Articles Tagged with mathematics

A surfeit of features

No one uses them all

Digital cameras, like calculators, have an immense menu of features.  It’s certainly rare, and possibly unknown, for anyone to use them all.  Why have them, then?

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Why a forecast discussion?

More than numbers

Weather forecasts are much more reliable than they used to be, mostly thanks to more powerful computers.  Input from people is still important, though.

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The John Henry moment

Old technology triumphant

A mathematics teacher is not much like a nineteenth-century railroad worker–but there are parallels.  Our consultant who tutors High School math and science continues to learn from it; sometimes, his students do also.

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Science and social science

Differences among the PhDs

Methods and results differ among the various sciences.  This comes from differences in their subject matter and is not always understood, even by scientists.

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Classes of classes

What is the aim of school?

A recent comment on one of our posts raises the question of what teachers are trying to achieve in school.  The answer varies.

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It’s simpler than that

Teachers can know too much

High School chemistry rests on a base of sophisticated quantum mechanics.  Fortunately, it’s not necessary to master the advanced subject in order to use its results.

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Ways of learning and of avoiding it

Life is not a word problem

Our tutoring consultant continues to gain insights from his students.

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Interpreting French Oast

The complicated business of reading signs

Even simple daily tasks can involve very sophisticated thinking.

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When predictions are wrong

The role of science fiction

Today’s world doesn’t look like most science fiction stories pictured it.  But accurate prediction isn’t the main point of the genre.

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Extremes

They need not actually be spectacular

moonOur astronomer, somewhat reluctantly, talks about the Supermoon

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