Maths Me Mad

25 October 2006

THE EVOLUTION OF MATHEMATICS

1960 OLD MATH
A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of this price. What is his profit?

1970 NEW MATH
A logger exchanges a set L of lumber for set M of money. The cardinality of set M is 100 and each element is worth one dollar. Make a square array of 100 dots to represent the elements of M. Represent C as a subset of set M. What is the cardinality of the set of profits?

1980 WHOLE NUMBER MATH
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Underline the number 20.

1990 DESTREAMED MATH
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, an environmentally ignorant logger makes a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? In your group, use role playing to determine how birds and squirrels in the forest feel.

~author unknown

I was faced with the dilemma of attacking the towering dishes in the sink or the innocent girl with big round eyes in her Mathematics.

Eyeing from the greasy dishes which taunted me with a “come-come” to the horror-stricken girl who resisted me with a “no-no”, I chose the latter.

Within twenty minutes, I was pulling at my hair and yelling at the teary-eyed cherub.

I had always been appalled by the way my friends couldn’t understand basic mathematical concepts back in my secondary school days. Now I’m hit doubly hard by retribution.

Whenever I am teaching Angel Mathematics, it seems like I am speaking alien language. She will be able to reply me via alien language word by word but unable to process the notions behind it. It is like keying in the main points of a problem into a system. When the “enter” key is pressed for an answer, the screen goes blank. After multiple pressing, each time harder than the previous, an error message appears on the screen. How I feel like smashing the screen and cry foul.

I decided to give both of us a break after a torturous hour and went on to wipe the smirks off the dishes lying in the sink. My temper somehow simmered the moment the dishes ended up weeping under the running tap. By the time I finished hanging my laundry, I was all ready to go back into my room to apologize and give comfort to my poor girl.

The room was dark and quiet upon my entrance. That poor girl must have packed and tucked herself into bed in such haste as to prevent another raid by her monstrous mother, she didn’t even dare to make her usual request for me to lie down beside her while she sleeps.

My heart ached as I stroked her tiny hand and planted a kiss on her forehead. She stirred and cuddled closer to me.

“Goodnight and sweet dreams, Darling,” I breathed in her ear.

“Goodnight, sweet dreams,” she murmured with a tint of smile on her lips.

She drifted into a peaceful sleep almost instantly before she could hear me whispered,

“Sorry.”