"When you add it up, here's the math that counts. Trumpworld is a Mobius strip, with no exit ramp to reality.”
Nancy Lederman, posted as a comment to
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/upshot/how-one-19-year-old-illinois-man-is-distorting-national-polling-averages.html?comments
Showing posts with label mathematics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mathematics. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
STEM is only part of a plant
It needs roots, leaves, and flowers.
STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is all the rage to ensure that a large number of public school students be grounded in STEM. That’s “where all the jobs are.”
But is that all our public schools should produce: “skills” that are “hot” today for large corporations? What happens when large corporations want different “skills”? How many FORTRAN or COBOL programmers are still working? How many large corporations were willing to let them learn C on the job? Or would the large corporations rather let them go and hire C programmers taught by a university? Programmers who would be cheaper because they didn’t have seniority. Or programmers who would be cheaper because they were H1-B hires? The old programmers would be familiar with how the company functioned. The new programmers would probably take longer to learn how the company functioned than the old programmers could upgrade their “skills”.
Tech innovation in and of itself is devoid of meaning. We need the humanities and art to give meaning. The humanities are the roots of a learning plant. They feed the STEM with ideas of what has worked in the past and insight to what might work in the future. The arts are the flowers of the STEM. Without music, drawing, and theatre, STEM is only more and more gadgets which became ends in of themselves. See Sherry Turkles’ “Alone Together” for how much are society has become tools of our gadgets rather than our gadgets being our tools. The leaves are the parts that extract learning from whatever sources are available.
Even before STEM became a buzz-word, I had plenty of STEM training.
I had the science of Physics and Chemistry in high school and college. I really haven’t used much Physics or Chemistry since then. I do remember that speed equals the acceleration multiplied by the square of time. I don’t know what use this has been to me except that I don’t think sky diving is a good idea. I do remember that water is two-parts hydrogen and one part oxygen and the carbon dioxide is one part carbon and two parts oxygen.
In college I took the technology of AC Circuits and flunked it. But all I really need to know today is that the wall sockets are AC circuits that when properly used can provide light as well as power for the computer I am typing this article on.
Oops, an aside. From English I learned the last phrase should be “for the computer on which I am typing this article.” And of course, from other reading I have learned that this is a forced construction based on the idea that English should follow Latin grammar.
In college I had “Engineering Tools and Processes”. I don’t remember my grade (not an A), but as all the others did, my brazing of one piece to another exceeded the base line. On the other hand, I never did get the hang of arc welding. I always got the rod stuck to the work.
Now Math is something I really got immersed in: calculus, differential equations, complex variables, mathematical logic, and more: two years at a liberal arts college and two years in graduate schools. But what do I use math for now: balancing my checkbook, doing my taxes, and guessing an appropriate tip. I do remember that the squares of the sides of a right triangle equal the square of the hypotenuse. But might I have learned this just doing some carpentry? The 3-4-5 rule for making a right angle. About the only other formula I remember is the integral of e to the x equals a function of u sub n. I didn’t learn that in the class room!
With all that STEM, how did I learn so much about computers? On the job training and my own curiosity. I got a summer job between my junior and senior years to learn computing. With a text book from the company library and the help of others, I successfully completed a program that was used after I left.
When I went to graduate school as a graduate assistant, we were given some manuals and pointed at the computer room. It was the days of cards-in, cards-out but it was self-serve. None of this priesthood behind locked doors that gave back your work when they damn-well decided to.
Now computers have gotten both easier to use and harder to use. But how many of those who get the full STEM treatment will get and hold jobs in industry. Will a programmer be able to easily change jobs if he or she doesn’t have the right “skill set”? Or will companies look for new grads from other countries on H1-B visas. And after the visas expire just send them back home because the companies can get new grads with “up-to-date” “skill sets”.
This all reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”. Workers were spit out of the system because their jobs were replaced by computer systems. Even managers were getting spit out. Vonnegut saw this back in the bad-old-days of cards-in, cards-out.
