

AmriloJim wrote:Not to be politically insensitive here, but how does Common Core algebra even work?

Having tried to understand it for the sake of my 17 year old stepson, I can only conclude that it doesn't... and I was an advanced math student all the way through school

AmriloJim wrote:Not to be politically insensitive here, but how does Common Core algebra even work?

There's Common Core algebra? I knew that people took issue with Common Core math stuffs because it looks more complicated (though it really depends on how it's explained from what I can tell...and it's mostly nonsensical to people who weren't trained in it), but I was under the impression that the "Common Core" method was mostly an arithmetic thing...which I guess could be utilized in algebra problems, but seems like a different beastie.

Perhaps I should have phrased that, "How would Common Core algebra even work?" "How does...?" implies that it exists, a fact of which I am not certain.

Wait, hold up. Is common core some system of math I've never heard of? Because I thought it was just a standardized level of understanding students are supposed to reach at some point. Like, the thing the standardized tests are meant to test for.

What am I missing?

http://www.corestandards.org/Math/ wrote:The math standards provide clarity and specificity rather than broad general statements. They endeavor to follow the design envisioned by William Schmidt and Richard Houang (2002), by not only stressing conceptual understanding of key ideas, but also by continually returning to organizing principles such as place value and the laws of arithmetic to structure those ideas.

That's... That's horrific. What the hell.

^^^Wut he sed.

Sounds plausible in concept, but loses a lot in implementation.

GlytchMeister wrote:That's... That's horrific. What the hell.

New Math. What is old, is new again.