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Topic: An Interesting Point

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kirby urner

Posts: 2,472
Registered: 11/29/05
Re: An Interesting Point
Posted: Nov 7, 2012 12:26 AM

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 6:50 PM, Jonathan Crabtree
<sendtojonathan@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

<< SNIP >>

> Dictionaries tend to use popular definitions rather than accurate definitions. The reason is not enough people care. So decimate now means the opposite of what it used to mean. It used to mean when an army lost a battle the soldiers would be punished. One in ten would be killed!

What does it mean now?

> Similarly a quantum leap now means the opposite. It should mean very small!
> Math professors make educational videos in which they divide a loaf of bread into five. Guess what, they do five slices instead of four!

That's sloppy, although English is sloppy two in making "slice" be
both the operation and the side effect ("slices").

> When I point out examples like this, people say it doesn't matter.
> If it doesn't matter to math professors why should it matter to kids?
> Jonathan Crabtree

We should have a channel called Crummy Math Teaching where its 24/7
talking about all the misconceptions and misapprehensions, with lots
of parody and satire.

Mathematical mistakes and their consequences. A topic.

Lets have lesson plans / stories that focus on humans failing to get
it right, not to celebrate misfortune, but to learn from their

Jared Diamond kinds of stuff. How civilizations fail. One way: the
let their math skills die. STEM skills more generally.



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