But what I really learned in school and on my own that was of lasting importance was in the roots, flowers, and leaves. What would my life be without all the literature I learned? Would I have enjoyed and learned from Shakespeare and other great books without being exposed to them in school? Would I have learned about government without civics and American history? Would I have enjoyed a wide range of music without a class in music appreciation. It is all of these that allowed me to enjoy life and contribute more than sitting in a cubicle designing “the next great thing.”
Also in the Reader Weekly of Duluth on 2016-03-24 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/03/24/6930_stem_is_only_part_of_a_plant-1.
Also "complex various" was corrected to "complex variables".
STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is all the rage to ensure that a large number of public school students be grounded in STEM. That’s “where all the jobs are.”
But is that all our public schools should produce: “skills” that are “hot” today for large corporations? What happens when large corporations want different “skills”? How many FORTRAN or COBOL programmers are still working? How many large corporations were willing to let them learn C on the job? Or would the large corporations rather let them go and hire C programmers taught by a university? Programmers who would be cheaper because they didn’t have seniority. Or programmers who would be cheaper because they were H1-B hires? The old programmers would be familiar with how the company functioned. The new programmers would probably take longer to learn how the company functioned than the old programmers could upgrade their “skills”.
Tech innovation in and of itself is devoid of meaning. We need the humanities and art to give meaning. The humanities are the roots of a learning plant. They feed the STEM with ideas of what has worked in the past and insight to what might work in the future. The arts are the flowers of the STEM. Without music, drawing, and theatre, STEM is only more and more gadgets which became ends in of themselves. See Sherry Turkles’ “Alone Together” for how much are society has become tools of our gadgets rather than our gadgets being our tools. The leaves are the parts that extract learning from whatever sources are available.
Even before STEM became a buzz-word, I had plenty of STEM training.
I had the science of Physics and Chemistry in high school and college. I really haven’t used much Physics or Chemistry since then. I do remember that speed equals the acceleration multiplied by the square of time. I don’t know what use this has been to me except that I don’t think sky diving is a good idea. I do remember that water is two-parts hydrogen and one part oxygen and the carbon dioxide is one part carbon and two parts oxygen.
In college I took the technology of AC Circuits and flunked it. But all I really need to know today is that the wall sockets are AC circuits that when properly used can provide light as well as power for the computer I am typing this article on.
Oops, an aside. From English I learned the last phrase should be “for the computer on which I am typing this article.” And of course, from other reading I have learned that this is a forced construction based on the idea that English should follow Latin grammar.
In college I had “Engineering Tools and Processes”. I don’t remember my grade (not an A), but as all the others did, my brazing of one piece to another exceeded the base line. On the other hand, I never did get the hang of arc welding. I always got the rod stuck to the work.
Now Math is something I really got immersed in: calculus, differential equations, complex variables, mathematical logic, and more: two years at a liberal arts college and two years in graduate schools. But what do I use math for now: balancing my checkbook, doing my taxes, and guessing an appropriate tip. I do remember that the squares of the sides of a right triangle equal the square of the hypotenuse. But might I have learned this just doing some carpentry? The 3-4-5 rule for making a right angle. About the only other formula I remember is the integral of e to the x equals a function of u sub n. I didn’t learn that in the class room!
With all that STEM, how did I learn so much about computers? On the job training and my own curiosity. I got a summer job between my junior and senior years to learn computing. With a text book from the company library and the help of others, I successfully completed a program that was used after I left.
When I went to graduate school as a graduate assistant, we were given some manuals and pointed at the computer room. It was the days of cards-in, cards-out but it was self-serve. None of this priesthood behind locked doors that gave back your work when they damn-well decided to.
Now computers have gotten both easier to use and harder to use. But how many of those who get the full STEM treatment will get and hold jobs in industry. Will a programmer be able to easily change jobs if he or she doesn’t have the right “skill set”? Or will companies look for new grads from other countries on H1-B visas. And after the visas expire just send them back home because the companies can get new grads with “up-to-date” “skill sets”.
This all reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”. Workers were spit out of the system because their jobs were replaced by computer systems. Even managers were getting spit out. Vonnegut saw this back in the bad-old-days of cards-in, cards-out.
