Poll: Lack of basic mathmatical skills

[DugMachine]

All I need is a basic understanding of algebra to get by. My major doesn't require math besides mild statistics and even then a computer will usually do it all for you.

As long as I can add, subtract, multiply and divide simple numbers in my head i'm goooooood

 

[DugMachine]

who needs math when you have wolfram alpha?

Haha oh man. My freaking savior for the few math classes I took in uni

 

[Xanadu84]

Don't lament those Facebook questions too much. Sure, it's funny how many people get them wrong, but they are also intentionally misleading, if strictly speaking, mathematically accurate. That multiply by 0 makes people get all excited, because they remember that multiply anything by 0, and you get a 0. And so they answer, thinking they discovered the, "Trick". It's not a problem you would have in a real math problem with parenthesis all over the place very often, and almost never in basic, everyday applied use of the math fundamentals. So people are bad at math, sure, but those questions exaggerate the problem.

 

[lacktheknack]

I was taught BEDMAS, Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction.

I have no idea what heresy you guys are all talking about.

This. "Order of operations is like a holiday where you can sleep in."

It has served me well, I'm in school to be a technician. There's NO END to the math.

 

[Living_Brain]

I'm always confused by the order of operations because I was taught BODMAS first.
Brackets
Powers (forgot what the word was but it's exponents)
Division
Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction

So as you can see Division and Multiplication is switched from PEMDAS, makes it kinda confusing sometimes.
The only use for it in my daily life is Teamfortress 2 Warioware mod

I was taught BEDMAS, Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction.

I have no idea what heresy you guys are all talking about.

Division and Multiplication left to right, the order of those two doesn't matter, just left to right. Same with addition/subtraction.

Brackets are basically parentheses.

It's all the same.

 

[Goofguy]

The last course I took in math was "Partial Differential Equations and Complex Analysis". I've always like math and it has consistently been my best course. However, I don't use such complex math anymore not in my job or my personal life (would question what I would do with it in the latter).

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I'm somewhat doubtful they'd mark you down for consistently doing that. And personally I never had to write in depth reports in that manner, code tended to simply be tested extensively to see if it worked. There was generally not enforcement of readability. And sure, indentation isn't needed for many languages, but that's a silly comparison I think. Not putting parentheses really isn't so unreadable as you seem to suggest it is, particularly in the cases that people seem to be bringing up most around here.

For my course I do some coding modules and for all other coding modules I know off they mark you down heavily for no comments and hard to read code.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I find people who call people dumb for not knowing order of operations to be assholes. Knowing one procedure or not does not even being to factor into intelligence or knowledge. I took multi-variable calculus in College. I have yet to use it outside of the class.

 

[A_Parked_Car]

The highest level of math I have studied would have been Pure Math 30 back in high school. I got 35% in the class overall.

I essentially never use math in my everyday life. On the rare occasion that I have to, I just use a calculator.

 

[Wayneguard]

Super important; I'm an economist.

 

[barbzilla]

I find people who call people dumb for not knowing order of operations to be assholes. Knowing one procedure or not does not even being to factor into intelligence or knowledge. I took multi-variable calculus in College. I have yet to use it outside of the class.

I never went so far as to call anybody dumb. As a matter of fact if you read my posts I blame the school systems and not the individual. When you are dealing with this large of a crowd forgetting something, it is usually a retention problem. I did say I found it disturbing though. And it is true that I find it disturbing.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I'm somewhat doubtful they'd mark you down for consistently doing that. And personally I never had to write in depth reports in that manner, code tended to simply be tested extensively to see if it worked. There was generally not enforcement of readability. And sure, indentation isn't needed for many languages, but that's a silly comparison I think. Not putting parentheses really isn't so unreadable as you seem to suggest it is, particularly in the cases that people seem to be bringing up most around here.

For my course I do some coding modules and for all other coding modules I know off they mark you down heavily for no comments and hard to read code.

