Quote:
Originally Posted by NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too
is that in my next life, I want to have Myrtle's brain.
In homeschooling my dc using Singapore Math. I have come to love (and understand) math at a level I never achieved during my ps experience. I collect math books, work through them, take notes, read blogs, articles and commentary on mathematics.....
When I see Myrtle posting, I just wish there was an smiley for...
"I am not worthy..." (Smiley bowing down to Supreme Math Mind)!!
Keep posting Myrtle. We learn so much from you. Is there a smiley for "hurting head?"
K
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This whole Devlin thing is all very problematic. I just made this post elsewhere...
I am going to pick up my son from the airport today but in the meantime, I'm glued to my computer because someone on the internet is wrong.
If anyone is up for a math debate it starts with
Mathematician asserting teachers teach arithmetic wrong in his article
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_06_08.html
Teacher thinks he makes a convincing argument but can't figure out where to go from there because he's not telling her how to correct the mistake (No doubt about it, Devlin is playing gotcha)
Here:
http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/20...ated-addition/
Half way through the 100 exchanges posted in the comment section of Denise's blog Devlin puts up his response here:
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_0708_08.html
And someone who sounds like a mathematician or at least knows bunches of math called Joe Neiderberger says, "Yeah, but he's still wrong"
Which prompts JD at Text Savvy to do a blog entry on Joe
http://www.textsavvyblog.net/2008/07...e-part-iv.html
And he says, "But if the only way Joe can use that definition is to rewrite multiplication expressions as repeated-addition expressions, then it's not very useful in our present discussion. "
And now I need to come back and say, NO FOOL, that isn't "just" a definition, it's derived, look on page 14 of Edmund Landau's Foundation of Analysis. Devlin is wrong when he says it can't be derived, Joe is wrong for presenting it like a definition, and you are wrong for complicitly accepting that. But, I like JD. He posts to my blog from time to time even though he did remove the link to my blog from his blog and I'm sore over that( and need some sort of validation) And besides, JD, who has a good math blog that no one appreciates, took down the ability to comment on his blog which means I would have to post it to my blog.
I don't think you want Myrtle's brain, more often than not I am slow, simple and need intellectual supervision.
But just in case someone told you that you don't "need" all that axiomatic stuff to do math: You may not need it to do engineering, but you do need to win internet debates.