Comments on: If math were a color

By: Fred the Fourth

Fred the Fourth — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:48:13 +0000

OK, I guess it’s my turn to be the crotchety old guy.
The name “Fuzzy Math” for this non-math was invented by extension of the names Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy Set Theory, both respectable if controversial techniques for approaching ambiguity in logic. Wikipedia has adequate writeups on all three items.

[long rant about inappropriate appropriation of terms from quantum mechanics DELETED by author]

By: Kirk Parker

Kirk Parker — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:21:51 +0000

Amber,

“I mean come on the government cant even manage the budget.”

Uhh, I yield to no one in thinking this math-color thing is a bad idea, but surely you don’t really think the problem of managing the budget is because we can’t count, do you?

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:26:39 +0000

She beats me every time.

By: Engineer-Poet

Engineer-Poet — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:44:57 +0000

In the same vein, have you stopped beating your wife yet?

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:58:37 +0000

Perhaps that is where the UN “Climatologists” learned their math.

By: Engineer-Poet

Engineer-Poet — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:31:03 +0000

It is truly a pity that the authors of such nonsense are not given what they so obviously need, which is inpatient psychiatric treatment. Anybody who believes that such drivel teaches mathemetics is insane.

By: Mark Roulo

Mark Roulo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:04:21 +0000

“Is this real? I cannot believe we would dumb down math.”

It appears to be real. Illinois Loop hosts a copy of a Wall Street Journal editorial from 2000 that claims just this:

http://illinoisloop.org/wsj_mathwars.html

I can’t verify that the purported WSJ editorial is an actual WSJ editorial, nor can I confirm that the editorial is correct (I don’t have the Everyday Math 5th grade teachers bood). But I believe that it is real.

I leave open the possibility that these excerpts make more sense when taken in context … but I’m not very optimistic.

-Mark Roulo

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:08:43 +0000

“Hasn’t history taught us…”
What history?

By: Amber

Amber — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:15:30 +0000

Is this real? I cannot believe we would dumb down math. Hasn’t history taught us that we need to be able to do more math. We need it to balance our check books, manage our budget etc. I mean come on the government cant even manage the budget. Doesnt that say it all?

By: Just John

Just John — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:21:31 +0000

The point of math is that it is correct no matter what the unit of measurement (red objects, foodstuffs, degrees Fahrenheit, etc.), so the correct answer is to un-ask the question: math has no color, no taste, is unaffected by the tides, etc.

Or are they testing the kids for synesthesia?