But what I really learned in school and on my own that was of lasting importance was in the roots, flowers, and leaves. What would my life be without all the literature I learned? Would I have enjoyed and learned from Shakespeare and other great books without being exposed to them in school? Would I have learned about government without civics and American history? Would I have enjoyed a wide range of music without a class in music appreciation. It is all of these that allowed me to enjoy life and contribute more than sitting in a cubicle designing “the next great thing.”
Also in the Reader Weekly of Duluth on 2016-03-24 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2016/03/24/6930_stem_is_only_part_of_a_plant-1.
Also "complex various" was corrected to "complex variables".
Monday, July 20, 2015
A little math test
A headline on Yahoo! Finance reads:
American families spent 16% more on college this year
Just what does it mean?
Did all the families who spent money on college last year spend 16% more this year?
Or:
Did 16% more families spend money on college this year?
The article does mention that tuition only rose about 2%, and it does mention that some families are spending more because they can afford to.
So, the short answer is that more analysis is needed and that headline writers have to be careful of their wording. Good journalism is factual, not sensational.
American families spent 16% more on college this year
Just what does it mean?
Did all the families who spent money on college last year spend 16% more this year?
Or:
Did 16% more families spend money on college this year?
The article does mention that tuition only rose about 2%, and it does mention that some families are spending more because they can afford to.
So, the short answer is that more analysis is needed and that headline writers have to be careful of their wording. Good journalism is factual, not sensational.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Paradox of the day – IQ and high-level physics
"Richard Feynman’s I.Q. was a less-than-remarkable 125."
"Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?", Eileen Pollack, New York Times Magazine, 2013-10-03.
Richard Feynman was a Noble laureate in physics.
For more on Richard Feynman, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman.
Apropos women in science, he encouraged his younger sister to be a scientist. She has a Ph.D. in physics and has made major contributions to the study of solar wind. Take your pick of thousands of entries on her with a search of "Joan Feynman physicist".
"Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?", Eileen Pollack, New York Times Magazine, 2013-10-03.
Richard Feynman was a Noble laureate in physics.
For more on Richard Feynman, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman.
Apropos women in science, he encouraged his younger sister to be a scientist. She has a Ph.D. in physics and has made major contributions to the study of solar wind. Take your pick of thousands of entries on her with a search of "Joan Feynman physicist".
Saturday, July 20, 2013
My followers increase by 25%!
I had a major increase in the followers of this blog this weekend. My followers went from four to five! Thank you to the newcomer and the other four. I hope you find something interesting here often.
Hey, Roger! Are you still a follower or was that a one-time thing as you showed off your iPhone?
This "dramatic" increase of followers reminds me of a mathematical joke another friend told. A car dealership says its sales increased 50% from the previous month. My friend then asked if that was from two cars last month to three cars this month.
Leon, do you remember telling this joke over forty years ago? If so, drop me a line.
Hey, Roger! Are you still a follower or was that a one-time thing as you showed off your iPhone?
This "dramatic" increase of followers reminds me of a mathematical joke another friend told. A car dealership says its sales increased 50% from the previous month. My friend then asked if that was from two cars last month to three cars this month.
Leon, do you remember telling this joke over forty years ago? If so, drop me a line.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
π is an Obama liberal plot to socialize America
Mathematicians tell us that π is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Well, π is the Greek letter for "p" and is pronounced "pie". See, already we have an attempt by the Obama administration to Europeanize America. We all know how badly the Greeks are managing their economy.
Instead of using a foreign letter to describe a supposedly scientific idea, we should simply call it pie.
Mathematicians tell us that pie is an irrational number; a number that cannot be expressed as a fraction and whose numeric representation never ends. Since we all know that liberals are irrational, we can readily see that pie is a liberal plot. We also know that everything has to come to an end sometime; the Bible tells us so. We also know that mathematicians are indoctrinated at liberal universities.
The Bible also tells us that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is three. See 2 Chronicles 4:2. Claiming pie is this ratio is a liberal attempt to discredit the Bible.
