8 Year Old's Maths Question

[Low Gear Guy]

Are you seriously proposing that we modify our correct behaviour to accommodate a rabble of benighted savages?

Then again, you probably shouldn't generally put a coma in a four digit number. It's unnecessary, therefore clutter. Commas, like any other mark, should be used only when they serve a purpose. In big numbers like 100,000 - the hairs on a human head*, or 50,000,000 - the number of kangaroos - they aid instant meaning. 50000000 is harder to grasp at a glance. "Use of a space is acceptable." You quite sure about that old chap?

1 846

in preference to

1,846

?

🤨

Or is that not what you meant?

* Some human heads. <sigh>

In your example the correct format is 1846 but spaces may be added for clarity. It doesn't really matter for values of 1 000 but when you get to millions and billions you start losing count of the number of heroes.

 

[postman]

i went to school between 1955 to 1966 How teaching has changed. I bet a chalk rubber is now banned for punishment.Thrown with some accuracy . And it hurt.

 

[ColinJ]

How teaching has changed. I bet a chalk rubber is now banned for punishment.Thrown with some accuracy . And it hurt.

I remember an exasperated teacher throwing a board rubber at two boys nattering at the back of his German lesson. He threw it so hard that it took a chunk of plaster out of the wall between their faces! You are absolutely right about changes in teaching. That would possibly (and rightly) be a career-ending action now. As for teachers standing watching teenage boys shower after rugby to make sure that they were washing themselves properly...!

 

[slowmotion]

It depends on what the current fashionable way of teaching maths happens to be. I expect each generation has a perfectly valid different correct answer depending on how they were taught. I'd say 8, but I'm a dinosaur.

 

[swee'pea99]

In your example the correct format is 1846 but spaces may be added for clarity. It doesn't really matter for values of 1 000 but when you get to millions and billions you start losing count of the number of heroes.

Hence commas.

 

[fossyant]

I had to re-learn Algebra when my son was studying GCSE's. I couldn't help him until I'd re-learnt it, then by going through it, he got it. I think I actually understood it better 2nd time round, 30 years late.

 

[fossyant]

It depends on what the current fashionable way of teaching maths happens to be. I expect each generation has a perfectly valid different correct answer depending on how they were taught. I'd say 8, but I'm a dinosaur.

Oi it's Math. Don't put an 'S' on it with a Math Teacher around. I still call it MathS at work - drives the MathS team mad.

 

[Chromatic]

Just because you were taught it doesn'tmean its right .
Tbh, its just tidying up the ideas, hardly a major thing.

Also, cutting up bread/pizzas is a good example for Egyptian fractions.

Good for dietary lessons too, if you can't eat eight slices cut it into 6 or fewer.

 

[MartinQ]

Good for dietary lessons too, if you can't eat eight slices do a few more hills until you can

Corrected your post for you.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I was taught with an Abacus, still think they are a great tool & should be taught again, remember going into a wholesalers in the 80's there was an old Chinese guy there doing the books with an Abacus, he whipped through a column of numbers faster than another guy on a calculator.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Don't use a comma.


In some countries a comma is used instead of a point which causes endless confusion. Use of a space is acceptable.

Some countries use a full stop as the thousands separator. Are you saying don’t use what we call a decimal point as well? It doesn’t cause confusion you just have to recognise countries do it differently but it’s no biggie.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oi it's Math. Don't put an 'S' on it with a Math Teacher around. I still call it MathS at work - drives the MathS team mad.

Nope math is for USA folk, always been maths in UK.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Some countries use a full stop as the thousands separator. Are you saying don’t use what we call a decimal point as well? It doesn’t cause confusion you just have to recognise countries do it differently but it’s no biggie.

Until you receive an invoice where the full stop is the thousand separator & the comma is the decimal point, try putting it in Excel

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Until you receive an invoice where the full stop is the thousand separator & the comma is the decimal point, try putting it in Excel

Well easy , it’s not hard to translate and takes but a millisecond when you see numeric forms common in Europe.

 

[fossyant]

Oh yes decimal points. A colleague sent an invoice out, not for £1,440.00 but £1,440,000 - yes landed with the customer