The computer age

[dun]

I don't see any correlation between computers and the inabilities of our youth. How else would you have access to hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to talk about cattle, cars, fishing, ect.

There is some thing definitely missing from the youth of today but I don't think its because of computers.

I blame it more on parents and microprocessors then just computers. Microprocessors brought us Pong and that started the landslide!

 

[Nesikep]

It's the overuse of computers, not the use.

As for fractions, they are part of learning math, just like decimals, one is not better than the other, they're different ways of representing something, and decimals are useless in trigonometry and algebra.
I use *some* of my advanced math on a regular basis, that includes calculus, fractions, decimals, trigonometry and algebra. I think the problem with it is by the time most people get a job or whatever where they'd be able to use the math they learned, it's been 10 years and they can't remember it anymore.. and perhaps it was never taught in a way that would make you see the usefulness in normal life.

The metric system in Europe and Asia has been more fully adopted I think... I don't think you could find a 3/8" NC bolt in a hardware store in Europe.
About the worst idea that's come around are tape measures with both units... the one you need is always on the wrong side... and its doubly bad for a lefty like my dad or me.. you can add upside-down to it!

 

[Ryder]

yall must not have any kids in school..think common core math..thats some amazing crap

if I had to do math like that id never be able to build anything. hope your not doing windage or moa to take that 1000 yd shot. cuz the enemy will over run you by the time you do the math common core style

Agreed. I am no authority on this common core stuff. But examples I have seen seems they have taken some useful ways to calculate things and turned it into time consuming garbage.
Wish somebody would tell me the practicality of it.

 

[dieselbeef]

i help gage ..hes 8 ..with his homework . its confusing. i can do itbut the lack of instruction and the path is just as important aas the result. its definitely a different way of looking at it

 

[greybeard]

It's the overuse of computers, not the use.

As for fractions, they are part of learning math, just like decimals, one is not better than the other, they're different ways of representing something, and decimals are useless in trigonometry and algebra.
I use *some* of my advanced math on a regular basis, that includes calculus, fractions, decimals, trigonometry and algebra. I think the problem with it is by the time most people get a job or whatever where they'd be able to use the math they learned, it's been 10 years and they can't remember it anymore.. and perhaps it was never taught in a way that would make you see the usefulness in normal life.

The metric system in Europe and Asia has been more fully adopted I think... I don't think you could find a 3/8" NC bolt in a hardware store in Europe.
About the worst idea that's come around are tape measures with both units... the one you need is always on the wrong side... and its doubly bad for a lefty like my dad or me.. you can add upside-down to it!

Nope--it's the over-dependence on computers/calculators/spell check/wiki that is the problem. However, my own LACK of math skills is legendary to all those who know me and, near the very end of my senior year, had my Algebra 1 teacher not asked "How many of you seniors need this credit to graduate?" I probably would not have gotten out of high school without staying an extra year.

I went to work for a fixture/cabinet company in 2000, and everything in that industry is metric, so I got used to using metric linear measurements in those 7 years and became pretty good with it. Volume, not so much.
I never used a slide rule. They were out of favor by the time I got back from my first hitch in the military, but my older sister was and still is very good with one tho she too now uses a calculator.

 

[Brute 23]

I don't see any correlation between computers and the inabilities of our youth. How else would you have access to hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to talk about cattle, cars, fishing, ect.

There is some thing definitely missing from the youth of today but I don't think its because of computers.

I blame it more on parents and microprocessors then just computers. Microprocessors brought us Pong and that started the landslide!

Your right. Parents regulate how much time is spent on those devices. If they are living in front of them its only because the parent let them.

Our society is not helping. We have advertisement over load. Others look down on you for punishing you kid. So on and so on...

 

[dun]

Others look down on you for punishing you kid. So on and so on...

I still think there should be a rzor strop hangin from the back of everybathroom door

 

[TexasBred]

I don't see any correlation between computers and the inabilities of our youth. How else would you have access to hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to talk about cattle, cars, fishing, ect.

There is some thing definitely missing from the youth of today but I don't think its because of computers.

I blame it more on parents and microprocessors then just computers. Microprocessors brought us Pong and that started the landslide!

Your right. Parents regulate how much time is spent on those devices. If they are living in front of them its only because the parent let them.

Our society is not helping. We have advertisement over load. Others look down on you for punishing you kid. So on and so on...

Those video games and DVD players in the car/truck make great babysitters for moms and dads who think they are too busy to spend time with the kids. :shock:

 

[herofan]

I think technology has certainly taken over our culture, but I don't think it's just teens that are involved. I see people of all ages who act as though they would die if they didn't have an i-phone so they could sit and flip their finger up and down the screen all the time. People look at you as though you've lost your mind if they discover you don't text or have several devices. When i see people in a restaurant with one of those things strapped to their ear, I wonder what emergency call they are expecting; I'm there to relax. If I were expecting an emergency call, I'd probably be waiting somewhere else.

 

[lavacarancher]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

 

[Deepsouth]

This is a heck of a discussion to be having on COMPUTERS! :lol2:

Seriously, my wife and I were in a furniture store the other day and the sales lady was impressed because I could calculate percentages in my head and could estimate the length and hight of a table by eyeballing it.