The Indiana General Assembly rationalized pie in 1897, but a liberal mathematics professor intervened when bill #246 reached the Senate and killed it. These liberal plots to discredit the ability of the people's representatives to properly define truth have continued. First was the attempt to discredit the Creation and now the liberal attempt to discredit climate stability. Next thing you know the liberals will claim the world is round instead of flat.
Stand up for American pie!
Instead of using a foreign letter to describe a supposedly scientific idea, we should simply call it pie.
Mathematicians tell us that pie is an irrational number; a number that cannot be expressed as a fraction and whose numeric representation never ends. Since we all know that liberals are irrational, we can readily see that pie is a liberal plot. We also know that everything has to come to an end sometime; the Bible tells us so. We also know that mathematicians are indoctrinated at liberal universities.
The Bible also tells us that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is three. See 2 Chronicles 4:2. Claiming pie is this ratio is a liberal attempt to discredit the Bible.
The Indiana General Assembly rationalized pie in 1897, but a liberal mathematics professor intervened when bill #246 reached the Senate and killed it. These liberal plots to discredit the ability of the people's representatives to properly define truth have continued. First was the attempt to discredit the Creation and now the liberal attempt to discredit climate stability. Next thing you know the liberals will claim the world is round instead of flat.
Stand up for American pie!
Monday, October 26, 2009
The End of Ignorance
I've long thought that all of us, myself included, don't learn all that we could as well as we could. Today I did have the importance of one learning tool reinforced - serendipity!
I was wandering around the web and decided to visit The Huffington Post, and I stumbled on a sidebar item, "Math is not hard: A Simple Method…" whose full title is "Math Is Not Hard: A Simple Method That is Changing The World", by Julia Moulden.
It is about John Mighton, a man who had his own struggles with learning. Mighton was a playwright who supplemented his income as a tutor. That led to his deciding to be a mathematician. But his struggles with the subject almost made him give up. Remembering some of his tutoring experiences, he broke things down into small increments and went on to get a Ph.D.
He started a not-for-profit organization to promote a different way of teaching math - http://jumpmath.org.
He has written two books whose title alone should lead us to rethink teaching and our own learning - "The End of Ignorance" and "The Myth of Ability".
If you read Julia Moulden's article, be sure to follow as many links as you can, including the one to Thomas Friedman's article, "The New Untouchables", New York Times, 2009-10-21. I was going to write a blog about Friedman's article but as usual didn't find a round tuit. Ah, that's the secret of learning, finding round tuits:)
I was wandering around the web and decided to visit The Huffington Post, and I stumbled on a sidebar item, "Math is not hard: A Simple Method…" whose full title is "Math Is Not Hard: A Simple Method That is Changing The World", by Julia Moulden.
It is about John Mighton, a man who had his own struggles with learning. Mighton was a playwright who supplemented his income as a tutor. That led to his deciding to be a mathematician. But his struggles with the subject almost made him give up. Remembering some of his tutoring experiences, he broke things down into small increments and went on to get a Ph.D.
He started a not-for-profit organization to promote a different way of teaching math - http://jumpmath.org.
He has written two books whose title alone should lead us to rethink teaching and our own learning - "The End of Ignorance" and "The Myth of Ability".
If you read Julia Moulden's article, be sure to follow as many links as you can, including the one to Thomas Friedman's article, "The New Untouchables", New York Times, 2009-10-21. I was going to write a blog about Friedman's article but as usual didn't find a round tuit. Ah, that's the secret of learning, finding round tuits:)
Math Is Not Hard: A Simple Method That Is Changing The World
The following is my comment to Julia Moulden's column of the same title. The above picture was added by the Huffington Post when I checked that I wanted my comment posted on my blog.
I've long thought that most of us can learn more than we do. Years ago I heard a radio interview where the speaker had a boy tell him, "I'm dumb" and the man replied, "Who told you that." Most of us have had people tell us that they were never any good in math, foreign languages, music, or whatever. The true answer is that they didn't have enough interest to invest some time in the subject.
I have proven it with my own increased singing ability. I once was told that I was hopeless. After years of my taking voice lessons, that same person is delighted with my ability. No, nobody is going to pay me to sing, but I have been asked back to sing solos.
