Re: RPN maps to basic mathematic expressions nicely

"metaperl.com" <metaperl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1194785424.301854.205850@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> So my opinion is that children may have problems with mathematics
> because they are forced into trying to do a bunch of things which seem
> foreign to them.
>

That depends on the abilities of the person.  I, for one, suffered through
two mathematics teaching styles in my elementary schoole years decades
ago.
The "standard" method was visual and algebraic in nature.  The new method,
which they called "new math," was verbal and used written forms, like long
division.  I grasped the first very quickly and naturally.  It wasn't
until
the end of HS that I learned I had far above average spatial relation****p
abilities.  However, many other students in elementary school preferred
the
"new math."  I don't recall if they converted to the "new math" or not.
Anyway, I think that learning math has much more to do with brain
psychology
than the "one size fits all" solution you've presented.  For example, we
now
know that females do better in math in a cooperative environment than a
competitive one that males prefer.

> If instead, they simply were allowed to build physical models of the
> math operations and then express these models in English,

No.  I did poorly with English based math.  I didn't do as well in
language
related cl***** as I did in math and sciences.  Yet, I grasped and learned
many programming languages very easily.  To date, I've had experience in
14
or so.  It wasn't until I was much older that my spoken and written
language
skills began to approach the depth that I had in programming languages
from
very early on.  I'm positive that this was due to the high correlation
between visual symbols and the lower level of ambiguity in the programming
language.  I can still do algebra based math in my head today, but I still
have difficulty with numeric math such as counting change to pay for fast
food.

But, I'm much better than most ca****ers.  Try giving them change that
requires them to give you back 15 cents or 35 cents instead of even or 50
cents...  Many times they'll be over or under.  Say your order came to
6.72.
You give them 10.97.  What?  It's penny reduction...I want a quarter back,
not 0.07 cents, see?  Watch them give you 3.75 or 5.69 instead of 4.25.
3.75 is (10-6-0.25[0.97-0.72]). 5.69 is (11-6+0.69[0.72-(11-10.97)]).
Admittedly, those numbers were made up, but I've seen numerous people make
mistakes just like those.  It's frequently the result of rounding the
dollar
amounts or splitting the dollar and change amounts.  Then they become
confused about how the change is to be added or subtracted.  Sometimes
it's
almost comical watching the ca****er try to figure out the change.  I
thought
all modern cash registers tell them the amount to return, but that's
apparently not the case.  Both Taco Bell and McDonald's ca****ers have
recently made mistakes like this on my orders...

Here's another one.  Taco Bell breaks out the order into sub-items.  You
see
what you ordered plus all the individual items that comprise the order.
McDonald's doesn't.  So a meal (burger, fries, pop) are lumped together on
the receipt as a single item.  Goto McDonald's and order a meal and then
order _two_ extra burgers (three total).  Watch them give you two.  Watch
them be confused.  Watch them reread the receipt.  Watch them be confused.
Watch them reread the receipt, yet again.  Watch them get the manager.
Watch the manager be confused.  Watch the manager reread the receipt...
I've done this dozens of times at many McDonald's.  At this point, I no
longer order two extra burgers of the same type as the meal.  It always
confuses them.


Rod Pemberton