 

[dun]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

I remember when we used to have to use either quinary or biquinary when reading core(memory) dumps from computers to debug machine language programs. Ah yes, those were the days.

 

[Nesikep]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

I remember when we used to have to use either quinary or biquinary when reading core(memory) dumps from computers to debug machine language programs. Ah yes, those were the days.

So.. this one is for you guys then :>
There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't

 

[lavacarancher]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

I remember when we used to have to use either quinary or biquinary when reading core(memory) dumps from computers to debug machine language programs. Ah yes, those were the days.

Dun, you must have worked for IBM. No one in the world used quinary or biquinary but big blue. :lol2: :lol2: Here's a hint on decoding the binary string above. Google ASCII (pronounced a$$key) to alpha conversion.

 

[dieselbeef]

computer do do some amzing chit tho

http://responsive.convertbinary.com/

kinda takes the sport out of it tho

 

[herofan]

I'm not sure that I relate all the lack of simple knowledge among kids to computers; I think it's in part due to our education system. I am an educator, and it's not that teachers have stopped teaching and sit around and pick their teeth. Actually, it's just the opposite, but I think it's backfired.

At some point, we decided we were falling behind in education in this country; therefore, we had to make it more rigorous and make the content more advanced. In doing that, the states and feds handed down a curriculum that leaves out the learning of basic skills that are building blocks of higher learning, or just good stuff to know. When grandparents look at a student's second grade work and say, "We didn't do that until we were in 7th grade," they aren't far from reality.

Here is an example I remember. When I was in 8th grade, we spent a chunk of time learning to identify the states on a map and knowing the capitals. The teacher would discuss interesting items of the states, we would take turns identifying them on the big map, and taking individual identification tests. We repeated a similar process in high school. These days, activities like that would be considered a "waste of time" because it is only addressing the "knowledge" level. According to the experts, learning the states these days should be embedded in a higher order activity, but I feel that what once was common knowledge is being overlooked today. Students can explain Einstein's Theory of relativity, but aren't sure where 3/4 of the states are.

When I was in high school, basic math classes still existed; it was things that would be used in everyday life, but no more, that would be a waste of time. My 16 year old daughter said one of the top students in her class had trouble with long division because it's something that isn't addressed anymore once it is initially taught in elementary school. I'm sure he could have blown the Algebra class away in his sleep, but a long division took him down.

It's even been handed to students with disabilities. For students with an IQ of 55 and below, it's no longer acceptable to just focus on teaching them functional things that could help them in real life; they are also expected to address regular standards which will have no impact on their life that I see.

So, I think our schools are partly to blame for the lack of common skills and knowledge that our kids seem to lack, and it's not the individual schools fault; anymore, we have to teach what we are handed.

 

[greybeard]

I'm not sure that I relate all the lack of simple knowledge among kids to computers; I think it's in part due to our education system. I am an educator, and it's not that teachers have stopped teaching and sit around and pick their teeth. Actually, it's just the opposite, but I think it's backfired.

At some point, we decided we were falling behind in education in this country; therefore, we had to make it more rigorous and make the content more advanced. In doing that, the states and feds handed down a curriculum that leaves out the learning of basic skills that are building blocks of higher learning, or just good stuff to know. When grandparents look at a student's second grade work and say, "We didn't do that until we were in 7th grade," they aren't far from reality.

Here is an example I remember. When I was in 8th grade, we spent a chunk of time learning to identify the states on a map and knowing the capitals. The teacher would discuss interesting items of the states, we would take turns identifying them on the big map, and taking individual identification tests. We repeated a similar process in high school. These days, activities like that would be considered a "waste of time" because it is only addressing the "knowledge" level. According to the experts, learning the states these days should be embedded in a higher order activity, but I feel that what once was common knowledge is being overlooked today. Students can explain Einstein's Theory of relativity, but aren't sure where 3/4 of the states are.

When I was in high school, basic math classes still existed; it was things that would be used in everyday life, but no more, that would be a waste of time. My 16 year old daughter said one of the top students in her class had trouble with long division because it's something that isn't addressed anymore once it is initially taught in elementary school. I'm sure he could have blown the Algebra class away in his sleep, but a long division took him down.

It's even been handed to students with disabilities. For students with an IQ of 55 and below, it's no longer acceptable to just focus on teaching them functional things that could help them in real life; they are also expected to address regular standards which will have no impact on their life that I see.

So, I think our schools are partly to blame for the lack of common skills and knowledge that our kids seem to lack, and it's not the individual schools fault; anymore, we have to teach what we are handed.

All that might explain why some people think there are 58 states.....(57 with one more left to visit)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws[/youtube]

 

[dun]

Dun, you must have worked for IBM. No one in the world used quinary or biquinary but big blue. :lol2: :lol2: Here's a hint on decoding the binary string above. Google ASCII (pronounced a$$key) to alpha conversion.

IBM among several others.

 

[Brute 23]

Just was reading where they were praising a mom for an app to make her son answer calls or some none sense. True or not... It still represents many people.

Here's an idea. Take the phone away and tell him to sit is azz at the house until he can learn to do what his parents ask. :bang: You need an app to do you job for you? Really?

 

[shaz]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

Happy (space) Holidays?
I have an ascii to hex chart in front of me at my desk.