I wrote about some of this experience in "Men Can Sing", http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree/men_can_sing_2005-02-03.html
If you are interested in a subject, start somewhere. Read about it, get lessons on it, just do something. And be willing to change and correct yourself.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Trying to keep up with Iranian events
I've found that even if you thought you had read an article, it may have changed since you last read it. I found this to be true with "Ahmadinejad Re-Elected: Protests Flare", New York Times, 2009-06-13 or is it 2009-06-14? The New York Times already has the URL datelined for the Sunday edition.
One of the new to me things I found in edition I read shortly after 1600 was that many moderate clerics supported Moussavi. Many of these apparently think Ahmadinejad is a disgrace to Iran.
Also as you read more, you get certain information refined. Andrew Sullivan gives a more refined chart of the "straight-line" "results" of the Iranian election. See "The Results as They Came In", The Daily Dish. The web page I mentioned in "A winning election formula - Iranian style" used only four data points. The one that Sullivan used has six data points. Still the correlation of the reported data to the formula is still way to close to one for a person to believe the results weren't manufactured. Think how vote totals swing during U.S. elections.
One of the new to me things I found in edition I read shortly after 1600 was that many moderate clerics supported Moussavi. Many of these apparently think Ahmadinejad is a disgrace to Iran.
Also as you read more, you get certain information refined. Andrew Sullivan gives a more refined chart of the "straight-line" "results" of the Iranian election. See "The Results as They Came In", The Daily Dish. The web page I mentioned in "A winning election formula - Iranian style" used only four data points. The one that Sullivan used has six data points. Still the correlation of the reported data to the formula is still way to close to one for a person to believe the results weren't manufactured. Think how vote totals swing during U.S. elections.
A winning election formula - Iranian style
Remember how we used to be glued to our radios or TVs when some major awe-inspiring event occurred. We just had to get the latest development as soon as it was broadcast. Now here I sit glued to my computer picking up minute-by-minute developments in Iran. One advantage the web has over other media is the greater variety of sources.
One of the very interesting item is that one person has determined the formula for the Iranian vote results
Mousavi = 0.5238xAhmadinejad - 742642
It's bad enough that the vote tallies matched this formula at least four different points, but Mousavi started out with a negative vote of nearly 3/4 million before Ahmadinejad had any votes!
For more details, see "Faulty Election Data", Tehran Bureau, by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 13 June 2009
One of the very interesting item is that one person has determined the formula for the Iranian vote results
Mousavi = 0.5238xAhmadinejad - 742642
It's bad enough that the vote tallies matched this formula at least four different points, but Mousavi started out with a negative vote of nearly 3/4 million before Ahmadinejad had any votes!
For more details, see "Faulty Election Data", Tehran Bureau, by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 13 June 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Math-wise, Minnesota is in really big trouble
According to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Legislature "that students no longer have to pass the 11th-grade math test." Many educators think the test is too difficult. See "Must-pass math test goes by the wayside", Star Tribune, 2009-05-30.
The Star Tribune also published four examples from the text. See "Could you pass the test?" I did the examples fairly quickly with what I consider ninth-grade math; I would have had all I needed to know for this test in Algebra I. I did get a bit stymied on how high the ball would go; I made an arithmetic error! The solution was only to plug in the time values of 1, 2, and 3 to find the value that gave one of the multiple-choice answers.
If 11th-grade students can't pass this test, either they slept through Algebra or never took it, a shame either way. And if so many can't do simple algebra, how are we going to find people to do the needed jobs from construction worker to engineers to scientists?
The Star Tribune also published four examples from the text. See "Could you pass the test?" I did the examples fairly quickly with what I consider ninth-grade math; I would have had all I needed to know for this test in Algebra I. I did get a bit stymied on how high the ball would go; I made an arithmetic error! The solution was only to plug in the time values of 1, 2, and 3 to find the value that gave one of the multiple-choice answers.
If 11th-grade students can't pass this test, either they slept through Algebra or never took it, a shame either way. And if so many can't do simple algebra, how are we going to find people to do the needed jobs from construction worker to engineers to scientists?
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