40% of College Students get this question wrong. AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY!

[Deviltongue]

I learned this shit in 10th grade...

 

[Kailat777]

EDIT: To agree with the art major up there, art is one of the hardest things to get into. Creativity has been harshly judged for ages, whereas 2+2 always equals 4, your rendition of a Picasso may not be as well accepted. Plus, there's a billion art majors out there, so its quite a bit harder to shine in a river full of diamonds and shit. Plus, nobody really asks you how many different ways to make 2+2=4, however graphic artists get asked different ways to make a line, a face, a pose, all the time, and get demands to equate mundane things with a certain style, etc. It's hard work being imaginative all the time.

I have to say, as a math major I'm a bit offended by this. You're comparing some of the hardest parts of your job as an artist to easily the easiest part of my job as a mathematician. I agree with your statement that it's hard being imaginative all the time, and that's exactly what my job requires me to do as well. There are a lot of difficult problems still out there unsolved, and since all the well known approaches have been tried on them, all we have left is our creativity to come up with a new solution method. In fact, right now I'm (apparently doing a poor job of) writing a thesis, and I'm stuck trying to think of a way of effectively motivating our methods to our peers, our equivalent to 'judges'.

In short, while I'm sure there are many more art majors than there are math majors, our job is by no means a piece of cake either, so please don't take us so lightly.

Also, on topic: yes, I could 'foil' it, but since it's being raised to a power, there are easier ways to do it. That is, note:
(x+3)^2=x^2+2(x*3)+3^2=x^2+6x+9
(x+3)^3=x^3+3(x^2*3)+3(x*3^2)+3^3
...
(x+3)^n=x^n+(nC1)*x^(n-1)*3^1+(nC2)*x^(n-2)*3^2+...+(nC(n-1))x^1*3^(n-1)+3^n

If you don't understand what the (nCr) notation is (read: n choose r), you can probably find it in your calculator (if it's a TI84, like mine, hit MATH and go to PRB (probability)), assuming a sufficiently advanced calculator.

If you want to understand it intuitively, it says there's only 1 way to get x^n, (nC1)=n ways to get x^(n-1)*3, (that is, we 'choose' 1 of the (x+3)'s to use the '3' from each time, and use the 'x' from all others. Since there are (nC1)=n choices of (x+3) in (x+3)^n, the result follows), etc.

Sorry if that's more information than you wanted, but I like to speak at length on any math-related topics I can understand (which are not nearly as many as I'd like to understand).

 

[avatar_vii]

I am a math major and this saddens and angers me.

even though this question is quite easy, you have to remember that a majority people at uni (or whatever you call it over there) will not ever need to learn it. I am doing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biotechnology and the only maths we need to do is basic statistics in the first year, so it would be understandable for one to forget information that is not going to be useful.

Also, there are a lot of people who study fake majors (like Art, Music, etc), and they don't tend, or need, much in the way of math classes so it's somewhat understandable.

Also, coming from a musical background (12 years of classical piano and baroque pipe organ) I find this insulting. To call art and music a "fake" major is completely disregarding the amount of work that goes into those subjects. Can I call a maths major "fake" because you don't learn things from a science degree in it? When you can compose a symphony for a full orchestra and perform on a weekly basis (successfully) some sort of musical instrument, then you can comment on "fake" majors as much as you like.

What really annoys/disappoints me is that there are still people out there who do not beleive in evolution or climate change when the evidence is everywhere.

end rant.

 

[ThatOneJewYouNo]

I understand why that simple question getting a wrong answer from college students infuriates you, as it does me. =/

That's basic Algebra, and I refuse to touch any math with a ten foot pole, I graduated from high school for a reason, but if I can do it in my head in moments, then they all should have gotten that correct.

 

[letsnoobtehpwns]

I learned this in 8th grade and I still remember it! Foil was the easiest part of Algebra I for me!

 

[Chris Dale]

Very easy i learnt that in year 8
I just used (x+a)^2=(x^2+2ax+a^2)

Spoiler

x^2+6x+9

-

FIND THE ROOTS OF x^3-64.

Not as easy but still not in my opinion hard

Spoiler

x^3-64
(x-4)(x^2-4x+16)
(x-4)((x-2)^2+16-4)

(x-4)(x-2+√12)(x-2-√12)

By the way I am an Australian year 12 student studying advanced mathematics(eg. Complex number, Advanced Calculus, etc.)

 

[Jim From Accounting]

2+2=4

O.T my physics teacher took 10min to click at that question

 

[gigastrike]

I remember this now! I learned it so long ago that I totally forgot that it existed! I've always been more of a trig person.

 

[dstryfe]

Spoiler: I'm a math major, too.

x^2 +6x +9

40%? Already? I fully expected the Halo generation to have no brains, but it happened sooner than I thought...

