attempting to do math

[katsmom]

My daughter just asked how much her university cost me. I tried explaining it in a way she could figure out herself. A simple math problem...
one payment every 6 months, 15,000 per payment, times 5 years. That didn't work!

so we tried 15*2*5. too complicated.

So then it was 15*2. easy.

now do 30*5. To hard to deal with 0's for her yet.

so 3*5. Easy.

Now 15*100. somehow she managed to come up with 45,000 while I was trying to get her to 150,000. Dad came up with 1500 and thought University pre-paid plans were a great bargan

And you all wondered why I wanted someone to check my answer for wands.

[MBH]

Not quite sure HOW horrifed to be by this :O

I know that I'm supposed to have a 'mathematical brain' (I'm not sure on the current scientific thinking of if there is such a thing) - but NOBODY thought that one payment every six months is the same as 2 payments every YEAR?

2 payments a year for 5 years (take your pick of 2-times or 5-times tables) = 10 payments

A payment is 15000 which happens 10 times. There's a perfect opportunity (if it hasn't already been done) to say that multiplying by 10 for a whole number means adding a nought to the end

[clvrlad]

shush stop being sensible

[Bunnylump]

OK I now realise there has been a serious mistake. MBH can't possibly be my twin. Unless he got all the maths brains and left me with none.

[Scurra]

No, he's just learned how to cheat.
That's the real trick with arithmetic - you only really need to know some short cuts and things become ever so much easier.

Quick - what's 72 x 97?

Well, it's clearly 72 x 100 less a bit. And so on.

For example, I don't track exactly what I am buying at the supermarket, I do it in approximations of £1 so I've got a general idea; the exact amount doesn't really matter as long as I know it roughly. I'm sure most people do this, but I've never understood why they can't "generalise" it to other things.

[Bunnylump]

I just go to the supermarket, buy all kinds of ridiculous things I don't really need and then am genuinely shocked that I've spent £180. Again.

There is absolutely no hope for me, is there?

[Scurra]

No.

[gill216]

Maths tricks.

Trying to balance the books? Out by a figure and the digits add to 9? Transposed figure every time. 45/54, 18/81 etc.

[clvrlad]

Quick - what's 72 x 97?

Well, it's clearly 72 x 100 less a bit. And so on.

so my estimate of about 7000 was wrong?
(70x100)
or do i cheat better
now the answer how i work it out
70x97= (630+49)x10=6790
2x97=194
6790+194=6984

hmm 16 out....not bad little less than 0.3% out
and i know exactly what ive spent when i get to the tills regularly noticed mistakes at the till cos of this

and mentioned it both ways when ive been under and over charged
mind im the kind of person who tells them when they've given me too much change

[clvrlad]

just another quick reply im playing wow......yes im paying for it now.... evil blizzard

but ive noticed lots of guys around struggling to get "money" on the game me ive loads much more than i should have apparently

i noticed the Auction House system (the seller pays a deposit whch is remberced if the item sells, if the items sells they get a percentage of the purchase price instead) the deposite price is a percentage of the price one of the computer controlled shoip keepers would by the item for
looked at the cheap stuff on there lots of it is being sold for less than the vendor price (each item has a bid price and can have a buyout price just like ebay )so i can make about 50g with about 10 mins work every day...
ive got about 1000g im lvl 44 my friend who is just lvl 70 has about 300g
higher levels should have more money apparently..... i mentioned how much cash i had to other friends and there response was "at lvl 44 how??"

[katsmom]

I'm really bad with numbers. I see the bills, and pay them then ten seconds later forget how much they were. Big math? No way!

Her Uni plan is something like 200 us a month-but that could be wrong too because it's a number so I pay 6 months at a time-2 times a year. I paid for 5 years. So she goes to Univeristy! That's all I really care about.

Now I have high asperations for her so I'm doing Masters paments now. 5 more years, 2 payments a year, 10,000 a payment........I'm not even going to try and explain that one. All I know is she had better DAMN WELL GO!

[Bunnylump]

Thing is that I CAN do maths. I just dont WANT to do it. As soon as I hear or see numbers my mind shuts down completely. Not interested. Now my best friend Janet loves it so much that when she's bored, she tries to work out long multiplication sums in her head. But then she thinks I'm barking to (try) to do the puzzles on here! (Mind you, I'm starting to think she might be right).

[katsmom]

I hate it! Anything to do with numbers and I'm almost in tears. But then it took me 3 years to get through basic algebra at uni. I think they finally passed me in the end because I had my plane tickets to HK at the end of the semester and they didn't want me to waste my money. The guy I had asked me how long the flight was. I told him each leg from Florida to Gorgia to California to Korea plus layover time. I remember him asking for the total time from first take off to final destination and the look on his face when he saw me trying to add it up. He then asked me what time it would be in Florida when we landed. I just about started crying then. It was like an oral exam for me. I think my final answer was something like two days from now.

I'm pretty sure he felt sorry for me and gave me the c I needed.

[eirian]

I just go to the supermarket, buy all kinds of ridiculous things I don't really need and then am genuinely shocked that I've spent £180. Again.

and that's why I do my supermarket shopping online. That way I just get what I need. Well worth the delivery cost.
However, today I had to call in at Tesco and was really impressed with myself - only bought one toy for Thomas! (well, that and a cute pair of shoes)

[Bunnylump]

Oh, now, baby shoes. I'm tempted to buy them and I don't have a baby. I must say I'm not frivolous with money generally (well, couldn't afford to be anyway) it's just food shopping. My feeling is that if we're both working hard, neither of us spend much on clothes, gamble, take drugs, or drink excessively (well not usually, obviously major exceptions do apply*) we should at least be allowed to have nice food. Just my fruit and veg bill is usually bigger than the national debt.

*And even when I have been drinking too much, I can honestly say I've NEVER inadvertently agreed to purchase a boat. Unlike some people I could mention. (You know who you are - how's the head?)

[eirian]

Oooh, Bunny, have you tried the fruit and veg boxes that get delivered to your door? we've used Abel and Cole to deliver a box of fresh seasonal organic fruit and veg straight from the farmers each week. They do boxes of various sizes (or you can just shop the old fashioned way and choose your own rather than go with their choice) and I've been really impressed (they also stock a mean cider).

[Bunnylump]

NOW you're talking!

[clvrlad]

does that mean its seasonal veg?

might have a perusal

[eirian]

not sure which areas of the country they cover, but, even if they don't do you, there'll be another similar farmers group in your area which will do it I would think.
I really enjoyed my boxes when I got them (only stopped for financial reasons and will be returning to them once Thomas is ready to be weaned). Like getting a christmas present every week - even though you can check what's in that week's box, I nearly always had to request a change (eg, no celery), so there was usually something different in there - just didn't know what! Was a challenge some weeks to work out what to do with some strange item of veg that I'd never heard of before! Mind you, that's part of the pleasure - learning about new stuff.

[giraffe]

A friend of mine had something similar and was faced with edible flowers one week.