Is it common that math teachers in America call numbers and variables "guys"?
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Seriously? I can't remember anyone ever in my life referring to math numbers as... he, she or guy.
Cars? For sure. That's not just an american thing either. But numbers? Disagree. NOT normal.
I've certainly heard it in math, chemistry, programming, accounting. It's not as pervasive as referring to a car, generally female pronoun, but it's not uncommon either.
I am originally from Sweden, although I have lived in America for a few years, and one thing that I have noticed a couple times from American science lecturers is that some of them talk about numbers and various "notations" as if they were persons.
For example, a typical phrase when they eliminate variables or whatever seems to be that they "knock out that guy", and they also seem to refer to some stuff by gender pronouns, such as "he" and "him".
I always thought that this sounded pretty funny, but maybe it is just a simple casual way to refer to whatever they are working with.
It's an individual thing. It's very casual speech. Some instructors won't be that casual. Others will. It doesn't mean literally, that they're thinking of the numbers as humans, lol. It's idiomatic usage.
Is this not typical globally? Heck Spanish assigns masculine and feminine context to everything. The English have been assigning feminine terms to boats for centuries.
I tell my students the very first day of general chemistryclass that we do not anthropomorphize the elements in my classroom... because it really tics them off.
Seriously? I can't remember anyone ever in my life referring to math numbers as... he, she or guy.
Cars? For sure. That's not just an american thing either. But numbers? Disagree. NOT normal.
I'd also say it is VERY normal, I went to school in 3 different states and am pretty sure all my teachers have said things like this.
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