Random Thoughts

The Sandbox General
944

Good timing.

1 Like
945

yep!

mutual friends = mutual friends - 1

946

That even sounds like something you would say.

1 Like
947

oh well.

anyway, you can’t get rid of me

1 Like
948

The roads are really smuckered today. They’re all jammed up.

949

What’s the difference between peanut butter and jam?

950

Via Difference Between Peanut butter and Jam | Difference Between

  1. Peanut butter is made only from peanuts while jams can be made from a variety of fruits and some vegetables.
  2. Jams can contain the fruit pulp and seeds. Peanut butter is the ground paste from roasted peanuts.
  3. There are known health benefits of consuming peanut butter but there is no such fact for jams.
  4. Peanut butter contains more fat and calories than jams.

I think that’s what you were going for, right? :wink:

1 Like
951

Grapes of wrath?

2 Likes
952

Do you know the difference between toilet paper and a shower curtain?

Answer

Ahh, so YOU’RE the one . . .

953

My Finnish friend, Efnain Tukälk, is a spreadsheet wizard.

954

WHO SAID THAT?!?!?! HAHAHA! NEVER. GETS. OLD.

955

Negative numbers are weird, man. They don’t really make any sense.

You can give them a definition using opposites, like say that “negative heat is coldness”, but that’s not REALLY a thing. That’s a fake definition you made up because it lets you solve equations.

I used to think that Euler and Dirac and Heisenberg were the real weirdos, but now I think it’s been weird all along.

956

I think Gauss was really on to something.

1 Like
957

Assets vs debt.

You have $100,000. I owe $100,000.

My debt is a real, actual thing.

I recall being assigned to come up with a word problem that actually made sense and involved multiplying two negative numbers as an assignment in my “Theory of Teaching Mathematics” class. I’m trying to recall what I came up with. Some of my classmates had better examples than me. It was tougher than I thought it would be.

958

One of the baristas at sbux is wearing one of those librarian chains on her glasses. They’re both gold coloured, so I think it works for her!!

959

The enemy (-) of () my enemy (-) is my friend (+).
The friend (+) of () my enemy (-) is my enemy (-).
The enemy (-) of () my friend (+) is my enemy (-).
The friend (+) of () my friend (+) is my friend (+).

Stolen form the internets

960

Not really a math multiplication problem, probably wouldn’t have gotten credit in my class… that prof was a stickler.

961

One of my step-grandkids is having issues w/ negative numbers. I should tell him this.

962

What we really did (or rather Stu did) was give him links to Khan Academy on negative numbers

2 Likes
963

Use the convention that for money, “positive” (+) indicates an amount you have control over; and “negative” indicates a liability (i.e., money you’ve promised to pay out).

For counts, “positive” indicates cash flow to you; “negative” as cash flow to others.

Suppose you have liabilities of $134k (i.e., -134k). How much money do you need to be able to decrease this amount 25%?

The math would need to be set up as -134k\times-0.25

The “answer” would be 33,750; but what sign should be used?

clearly “+” since you need to have control of this amount

I’ve also used “stick man” on an extended number line. “Zero” merely marks your starting point. “Positive” numbers indicates “distances” in the direction stickman is facing at the start (by convention, we’ll always place this going “to the right”). “Negative” numbers indicates “distances” behind stickman (relative to the initial facing direction).

Stick man is going to move according to these sets of rules:

  • Positive numbers tell StickMan to move “forward” (the direction he is currently facing)
  • Negative numbers tell StickMan to move “backwards”
  • Addition indicates to turn (if necessary) and face the “right”
  • Subtraction indicates to turn (if necessary) and face the “left”

Math problems are concerned with where StickMan ends up, not what direction he is facing. So it is possible to give several “different” directions, with the same number of steps (i.e., same number of addends/subtrahends), with the differences being whether StickMan is moving forward or backwards and which direction he is facing at the end.

Sometimes, when looking at the directions for movement, you might it easier to “simplify” them; since the end goal is to determine where he ends up.

NOW, with this set up, integer multiplication of “two negatives” can be easily extracted to be seen as “moving backwards” while “facing left” . . . which will put you in a positive end position.

3 Likes