Questions for Callaway

[Natalia Evans]

What year was your daughter diagnosed? I'm assuming you were diagnosed the same year as her.

[duncvis]

that movie was Speed, the movie everyone knows and you talk about it like some obscure little tiddy from the past?

It was something about various machines and motion. It wasn't the movie Speed that you have mentioned.
The parts that made me feel awful were the rollercoaster bit and this car speeding down a tiny country lane. Blech.

Heh. I saw that when I was a kid. I'm gonna have to take the kids to the IMAX at the National Media Museum, they'd love it. 

[renaeden]

Random, but you are all-knowing:  Is there some plausible way for a high-school (11th grade-level) geometry or algerba question to involve the variables 3a and b without being insanely simple?

The 11th grade algebra use of these variables 3a and b that I can think of would be where you teach the student how to solve two equations in two unknowns, like for a simple example:

The larger of two numbers is three times the smaller.  Their sum is eight more than twice the smaller.  Find the numbers.

Let a represent the smaller number and b represent the larger number.

b = 3a

a + b = 2a + 8

So substitute 3a for b in the second equation:

a + 3a = 2a + 8

So 2a = 8

So a = 4

b = 3a

b = 3 (4)

b = 12

This has had me wondering for ages...
Where did the 8 come from? Was that made up?
I am doing a maths program and I am stuck at this point in it. I think it wants me to make numbers up to put in the equations. But I don't like choosing. Do people just stick with one number all the time or do they pick randomly.

[Callaway]

Random, but you are all-knowing:  Is there some plausible way for a high-school (11th grade-level) geometry or algerba question to involve the variables 3a and b without being insanely simple?

The 11th grade algebra use of these variables 3a and b that I can think of would be where you teach the student how to solve two equations in two unknowns, like for a simple example:

The larger of two numbers is three times the smaller.  Their sum is eight more than twice the smaller.  Find the numbers.

Let a represent the smaller number and b represent the larger number.

b = 3a

a + b = 2a + 8

So substitute 3a for b in the second equation:

a + 3a = 2a + 8

So 2a = 8

So a = 4

b = 3a

b = 3 (4)

b = 12

This has had me wondering for ages...
Where did the 8 come from? Was that made up?
I am doing a maths program and I am stuck at this point in it. I think it wants me to make numbers up to put in the equations. But I don't like choosing. Do people just stick with one number all the time or do they pick randomly.

I'm sorry it bothered you for so long, Renaeden.  The 8 was part of the original question.  Their sum is eight more than twice the smaller.

I changed the color above to make it clearer.

[Callaway]

I am doing a maths program and I am stuck at this point in it. I think it wants me to make numbers up to put in the equations. But I don't like choosing. Do people just stick with one number all the time or do they pick randomly.

I don't know how to make numbers up to put in the equations.  If there are any denominators, then you can't choose a number that makes the denominator zero, or the fraction will be undefined.  Other than that, I would stick to small whole numbers, if these will make the math easier to work with.

If you want to post the questions, I could help you think of numbers, if you like.

One time, when my husband was a math professor, in one class he had problems with cheating.  Certain people were copying from their neighbors' papers.

He made up a final exam which had nine questions, each one of which had a box to insert a one digit whole number.  He instructed his students to fill in the boxes with the digits of their nine digit Social Security numbers, which were also their student ID numbers.  Several students, principally the cheaters, were quite upset by this and asked what would happen if they did not comply.  He answered that they would receive no credit for their final exam, because he had no place to put their names on the exam and would be using only their student ID numbers to identify them. 

Nobody had the opportunity to cheat, because they all had different questions.

[Tesla]

Very clever.  Made a lot more work for him, but it's good that he cared enough to not let people cheat their way through.

[Christopher McCandless]

I am doing a maths program and I am stuck at this point in it. I think it wants me to make numbers up to put in the equations. But I don't like choosing. Do people just stick with one number all the time or do they pick randomly.

I don't know how to make numbers up to put in the equations.  If there are any denominators, then you can't choose a number that makes the denominator zero, or the fraction will be undefined.  Other than that, I would stick to small whole numbers, if these will make the math easier to work with.