Understandable overall, though I think that depends on the course since some they'd really have a hard time going over for all students. I have had courses where they wanted comments and readable code, though I'm kind of doubting the no parentheses thing would be that much of a problem for a few equations.

I didn't read anything about parentheses but yes in my course and in others we are allowed parentheses.

 

[F'Angus]

I used to be really good at maths, then I left school and my skills went rapidly downhill. But not to worry I know how to use a calculator.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I'm somewhat doubtful they'd mark you down for consistently doing that. And personally I never had to write in depth reports in that manner, code tended to simply be tested extensively to see if it worked. There was generally not enforcement of readability. And sure, indentation isn't needed for many languages, but that's a silly comparison I think. Not putting parentheses really isn't so unreadable as you seem to suggest it is, particularly in the cases that people seem to be bringing up most around here.

For my course I do some coding modules and for all other coding modules I know off they mark you down heavily for no comments and hard to read code.

Understandable overall, though I think that depends on the course since some they'd really have a hard time going over for all students. I have had courses where they wanted comments and readable code, though I'm kind of doubting the no parentheses thing would be that much of a problem for a few equations.

I didn't read anything about parentheses but yes in my course and in others we are allowed parentheses.

Uh... what? I didn't say anything about being allowed them. I was originally replying to a guy who seemed to think it was a horrible mess if you wrote something like x+y*y-z/a*b without putting in parentheses to make it easier to read.

Ok I thought from your comment I misread a bit but no that's what I thought.

 

[Naeras]

Honestly, not having basic mathematical knowledge is inexcusable, yet I frequently see adults fail at middle school math tests. What the fuck is wrong with people?

Oh, and I'm a bioscience student, so I use a slightly-above-middleschool-level of math on pretty much a daily basis. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is working on a master of science-degree in mathematics/computer science. Just felt like adding that. :V

 

[Pseudonymsa]

So studying engineering, it's fair to say that there's a bit of maths My family think that I'm constantly doing maths work because understandably every course I do involves some sort of calculus.
I am also dumbfounded sometimes by how little people remember about maths from school but I suppose that's the same with everything; I was talking to someone recently who had no idea that the sun was a star (they were more surprised by the converse, that stars were all suns) and that the reason we don't go to other planets is not because we don't feel like it, but because they are mindbogglingly far away. But I suppose that people are bound to be a little uneducated in some areas, I, for instance, know very little about classic literature, philosophy or commerce, not from lack of interest or aptitude but just because I've never been exposed to them.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I find people who call people dumb for not knowing order of operations to be assholes. Knowing one procedure or not does not even being to factor into intelligence or knowledge. I took multi-variable calculus in College. I have yet to use it outside of the class.

I never went so far as to call anybody dumb. As a matter of fact if you read my posts I blame the school systems and not the individual. When you are dealing with this large of a crowd forgetting something, it is usually a retention problem. I did say I found it disturbing though. And it is true that I find it disturbing.

I didn't say that I was referring to you. I just happen to have seen many many assholes in my time and was making a comment about them. I don't blame the schools, mostly because my mother is a teacher and I know this gets taught. I also know it gets forgotten because after algebra math tends to involve work that doesn't use OoO that much and focuses on other areas and skills. Not to mention that most jobs don't require using calculation that involve a complex arrangement of operations and the human minds tend to break down problems into things less complex then this.

 

[WoW Killer]

I'm a maths graduate. I'm in accounts now, but I always wish I'd stayed in academia. I used to be big into number theory, but then it veered off into algebraic geometry and I got a bit confused. I bought a book by Shafarevich a couple of years back to see if I still had it, and I've not been able to get past the introduction.

 

[mooncalf]

It's explained to me, I understand it, it's AWESOME that I understand it, then I forget it. XD

 

[Samantha Burt]

Want to talk about a total lack of basic mathematical skill? The two Year 11s at my sister's school that needed a calculator to work out change from £2 for two cups of 80p.