The Onion strikes again, with real math humour (UK spelling, of course):
http://www.theonion.com/article/gop-statisticians-develop-new-branch-math-formulat-52463
Picture of target not needed !
Category Archives: humor
Too Close for Comfort, a “must read” link
Forecasting the future of “education”, by Eli Horowitz
Prescient ??????
Filed under education, future, horrors, humor, satire, school, transformations, Uncategorized
Fractional doggerel – verse problem
Mary’s mother brought a pizza
For her little kiddies, two.
“Johnny, you can have threequarters.
Mary, just a half will do.”.
Then the kiddies started eating.
Soon Mary grabbed her final piece.
“That’s mine” screamed Johnny, then the fighting
Broke the tranquil mealtime peace.
How much pizza then was eaten?
How much pizza on the floor?
Mother swore and left the building.
“I should have ordered just one more”.
Filed under arithmetic, fractions, humor, language in math, verse
Symbolic Scales, while thinking of Julie Andrews
a, the name for area
b, a letter much less used
c, a constant now called b
d, in calculus abused
e, for exponential growth
f and g, they’re functions both
and so we get to h
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
h, the one that tends to 0
but it never quite gets there
i and j, are indices
k, with h a jolly pair
then a lot we will skip past
x and y are here at last
and we’re learning math so fast.
and in case you don’t get the tune, here it is backwards
em, yar, hod
Merry Christmas to all my followers
“Observe and make use of structure”. Observe would be a start. A tale from the chalkface.
Here’s my little story:
It was a class of day release students on a Higher National Certificate course in engineering. I reached a point in one class with a relationship between p and q, p = kq, with k a constant. “What’s its graph look like”, I asked. Deathly silence. “Ok, let’s try x and y”. Result y = kx. Same question, same response. “Well, what about y = 3x ?”. Same question, same response. So I wrote y = 3x + 2. Their eyes lit up, and they unanimously shouted “It’s a straight line!”.
Halloween fun
Found on the net. With avocados raining down on my porch roof this seems a good use for them!
“To hell with pumpkins, try the Guaco-lantern
Filed under humor
Fractions, at home and away.
So one day recently I was bored, and then the following rushed onto the page:
Half of a big pizza is equal to two small pizzas – rewrite this in as precise way as possible.
Is this 3 hours or 1/4 of a pizza?
How many hours equals 1/4 of a pizza?
Apologies to those for whom a clock face is a historical artifact.
How do I know it’s a pizza and not a cake?
Does half a day include half the night?
There are four feet in our yard, mine and my sister’s.
Would you prefer 1/2 of a round pizza or 1/2 of a square pizza?
Are ratios numbers or fractions (or neither) ?
Fractions are parts of the same whole. OK, I’ll have 5 quarters of that pizza (5/4 is a fraction, isn’t it?)
You cut, I choose !
This year fractions are parts of a whole. Next year fractions will be numbers. I guess the other party won the election.
2/3 and 4/6 are equivalent fractions. Equivalent to what ?
The word “fraction” has the same root as “fracture”. So something got broken. I think it was my faith in common sense.
The Common Core test question asked – How long is 3.25 hours. This could be 3 hours and 25 minutes or 3 hours and 15 minutes. I guess it depends on the grade level.
Back to the heavy stuff next time !
Times tables
I just had to share this:
Check out the rest at:
Filed under arithmetic, education, humor
Saving school math 