If you want to post the questions, I could help you think of numbers, if you like.

One time, when my husband was a math professor, in one class he had problems with cheating.  Certain people were copying from their neighbors' papers.

He made up a final exam which had nine questions, each one of which had a box to insert a one digit whole number.  He instructed his students to fill in the boxes with the digits of their nine digit Social Security numbers, which were also their student ID numbers.  Several students, principally the cheaters, were quite upset by this and asked what would happen if they did not comply.  He answered that they would receive no credit for their final exam, because he had no place to put their names on the exam and would be using only their student ID numbers to identify them. 

Nobody had the opportunity to cheat, because they all had different questions.

I doubt that his plan would make any difference now, people these days just load all the answers and programs on to their calculators, which can be brought straight into an exam unchecked! Even without the programs that are not legally allowed, people could still get their calculator to do half a test for them!

[Alex179]

I didn't think I would be allowed to use my TI-82 on the SAT's math portion so I didn't bring it, I had everything programmed into it from Algebra to AP Physics w/ Calc.     That would have been unfair imo, but to my disdain there were plenty of people there with calculators.   I did the entire SAT on paper with pencil haha.   Only took it once because it was a good enough score to get the scholarship I was going after.    This was 1997 back when the damn test actually had a written essay portion. 

[McGiver]

callaway, why aren't people ticklish when they touch themselves the same way that others touch them and they are ticklish.

[Christopher McCandless]

I didn't think I would be allowed to use my TI-82 on the SAT's math portion so I didn't bring it, I had everything programmed into it from Algebra to AP Physics w/ Calc.     That would have been unfair imo, but to my disdain there were plenty of people there with calculators.   I did the entire SAT on paper with pencil haha.   Only took it once because it was a good enough score to get the scholarship I was going after.    This was 1997 back when the damn test actually had a written essay portion. 

Oh im in the UK, so we have a different system. Its any calculator that doesnt have a QWERTY keyboard on it, but you are not supposed to add any programs to it. People obviously ignore the programmes rule (wish id copied them sometimes) as almost no one checks them.

[Alex179]

Eh not having a QWERTY keyboard would rarely stop anyone.   Might as well not have the rule imo.  Yeah the whole program thing is ignored here as well, it is against the rules but they haven't really checked for them from what I have heard.   They just tell you to delete everything before you take the test, which basically trusts highschool students to do it themselves (bad idea haha).

[Christopher McCandless]

Eh not having a QWERTY keyboard would rarely stop anyone.   Might as well not have the rule imo.  Yeah the whole program thing is ignored here as well, it is against the rules but they haven't really checked for them from what I have heard.   They just tell you to delete everything before you take the test, which basically trusts highschool students to do it themselves (bad idea haha).

It is riduculous, thankfully calculators still cant do most of the algerbra. What really tops it off is the exam board give you a whacking great formula book to help you as well. And of course if you make a mistake you still get loads of method marks, even if you bodge together a question you dont know.

[renaeden]

I am doing a maths program and I am stuck at this point in it. I think it wants me to make numbers up to put in the equations. But I don't like choosing. Do people just stick with one number all the time or do they pick randomly.

I don't know how to make numbers up to put in the equations.  If there are any denominators, then you can't choose a number that makes the denominator zero, or the fraction will be undefined.  Other than that, I would stick to small whole numbers, if these will make the math easier to work with.

If you want to post the questions, I could help you think of numbers, if you like.

That bit of the program, I have been stuck there so long that I have been slack in persevering with it. So I will give it a go again very soon, probably tomorrow.

I know when I left school, I still didn't know how to add fractions. That is pretty bad.

McJagger, I know I can tickle the roof of my mouth with my tongue but I don't know if it is the same for everyone.

[purposefulinsanity]

Tickling the roof of your mouth with your tongue is supposed to be good to stop you sneezing- it always works with me.

[Lucifer]

callaway, why aren't people ticklish when they touch themselves the same way that others touch them and they are ticklish.

it's to do with muscular tension - if you relax your muscles completely when someone tickles you, it doesn't tickle.