On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 18:34:27 -0500, Mark Peters wrote
(in article
<mpeters-88877C.18342727062004@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
> The original question was "What is product of 9 times 6?"
>
> In article <ucBDc.8453$Xn.146@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> "Fletch F. Fletch" <notme31415@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> toto wrote:
>>> On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 05:28:54 GMT, "Fletch F. Fletch"
>>> <notme31415@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>
>>>> toto wrote:
>>>>> On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 17:43:33 GMT, "Fletch F. Fletch"
>>>>> <notme31415@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> How many people do you figure are on the earth that don't know
>>>>>> their times tables to say twelve, but can factor a quadratic? I'm
>>>>>> guessing it hovers around zero.
>>>>>
>>>>> How many people actually need to be able to factor a quadratric?
>>>>
>>>> Pretty much everyone in math, science, or engineering I would guess.
>>>> Econonmists too. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch. Of course, that
>>>> is still a small minority.
>>>>
>>> Not really.
>>>
>>> You don't have to factor quadratics yourself in any of those fields.
>>> You need to understand how to solve such equations (and in fact,
>>> people who work in the fields you mention, may need to understand
>>> how to get solutions to cubics or higher powered equations), but
>>> people who work in these fields don't solve the equations by factoring
>>> for the most part.
>>>
>>> For one thing, many of quadratics are not factorable. We teach
>>> factoring in Algebra I in high school or before, but it really is not
>>> necessary in the concrete, only in the concept so that student's can
>>> understand the explanation of how the quadratic formula was
>>> derived.
>>
>> I was using the term factoring loosely. I really meant finding a root,
>> solving, etc.
>>
>> In any event, the answer is 42. If I could only remember what the
question
>> was.
>>
>> Slainte,
>> Flech
>>
>>
>>
Back around 1964, the Campus Police at "Ole Miss" actually had
that number on one of their three cars.
And, of course, everytime somebody got drunk (Horrors! Drinking
in the middle of the Bible Belt?!?) she/he/it would call the
police and ask where it was.
They changed it.
++ Gray
|