 

[derelict]

snip

Eh maybe it came out wrong. Didn't think comparing 2+2 to drawing a line was a bad comparison. I still think math is easier though. I'm not a physics major or anything but I still think its easier to explain complex equations than explain what the hell "art deco" means, specifically. Math is more explicit by nature, art lay more in the lines of pleasing the user than hitting on a fact; even with multiple ways to solve equations in math, there's still infinite ways to make a picture classify as art deco in style.

Maybe I'm biased because math comes easier to me than art.

EDIT: Also, I'm not actually an art major Auto technician by trade, or hobby at the moment.

 

[some1stolemyusername]

and if this is to be taken as accurate http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~det/phy2060/heavyboots.html then it is not unexpected. the fact is that people tend not to remember stuff they won't use on a regular basis, and considering there is a fair portion of students @ uni that would probably not use algebra beyond high school, then why does it matter.

grow up and learn not to care about trivial things.

 

[Baconator96]

which just goes to show how useless the FOIL method actually is. I relearned this crap again last year for the umpteenth time, and promptly forgot it entirely. Nothing of value was lost.

 

[Clankenbeard]

2. I am upset because in order to get into college (here in America) you need to pass high school and the SATs. Both of which require Algebra I. Trig and Calculus are a secondary option. This is why I didn't expect people to know how to derive, or what sin(pi/2) was. FOIL is something everyone had to learn.

Well, buggy, I must apologize. I am old. I was not aware that students these days are required to take Algebra I to graduate. I believe it was optional back in the day that I went to school. (I had it in 9th grade in central Oklahoma in 1983.) So, I would like to formally modify my opinion. I will now be slightly more angry about this as well. Long live (-b+/-(b^2-4ac)^(1/2))/2a! (Um, that's not a factorial at the end. It's just an exclamation point for emphasis.)

sin(pi/2)=1. The split infinitive was "to correctly spot" in case anybody really cares. No one? Damn. Are there no English majors playing video games?

 

[derelict]

and if this is to be taken as accurate http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~det/phy2060/heavyboots.html then it is not unexpected. the fact is that people tend not to remember stuff they won't use on a regular basis, and considering there is a fair portion of students @ uni that would probably not use algebra beyond high school, then why does it matter.

grow up and learn not to care about trivial things.

Oh dear Christ. Trivial things like gravity? Sir Issac Newton is going to be pissed...that link goes way beyond a simple misunderstanding, landing in the territory of entitled prick syndrome. Or hell, maybe I'm the entitled prick for thinking that everyone should have at least a rudimentary grasp of the forces that govern their lives :/

 

[Superior Mind]

After some thinking back to my high school days I did start to rekognise all the squiggles and lines and solve the equasion.

HOWEVER

University is not just for maths majors and as someone who promptly and FORCEFULLY wiped their mind free of everything maths I had learned in school I can understand why the 40% may exist. It's not a good thing, it's important to retain what you've learned after all but the thing is high schools are taught on a very 'by the test basis' meaning that you're taught how to pass a test rather than being taught the skills needed to pass the test, (if that makes sense.) People pass the test and then forget what they needed to know to pass said test. It's just how it works, even at University level sometimes. For instance I am a Political Science graduate but I'd be hard-pressed to engage anyone in a spirited debate about politics. Mostly because I don't care and it was a shitty major that I just did to kill time, (more or less,) but also becaue as soon as I got the points from a particular paper needed to get my degree I forgot pretty much everything I had learned.

However my skill of writing irrellevent bullshit, (i.e. essays,) hasn't left me just yet.

 

[azukar]

Why does it matter? I know the answer, but I haven't had to do advanced maths since I was in high school, and I am a teacher.

In fact, the only time I've even thought about algebra since leaving school is when preachy maths-degree students or graduates get hung up about whether or not people in other fields of interest can work the same semiotic systems they can.

 

[azukar]

Oh and speaking of which, if you told me to do FOIL to that problem, I would be completely stumped, because I learned it as "George's Method" in school.

 

[some1stolemyusername]

Oh dear Christ. Trivial things like gravity? Sir Issac Newton is going to be pissed...that link goes way beyond a simple misunderstanding, landing in the territory of entitled prick syndrome. Or hell, maybe I'm the entitled prick for thinking that everyone should have at least a rudimentary grasp of the forces that govern their lives :/

That was not my point, i was simply saying "so what, some people forgot, does it really matter?"

I was aiming at a more broad generalisation. as was written, after prompting (i.e. follow up Q) ppl changed their answers when their mistake was implied, once they had to consider the meaning of their answer. i would like to think that if the same sort of mental prodding was used after the OP's original question, then perhaps more people would be able to recall how to answer correctly.

 

[Delta 3 Actual]

What is the question? You just say:
FOIL: (x+3)^2
EDIT: FOIL also means Expand...

Please explain this nonsensical rambling.

 

[Ophiuchus]

Psh. I'm nearly 30, I don't remember much of the stuff I learned in school unless it's relevant to what I'm doing today, which this isn't.