What's one thing you never understood in school?

[Jonluw]

I remember finding out that Mars has a bigger gravitational pull on a baby, than its mother standing a meter away from it! That was a great use of maths and theory!

Unless there's some relativity in play here that I'm overlooking, there's no way that's the case.
G = 6.67[small]E[/small][sup]-11[/sup] * m[sub]Mars[/sub]m[sub]subject[/sub] / r[sup]2[/sup]
(Inserting values from the wikipedia page on Mars.)

A child weighing 10 kg standing on the surface of Mars is subject to 37 N of gravitational pull.
A woman weighing 70 kg standing on a stool one meter above the surface of Mars is subject to 260 N of gravitational pull.

 

[AT God]

The trigonometric circle. I know how it works but I do not know the basic values from 0 to 2pi, like cos(pi/2), I don't know off the top of my head what that value is.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, I actually was never able to play anything, I don't know why but I always seemed to have forgotten everything for the next day, so basically every class I had to learn how to play the notes again because I didn't remember, it was strange specially considering how much pointless information I've memorized I can't really understand why I can't do music. So I guess I'm simply not a musical person at all, it's kind of annoying that I was never able to play even those really short songs that only had like 6 notes.

That makes sense, at least.

Sometimes you just can't conceptualise things, I guess. I have a lot of trouble making what I see or imagine come out in visual form: Drawing and the like. On the other hand, I can sit down and bang out a familiar tune on a keyboard with little trial and error. Not necessarily well (playing to speed, for example).

 

[Ironic Pirate]

why cant I chew gum? or eat....I'd concentrate on whats going on if I could eat somthing right now

I wish my school didn't allow kids to chew gum. Not only is gum nasty and gross, the pack of troglodytes I go to school with are constantly taking gum out of their mouth and playing with it, and putting it under things. If I were to eat a piece of chicken, chew it for a few minutes, spit it into my hand and slap the chewed up slop on the underside of my desk, that would be fucking disgusting, right? Gum is the exact same thing. I have no problem with people eating it, just like I have no problem with people eating chicken. But keep it in your fucking mouth at all times, or you've lost your eating privileges.

Anyway, math in general. I know it's important, but I hate it so much. Specifically, algebra. Every one of my grades is 95 or above, except for math, with is hovering somewhere around a 69 (might have gone up a bit, I've handed in homework since then). It's not just that it's hard, it's that all math teachers at my school are either hilariously inept or despicably evil, and often both. I've had one good math teacher in my entire existence, and he left halfway through the year. A difficult, painfully uninteresting subject taught by some of the most vindictive and or incompetent people I've ever met? Fuck that.

Gym goes up and down. Most teachers will give you a good grade provided you show up, change your clothes, and at least kind of try. On occasion, though, they'll take us all to the pool and have us swim, and if you can't do enough laps in half an hour they fail you. I have no clue why they do this, as swimming isn't taught in the class, and only the kids on the swim team ever pass that. We've also had to do essays and written tests in gym class.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I remember finding out that Mars has a bigger gravitational pull on a baby, than its mother standing a meter away from it! That was a great use of maths and theory!

Unless there's some relativity in play here that I'm overlooking, there's no way that's the case.
G = 6.67[small]E[/small][sup]-11[/sup] * m[sub]Mars[/sub]m[sub]subject[/sub] / r[sup]2[/sup]
(Inserting values from the wikipedia page on Mars.)

A child weighing 10 kg standing on the surface of Mars is subject to 37 N of gravitational pull.
A woman weighing 70 kg standing on a stool one meter above the surface of Mars is subject to 260 N of gravitational pull.

Hmmm, I meant mars has a bigger gravitational pull on the baby (while it's on earth) than the mother has on the baby 1 meter away from it!

It was looking at the mass of Mars and the Distance, versus the Mass of the mother and the distance!

But fair play to you! I can't remember any of that stuff any more! And have no use for it!

 

[orangeban]

How they can grade my artwork, I mean, isn't the point of art that no-one can put an objective grade on it?

I've had a chip on my shoulder about art lessons ever since my teacher shouted at me for drawing a butterfly in the wrong corner of the painting.

 

[Jonluw]

I remember finding out that Mars has a bigger gravitational pull on a baby, than its mother standing a meter away from it! That was a great use of maths and theory!

Unless there's some relativity in play here that I'm overlooking, there's no way that's the case.
G = 6.67[small]E[/small][sup]-11[/sup] * m[sub]Mars[/sub]m[sub]subject[/sub] / r[sup]2[/sup]
(Inserting values from the wikipedia page on Mars.)

A child weighing 10 kg standing on the surface of Mars is subject to 37 N of gravitational pull.
A woman weighing 70 kg standing on a stool one meter above the surface of Mars is subject to 260 N of gravitational pull.

Hmmm, I meant mars has a bigger gravitational pull on the baby (while it's on earth) than the mother has on the baby 1 meter away from it!

It was looking at the mass of Mars and the Distance, versus the Mass of the mother and the distance!

