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The meat department in a grocery store needs 200lb of hamburger that is 80% lean beef. How many pounds of 78% lean and 85% lean must be mixed?
Please, it doesn't matter if it's Angus or the finest Kobe beef and who eats that much beef these days.
Well, I have no idea, but that question at least seems relevant to me, and makes sense, and I am glad I don't work in the grocery meat department.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lior Arel
Math is no good for figuring out people. It's good for figuring out fixed and predictable realities. One reasn I think some people struggle with math: A "people person" has more aptitude at social graces and culture. Math peole are better with numbers and physical properties. The stereotypes tend to hold pretty true with more than a few (and some very notable) exceptions.
I understand this and agree, but my thing is, when I read most word problems, this is where my brain goes. The meat department question is an exception. When I read something like the cleaning question, or those questions about when your train will arrive, I think "Who cares, have them both clean, it'll be faster" or "Who knows, Amtrak is always late and the speeds are never consistent" or "I guess I get there when I get there".
My mind always focuses on "What is the point of this?", unfortunately.
I teach courses on research methods (esp. quantitative methods) and statistics, and ALL of my quizzes, exams, and other assignments are OPEN-EVERYTHING. I have never understood the utility of having students memorize formulas etc. My assignments test how well students understand the material, not how well they can memorize things!
Statistics (or algebra or other forms of math) do NOT have to be so scary, even for students who are not particularly good at math.
In a 400-level math course I took in college, we were required to memorize everything. It's horrible.
Oceanography is highly competitive field. To get a job whose salary is a livable wage, you need to go to not just and grad school but one of the better ones. To get into those grad schools you need to be a competitive student with grades and gre scores to match.
I say this as a researcher and as someone who has taught at a marine science high school for gifted STEM students. And btw I give those kids (who tend to be downright gifted in math) the same speech.
It is a lovely platitude to say anyone can do anything but that also leads to ridiculous amounts of student debt. If you are wealthy and the pay doesn't matter. Go nuts. Otherwise you need to be realistic about your odds of not only passing the advanced math classes but being able to get into a good program AND doing the actual math for the day to day aspects of the job.
Seriously, you should go look at a phys oce book and look at the stuff on fluid dynamics before you make decisions that will have lasting repercussions.
OP thinks ambition is a complete substitute for ability in grad school math in a hard science field.
He'll learn.
I've seen people like that "hit the wall" in such circumstances, and it's sad. They watch their classmates moving ahead and wonder why they can't get there too. They struggle and struggle, then finally get "counseled out" of the program.
Let's face it - with poor math aptitude, at some point it just plain flies over your head no matter how hard you work. But OP is going to have to figure that out the hard way.
Edit to add: My husband is an adjunct college calculus instructor at a major university with 3 degrees in STEM fields. He concurs with both of my posts in this thread - he's seen tons of well-meaning grad students fail out of STEM programs.
OP thinks ambition is a complete substitute for ability in grad school math in a hard science field.
He'll learn.
I've seen people like that "hit the wall" in such circumstances, and it's sad. They watch their classmates moving ahead and wonder why they can't get there too. They struggle and struggle, then finally get "counseled out" of the program.
Let's face it - with poor math aptitude, at some point it just plain flies over your head no matter how hard you work. But OP is going to have to figure that out the hard way.
And yet I scored 100% on my Algebra quiz today. It all made more sense when I started learning WHY one figures each problem a certain way, instead of just "this is how you get the answer".
To those that told me not to give up and encouraged me during my brief moment of doubt, I say a heartfelt Thank You. You truly do have wisdom and compassion, and are a benefit to our society. I'll not bother typing out my thoughts on a couple of bitter posters with inferiority/superiority complexes who must spend their lives trying to put or keep others down, to make themselves feel better. I see it all the time, and it's sad. I simply dedicate the song "Mean" by Taylor Swift to them. Not naming names or anything
Would you stop that? How the he11 are we supposed to know??! ugh. Why don't they just buy what they need from the butcher, order some 80% lean?
I've never heard of algebra being required for a job in the grocery meat dept., nor for a butcher, either.
Well, the butcher needs to know: if he combines 100 lb of hamburger that costs $2.40 per pound with 60 lb of hamburger that costs $3.20 per pound, what's the cost (per pound) of the hamburger mixture.
And yet I scored 100% on my Algebra quiz today. It all made more sense when I started learning WHY one figures each problem a certain way, instead of just "this is how you get the answer".
To those that told me not to give up and encouraged me during my brief moment of doubt, I say a heartfelt Thank You. You truly do have wisdom and compassion, and are a benefit to our society. I'll not bother typing out my thoughts on a couple of bitter posters with inferiority/superiority complexes who must spend their lives trying to put or keep others down, to make themselves feel better. I see it all the time, and it's sad. I simply dedicate the song "Mean" by Taylor Swift to them. Not naming names or anything
I never said I did. I just said "perhaps". My tutor who made the breakthrough with me, put it like this, "You're highly intelligent. Your mind won't accept method for method's sake (the way most math students do). Your mind is trying to figure out the deeper implications. You actually have the aptitude to be great at math, but needed to be matched to a higher level of explanation than you'd been getting." I paraphrased that.
It worked. Now I know that when the teacher introduces a new problem, I need to find a source that teaches me WHY and what the rationale is for doing the problem a certain way. Sadly, even most math teachers don't actually understand the rationale of math, they just understand the mechanics. One thing my tutor said which gave me pause, was that I will probably love calculus because its "the rationale behind Algebra".
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