Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Pseudonym]

I didn't know that, the more I see the more I want to go!

[besleybean]

Yeah well again, don't know if he still does visit...dunno what age they live to!

But they used to call him Albert Ross.

The theory was that he must have flown too close to the Equator and then got confused, so he went North instead of South....

I think they are really Antarctic, have I got that right?

[Pseudonym]

Mostly, though according to Wikipedia they are sometimes in the North Pacific, but yup Albert shouldn't be in Shetland. 😁

[besleybean]

Yep, Wiki told me the same!

[Pseudonym]

This is one of those days where I’m getting grumpier and grumpier by the hour 😡😡😡

[Artemis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pseudonym]

I was right, the next section of my textbook was all about using fractions to work out atomic weights. 😵

I get confused which number goes on the top and which number goes on the bottom and why. I managed to get the right results by tweaking the examples provided but if I had to do it from scratch I'm pretty sure I'd get it the wrong way around and mess it up. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

20 minutes ago, Pseudonym said:

I managed to get the right results by tweaking the examples

You mean like this? If the actual question is "If a dozen apples cost $5.85, how much would 17 apples cost," you change it to something more obvious, like "If 2 apples cost a dollar, how much would 3 apples cost."  Once you see how to calculate that, then you plug the real numbers back in and repeat the same process.

That is an excellent technique.  I do that myself whenever I'm confused, and I made a point of teaching it to all my students.

As for which number goes on the bottom, just think of an easy fraction like 1/2 -- which is of course 1 divided by 2.  So the "divided by" number goes on the bottom.

You may find it easier to use the first method first, in order to determine which number is the "divided by" one.  Frankly, there's no necessity of using fractions as such, but if that's what the assignment calls for, of course you'll need to write it that way when you hand in your work.  Fractions are merely a compact way of indicating division (as well as multiplication and division in the same calculation).

[Pseudonym]

No, it's all more complicated than that, or at least seems it. (Though the apples also confused me.) I'm sure there's something obvious I'm missing. It's about converting the atomic weight of carbon into the atomic weight of carbon dioxide. If you are converting one way one weight goes on top, if your converting the other way the other weight goes on top - but I don't really get why one needs to be divided by the other at all. I think I'll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow evening, and see if it makes more sense then. Possibly it's one of those formulas you just have to know and just try to keep in mind exactly what you're converting to what. I might print it out and stick it on my wall. 

 

[Pseudonym]

For the apple example wouldn't you just divide 5.85 by 12 and then times it by 17? Assuming there's a 100 cents in a dollar like there is pennies in a pound?

Why would you work out how much two apples cost? 😩

EDIT: Oh I see now, that's your example of tweaking the numbers. 

Omg, this is like one of those problems where it should be sensible but I see something like 'if one train leaves a station at 8, and another leaves the station and 4, and 12 women get on a fifth train with two florists amongst them then how much did the potatoes cost in Paddington?' 

[Arcadia]

I could (barely) manage to do equations, but word problems always flummoxed me. Which is weird, since I'm far more adept with words than numbers. But for some reason I have major trouble interpreting one into the other.

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

You mean like this? If the actual question is "If a dozen apples cost $5.85, how much would 17 apples cost," you change it to something more obvious, like "If 2 apples cost a dollar, how much would 3 apples cost."  Once you see how to calculate that, then you plug the real numbers back in and repeat the same process.

That actually makes sense to me. Why couldn't you have been my math teacher?

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

It's about converting the atomic weight of carbon into the atomic weight of carbon dioxide.

Do you mean something like "how many grams of elemental carbon are there in such-and-such number of grams of carbon dioxide," using their atomic weights to give you the ratio (which in that case would be umm, 12/44 or so)?

7 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

Possibly it's one of those formulas you just have to know ....

Did they explain the formula at all, or just tell you to use it?

7 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

For the apple example wouldn't you just divide 5.85 by 12 and then times it by 17? 

Yup!

5 hours ago, Arcadia said:

... word problems always flummoxed me.

I see that you like my apple example.  You can use the same technique in real life.

[Artemis]

 

 

This was me, lol:

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

3 hours ago, Arcadia said:

That actually makes sense to me. Why couldn't you have been my math teacher?

Hush, Carol is busy helping Pseud and don't dwell on the past.

 

But fret not, I can hook you up with these people who are confident with their math.

 

 

 

 

And good god, Jessie!!

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

5 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

Assuming there's a 100 cents in a dollar like there is pennies in a pound?

Yup, that's why they're called cents -- same as in percent or centigrade or centipede, from the Latin centum, meaning hundred.

By the way, there have always been 100 cents in a dollar (where "always" = something over 200 years), whereas I assume you know that before about 1970, a pound consisted of 20 shillings, and a shilling consisted of 12 pence.

[Artemis]

4 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

and a shilling consisted of 12 pence.

^ Just to add to that (and I don't know if it's common knowledge or not, but), the old system of counting and measuring and etc. was based on 12, like the imperial system still used in America, rather than 10 like the metric system.

 

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

But fret not, I can hook you up with these people who are confident with their math.

But, but, but … those aren't word problems! I need help with word problems, in case, you know, I ever need to know how fast that train was moving when you had 10  apples and I had 12 screwdrivers and that ruler fell off Pseud's desk.

55 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Yup, that's why they're called cents -- same as in percent or centigrade or centipede, from the Latin centum, meaning hundred.

And here I thought it was caveman for "this many fingers."  

[Artemis]

9 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

I need help with word problems, in case, you know, I ever need to know how fast that train was moving when you had 10  apples and I had 12 screwdrivers and that ruler fell off Pseud's desk.

Or if you're ever held at gunpoint by a math wiz!

 

[Artemis]

"It's Christmastime, can you believe it?!"

Noooooooo, no it's not!

I refuse to acknowledge Christmas until Halloween is over.  REFUSE, I say!

 

[Artemis]

 

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

35 minutes ago, Artemis said:

I refuse to acknowledge Christmas until Halloween is over. 

I intend to hold out till after Thanksgiving. 

 

[besleybean]

Said it before and I'll say it again.

The 'C' word is not allowed in this house until Advent.

[Artemis]

I had to Google when Advent starts, I'm not all that familiar with Catholic holidays and observances.  I know Lent and that's about it, lol.  When did people stop celebrating Michaelmas?  I love to say 'Michaelmas', lol.

 

[besleybean]

'Catholic'holiday?!

It's a Christian festival...not only Catholics have Advent calendars!

I don't even know what Michaelmas is for...St Michael is the patron saint of Marks and Spencer, as far as I am comcerned!