Comments on: Mathamatically Synchronicitous

By: CitizenGeorge

CitizenGeorge — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:21:25 +0000

I think I remember that Jason uses algebra, not calculus, to determine the area. Calculus would pointless. What I like about FoxTrot is the utter silliness and the humanity of the characters (and the “boxes-and-circles” drawing). The strip took a bit of getting used to (this, from someone who spent years learning to appreciate Drabble), but I usually find great enjoyment in it (I failed algebra the first time through, by the way). The LuAnn strip is clumsy. I have never been able to get into it.

By: Mark Jones

Mark Jones — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:50:37 +0000

I thought about this some more, and I think that showing work wouldn’t actually be a problem for Paige–after all, she *does* understand how to do the math. Her problem is that she doesn’t understand the relationship between the scenario Peter spelled out and the equation.

Once she gets that x = shirt and y = sweater, she wouldn’t have a problem.

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:14:57 +0000

I remember a FoxTrot strip where Jason (Paige’s math-obsessed little brother) finds the area of Farmer Brown’s rectangular field using calculus.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:24:35 +0000

They both make sense (of course), but I think the second one has the weaker punchline. Nice setup, though.

By: ty

ty — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:29:38 +0000

What strikes me is the contrast between the clever structure of the Foxtrot strip with the clumsiness of Luann.

By: Mark Jones

Mark Jones — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Oh, great, all you other commenters let me be the anal-retentive jerk who points out that “mathematically” is misspelled in the title. Sorry, Bill…

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:14:21 +0000

Oh Brent, now my head hurts and that’s not ironic.

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:32:43 +0000

Chaz, the bit about showing work is an aside… this isn’t a CIDU.

The thing about not being able to show work is that on a test, is that will only get you 1 of 3-5 marks. Showing your work and getting the answer wrong will typically do better (unless you’re completely wrong from the start). Sometimes, if you know enough of the material (but not exactly what you should be doing) you can BS an answer and score a few points. Multi-point Math questions and English essay questions are alike that way… you can do surprisingly well with a few scraps of knowledge and a quick wit.

Looking at this system, my math intuition instantly says “multiples of 15″. And a quick check of the likely culprits reveals the answer.

But that’s not going to help me when the numbers aren’t so nice as to suggest the answer… at that point I need to know how to go about solving equations. And that’s what they test you on… it would be a mighty long test if they put down all possible forms of question for the given material just to test to see if a person can solve all of them (intuition or not). It’s much easier to make people show that they know methods that can solve any sort of question on the topic… even if it means doing an insane amount of work for an answer that’s trivial. In 2nd year Statistics, one assignment had us doing a page and a half of integration to calculate a mean that was obvious… it was an exercise in applying Calculus, not getting a number.

By: Chaz Larson

Chaz Larson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:42:23 +0000

It’s not about showing work. Paige reads the original problem with X and Y and sees it as an incomprehensible mess, complaining that she can’t do math.

Peter recasts the problem; X as shirts, Y as sweaters, and now, since the problem has relevance to her and her life, she solves it instantly. She doesn’t realize the two are the same problem. She still thinks she doesn’t know how to do math.

By: Lola

Lola — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:58:35 +0000

ooooooh, here we go. My mom used to warn me that there were three things you should never bring up ….. religion, politics, and what constitutes irony. By her standards, Morissette is a terrorist.