But fair play to you! I can't remember any of that stuff any more! And have no use for it!

Ah, I see.
Okay then. I won't be bothered to double-check those numbers.

 

[Android2137]

Probability and matrices. I was good at everything in math except for those two. ...And physics. I sucked at physics. Too many variables. I would check, recheck, and check my math again and again and still for some reason I rarely get the right answer! AUUGGGHHH!

Was also bad at history, but that was just because it depressed me. Dead people depress me. And all their mistakes. Fortunately, I had biology immediately after. That was a more cheerful subject for me, because even when you talk about dead things, it's always in the context of supporting the life of something else.

 

[Redingold]

Algebra
seriously when will we ever use it in life?
I wanna go back in time and find whoever invented algebra and punch him in the face!

Well, a short list of some of the uses of algebra includes:

Navigation, surveying, artificial satellites, television, GPS, an understanding of the cellular mechanisms of life, statistics, radio, radar, communications, certain methods of oil prospecting, modelling the Earth's interior, data compression, noise removal from signals (very useful in communications and medical imaging), aerodynamics, more efficient engines, lasers, computer chips, cryptography, artificial intelligence, extracting meaning from DNA sequences, weather forecasting, population dynamics in ecology, modelling of earthquakes allowing buildings to be better protected against them, and an understanding of just about anything that happens.

You got that? Algebra is a little bit more important than you think. To desire to punch the inventor of algebra in the face for the heinous crime of making you think in maths lessons is to be ignorant of almost all advances in human knowledge.

 

[Necroid_Neko]

I couldn't understand why nobody wanted to go out with me XD

 

[Monkeybald]

I had trouble understanding why the shop class in middle school would trust kids with electric saws, drill presses, and other finger-chopping equipment.

Then I took the class and found it was pretty cool.

 

[Ramzal]

How in my speech class, we were utilizing our rights to free speech--thus any topic isn't off limits. But my topic on legalizing prostitution was deemed inappropriate.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Why the hell I was never allowed to go beat the shit out of someone in hockey in gym when he was clearly ready to drop the gloves. I could have won too. I had 15 pounds and a good 4 inches on the kid at the time (plus I think he had whatever its called when if you get cut you dont stop bleeding so all I had to was draw some blood and I could have easily won the fight and took out the teams star defenseman/player).

...

Though a less aggressive answer would be advanced math.

 

[Pinkamena]

Flippin' probability. I'm pretty good at math (studying physics), but I absolutely hated probability in high school, and failed the test on that subject.

I mean... It's so fucking abstract. I just cannot visualize it in my head as I can with most other math subjects.

 

[Vault101]

How they can grade my artwork, I mean, isn't the point of art that no-one can put an objective grade on it?

I've had a chip on my shoulder about art lessons ever since my teacher shouted at me for drawing a butterfly in the wrong corner of the painting.

if your learning how to do a particular technique or whatever then yes, they can grade you

its true that art is subjective and all that, but learning the technical side (as in how to make your people/shadows look like people and shadows)

 

[Ytomyth]

Social rules and how to fit in, I never -ever- understood anything of it.
At least I wasn't the only one and we were pretty good at ignoring everyone else as long as interaction wasn't required.

Edit: Still don't btw.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Why the cute girl in Econ doesn't like me
Why the cute girl in English doesn't like me
Why the cute girl in Trig doesn't like me
Why the cute girl in Physics doesn't like me

OT:
Why you can take the iniative and take hard classes and do decently, but still have a lower GPA and worse looking transcript than the person who took art five times at the "easier" high school.

Spoiler: Explanation

I'm finishing up my final year at a high school that has some of the highest SAT scores California and is known for being the most difficult school in the district. I've taken 3 years of Spanish, a serious Film Studies class, and I'm taking one more year of both math and science than I need to. I have a cumulative GPA around 2.5 due to the difficulty of the classes--our academic classes are supposably on par with AP classes at other schools-- and decent SAT and ACT scores. I don't get why I'm only getting accepted by the local state school, while other people are being rewarded for taking easier classes and going to easier schools.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Algebra
seriously when will we ever use it in life?
I wanna go back in time and find whoever invented algebra and punch him in the face!

Well, a short list of some of the uses of algebra includes:

Navigation, surveying, artificial satellites, television, GPS, an understanding of the cellular mechanisms of life, statistics, radio, radar, communications, certain methods of oil prospecting, modelling the Earth's interior, data compression, noise removal from signals (very useful in communications and medical imaging), aerodynamics, more efficient engines, lasers, computer chips, cryptography, artificial intelligence, extracting meaning from DNA sequences, weather forecasting, population dynamics in ecology, modelling of earthquakes allowing buildings to be better protected against them, and an understanding of just about anything that happens.

You got that? Algebra is a little bit more important than you think. To desire to punch the inventor of algebra in the face for the heinous crime of making you think in maths lessons is to be ignorant of almost all advances in human knowledge.

Those careers are all science related. You completely forgot all the business ones, like:
Econonmist, broker, salesman, accounting, etc.