Australian Trivia Only

[pet-els]

Yes George.

PeterH

[Newcastle George]

Explain Pythagoras' theorem.

George

[native pepper]

Simply put, the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle, is equal to the sum of the squares of the two adjacent lines, I believe.

[Newcastle George]

Correct, some of us old farts remember being taught maths.

George

[pet-els]

Correct, some of us old farts remember being taught maths.

George

Yes George, BUT how many times have you used Algebra ??
PeterH

[BernieQ2]

To this day I've never got my head around algebra
So it must have been a waste of time . They would of been better if they taught me maths instead.
Bernie .

[Newcastle George]

In its most general form, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. As such, it includes everything from elementary equation solving to the study of abstractions such as groups, rings, and fields.

Here is a simple example:

(x + 3)/6 = 2/3. First, cross multiply to get rid of the fraction. ...
(x + 3) x 3 = 2 x 6 =
3x + 9 = 12. Now, combine like terms. ...
3x + 9 - 9 = 12 - 9 =
3x = 3. Isolate the variable, x, by dividing both sides by 3 and you've got your answer.
3x/3 = 3/3 =
x =1.

[supersparky]

You must have gone to a different school to me George. We weren't taught algebra that way. I reckon that is the 'new maths' dangle fangled way of doing stuff. But the answer is the same.

[Dot]

My math teacher was a real OLD fart and we hated each other. I could never get the hang of the new way he wanted us to do the long division (in the left hand column of the page) so I just did it my way and put the answer down. Surprise surprise he marked every answer as X wrong. My dad told my cousin who was a principal of another school and he said to continue as I was and another surprise surprise I got a total score of 13/100 for the whole year. I left school and still have no idea how to do all that stuff, haven't ever needed it.

[Shirley]

How many check out chicks don't even know the tables, when I was in 3rd grade, 8-9yrs we started the morning everyday with learning our tables, reckon everyone knew them all by the end of that year, thanks Mrs Ravell, use them many time in my lifetime.