Maths

[Sparko]

I've often wondered why people see some mystery in Calculus. I understand it to be universal that infants are taught basic arithmetic using symbolism for addition, subtraction, division & fractions. By year 1 they have assimilated multiplication via the 12 times tables (though in the early 1970s the bleeding hearts discouraged making kids learn the tables, but by the mid 1970s they were back in vogue). I don't remember primary school very much other than I was totally bored. High school was a bit more interesting. Anyway, what occurs to me is that we start off educating kids well, then complicate their education with a lot of useless exercises. For instance: my Maths teacher in year 6 would make us enumerate a problem to its full extent, which could take a couple of exercise book pages when most of us kids could solve the problem in three or four lines.

An amusement: one of my uncles is a Civil Engineer and using standardised Math step computation he can demonstrate that 1 + 1 = 0.

Another amusement: My wife would brag to our friends that my youngest son (he was about 3 at the time) was a Maths genius but only if his father (me) gave him the problem to be solved. I'd give him a complex list of addition, subtraction, multiplication & division, the adults would have pen and paper following the equation, and in the end my son would give the correct answer. Was my son a genius? No! I taught him to repeat the last number I'd said when I asked "What is the answer?"

I taught my dog to do math in a similar fashion. I taught him to bark when I lifted my hand. He would stop when I dropped it. So I would hold up 3 fingers (or whatever number) and ask him "How many fingers am I holding up?" He would bark until he reached the number, then I would quickly drop my hand and say "good boy!" - it usually impressed people.

[Sparko]

Here in Oz there is a young woman who has established a business called MyBudget. She is thriving and the business is growing. Guess she teaches people how to manage their financial affairs (eg: credit card usage & repayment. Advertises on TV a lot. Presume she has a degree in business studies. It is amazing how few people know how to budget & save. It is just discipline = don't buy what you don't need. Now that is psychology and human behaviour not maths.

One of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits:

[apostoli]

I taught my dog to do math in a similar fashion. I taught him to bark when I lifted my hand. He would stop when I dropped it. So I would hold up 3 fingers (or whatever number) and ask him "How many fingers am I holding up?" He would bark until he reached the number, then I would quickly drop my hand and say "good boy!" - it usually impressed people.

Good one! Even very intelligent people can be gullible. People will believe what they want to believe...

[apostoli]

One of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits:

The video was very funny. Thankyou.

Question: I presume USA Banking regulations are similar to those applied here in Oz. Would you confirm...

Here in Oz, by law, for most credit cards you usually get 55 days interest free on purchases (except where there is a carried forward balance). So if 'you' pay the monthly statement balance (amount due) 'your account' does not attract interest (cash advances attract interest immediately, as do balances carried forward + recent purchases), and here the interest rates are usually steep - VISA = 20.25% p.a. So here in Oz it makes sense that when practical put all purchases and bill payments on your credit card and pay the statement balance (not the account balance) on the due date. Meanwhile you earn a bit of interest on an investment account (mine currently pays an annualised rate of 2.25%).

[elam]

I have found the same, but in college, for some reason, they associate math with computers, and a computer degree usually entails a lot of math classes.

for example here is a typical degree requirement for Computer Science at San Diego University:
---
The following courses are required for computer science majors.

CS 107 Introduction to Computer Programming (3 units)
CS 108 Intermediate Computer Programming (3 units)
CS 237 Machine Organization and Assembly Language (3 units)
MATH 150 Calculus I (4 units)
MATH 151 Calculus II (4 units)
MATH 245 Discrete Mathematics (3 units)
STAT 250 Basic Statistical Methods (3 units) OR STAT 119 Elementary Statistics (3 units)
MATH 254 Introduction to Linear Algebra (3 units)
---

as I remarked earlier, in one of my employments, my employer would do an annual Grad intake, and made me responsible for them. What you relate might explain why they were less than useless in a commercial setting. But to be fair to the Unis: in the early 1990s several Universities took the initative and went out to industry to ask wha they should be teaching. I had a long chat with a couple of professors, and being a 'Systems Designer' suggested they drop the pure Maths for non-Engineering degrees and put emphasis on useful Business stuff like Statistical formulae, Data & Process Normalisation, Commercial Law, Ethics & Ascetics (User interfaces - screen & paper reports) plus language theory (Cobol is a good model language to understand process structure) etc etc The upshot is we have a range of Business/Computer dual degrees each with either a Computer/Business component. What I have noticed that with the enforcement of ISO requirements there has been an over emphasis on Project Management, so I've ended up working with heaps of Nuclear Scientists & Engineers (mostly Indian).

[Sparko]

The video was very funny. Thankyou.

Question: I presume USA Banking regulations are similar to those applied here in Oz. Would you confirm...

Here in Oz, by law, for most credit cards you usually get 55 days interest free on purchases (except where there is a carried forward balance). So if 'you' pay the monthly statement balance (amount due) 'your account' does not attract interest (cash advances attract interest immediately, as do balances carried forward + recent purchases), and here the interest rates are usually steep - VISA = 20.25% p.a. So here in Oz it makes sense that when practical put all purchases and bill payments on your credit card and pay the statement balance (not the account balance) on the due date. Meanwhile you earn a bit of interest on an investment account (mine currently pays an annualised rate of 2.25%).

I think it is 1 month interest free on cards here. I always pay my card balance off each month so I never pay interest. Interest rates vary considerably here, but generally I think they are about the same, 18-20%. Many of the card have bonuses that vary upon the card. Some pay "cash back" which gives you a percentage back on your purchases, or gives you airmile points, or some other incentives.

[elam]

I think it is 1 month interest free on cards here. I always pay my card balance off each month so I never pay interest. Interest rates vary considerably here, but generally I think they are about the same, 18-20%. Many of the card have bonuses that vary upon the card. Some pay "cash back" which gives you a percentage back on your purchases, or gives you airmile points, or some other incentives.

Thanks. Oz is a micro market compared to the USA but for whatever reason, at least here in Sydney, we have representation of all the major banks in the world plus Oz's big four. Most offer interest free for x period on balances transferred from another bank. Poaching is standard practice here. Our govt has been clamping down of the banks' excessive charges. there is talk of a max of 12% interest on credit cards. For some reason I thought that was already the case in North America (Canada & USA).

[Sparko]

Thanks. Oz is a micro market compared to the USA but for whatever reason, at least here in Sydney, we have representation of all the major banks in the world plus Oz's big four. Most offer interest free for x period on balances transferred from another bank. Poaching is standard practice here. Our govt has been clamping down of the banks' excessive charges. there is talk of a max of 12% interest on credit cards. For some reason I thought that was already the case in North America (Canada & USA).

nope. no cap on interest rates that I know of. Buyer beware.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/cred...est-rates.aspx

[hansgeorg]

It's easier to cut away the top margin then the side margin, giving (a-b)² = a² - ab - (a-b)b.

This formula is equivalent to all the others you give.

True.