Rithmatic
Cidu Bill on Aug 25th 2009
If this is what they’re teaching in middle school
then I can understand how Herb can be so abyssmally stupid
Pinny points out, by the way, that “the flash card reads ‘9×5′ in all three panels. Why is she asking for ‘5×8′ and even ‘5×9′?”
Filed in Bill Bickel, Heart of the City, Herb and Jamaal, Jan Eliot, Stone Soup, comic strips, comics, humor, math | 38 responses so far
Kit Aug 25th 2009 at 12:06 pm 1
Besides, the magic number is 24 . . . 4 x 6 buns = 8 x 3 hot dogs . . .
Dr. Shrinker Aug 25th 2009 at 12:20 pm 2
Kit beat me to it!
I don’t read Stone Soup that often, but how old is that character supposed to be? She looks like a middle-aged woman, so why is she doing flash cards? And if she’s a kid, why is the old lady tolerating constant profanity? And, perhaps most importantly, why does the artist think it’s funny?
Dan Aug 25th 2009 at 01:15 pm 3
Yeah that one was just bizarre, and not in the funny way. A kid, apparently hating to do flash cards before school is in session, uses profanity with her mom/grandmom. This would be funny only to preteens who would see it as an OMG DID YOU HEAR WHAT SHE SAID LOLZ.
Spiritcatcher Aug 25th 2009 at 01:32 pm 4
it’s the older daughter, and her gramma is hipper than her mom. but she *is* too old for that kind of flash cards…
Dan V Aug 25th 2009 at 02:05 pm 5
And hot dog buns (around here) are sold in packages of eight, as are most hot dogs. Except the cheap wieners, which come in packages of 10.
Its Justme Aug 25th 2009 at 02:14 pm 6
Hebrew National’s marketing division has this figured out to maximize profit. They are packaged in 7s. So you have to buy 8 packages of wieners and 7 packages of buns to come out even!
Kate C Aug 25th 2009 at 02:21 pm 7
Re: the first strip. First, is Stone Soup, not Heart of the City.
Second, Holly (who I believe is supposed to be 13 or 14) failed some subject back last spring, and had to go to summer school, but the district had a funding cut, and got rid of the class she needed to take (or maybe all classes; I can’t remember). The grandma agreed to tutor her over the summer, and the storyline hasn’t really been addressed since then. But shesh! A 13 year old doing simple multiplication! That does seem remarkably clueless on the part of the cartoonist. I tutor a ten year old who is definitely behind her peers in math, and we are doing two digit multiplication.
Rasheed Aug 25th 2009 at 02:44 pm 8
Herb & Jamaal is recycled. It’s not much of a joke to begin with, but I believe this is the third time I’ve seen Herb talk about the “magic number”
CIDU Bill Aug 25th 2009 at 02:56 pm 9
Kate, I was referring to this Heart strip, which we discussed back in January.
Paperboy Aug 25th 2009 at 03:22 pm 10
Even as a child I realized you can eat a hot dog with regular sliced bread. No math needed.
Paperboy Aug 25th 2009 at 03:48 pm 11
Also, Herb is “abysmally stupid”, not “abyssmally stupid”.
Heather D Aug 25th 2009 at 04:49 pm 12
Here (NB, Canada) I buy hot dog weiners and buns both in packages of 12. But buns also come in packages of 8. Of course, those are usually the bun-style buns (for lack of a better term) and we prefer the “New England” or “Top Cut” style, which come in 12’s. It was awful living in other parts of Canada for the previous decade, where top-cut buns were practically unheard of. Nice to be back home where there are several different brands available.
And yes, that magic number in the comic would indeed be 24, not 48. I was just reviewing that with my 11yo son the other day, in fact (going into grade 6, homeschooled), lowest common multiple/denominator and all that. If he can do it, the cartoonist should be able to…
Dave Van Domelen Aug 25th 2009 at 08:27 pm 13
Two packs of good hot dogs = 16
One pack of lavash bread wraps cut into quarters = 16
furrykef Aug 25th 2009 at 09:30 pm 14
In the first strip, regarding how the card says 9×5 each time: maybe grandma is testing the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect]Stroop effect[/url].
…Nahhh.
furrykef Aug 25th 2009 at 09:31 pm 15
In the first strip, regarding how it says 9×5 in every panel, maybe grandma is testing the Stroop effect.
…Nahhh!
(If this post shows up twice, ignore the first one. What? Too late, you say? Oh well…)
- Kef
bAT L. Aug 25th 2009 at 10:18 pm 16
For the second comic, I thought that they weren’t spending the whole night trying to come up with the (unsimplified) number, but rather that they were spending the whole night trying to come up with the reason that the numbers are different, a subject of many unscholarly debates.
I personally always figured it was a marketing gimmick, even when I was probably too young to know what those were. Now that I’m older, I think that it’s because hot dogs are multipurpose since you can chop them up and use them in cooking, and hot dog buns are usually just used as hot dog holders. Although, probably it’s just marketing.
For the first one, I think that the math is too simple for her. Hence the colorful language! Although I have to admit, I thought the cartoonist was going in a different direction since the last word balloon is yellow and the term “colorful language” was being used.
Rainey Aug 26th 2009 at 01:32 am 17
Paperboy and batL, not only can hot dogs be used without buns but buns can be used without hot dogs. I have used them to hold chili and condiments without the hot dog.
chuckers Aug 26th 2009 at 05:21 am 18
Re: Hebrew National’s marketing division and hot dogs
WTF? That doesn’t sound too kosher to me.
(Yes, I know, there are other types.)
tristara Aug 26th 2009 at 05:25 am 19
I was a math tutor at a junior college and we got students asking for help ranging in age from freshmen in high school through adults doing pre-calc. In nearly every case, people who had the most trouble with math were missing information from an earlier level of learning. Since it is possible to learn algebra using a fancy calculator, often students would get as far as Algebra 2 before we realized just how many of them could not do math in their head!
No, doing math in one’s head is not required anymore, but being able to is empowering and it makes some problems easier to solve. Also, part of algebra is the ability to break big problems into little pieces. Some students could see where the little problems were, but they had more trouble with the little parts than the big parts because they could not do the math in their head.
In the Stone Soup strip, it is very possible Holly would be doing flash cards in middle school or even high school, in order to break a dependence on a calculator or improve her math phobias through empowerment.
Nothing excuses her language.
Powers Aug 26th 2009 at 06:57 am 20
I think her language is excused if she already knows her times tables and has for years, and Grandma is insisting on drilling them every day anyway.
Tom T. Aug 26th 2009 at 07:14 am 21
He kept her up all night matching the hot dog to the bun? “Herb & Jamaal” just told a sex joke!
Its Justme Aug 26th 2009 at 10:07 am 22
@chuckers - Yep, totally kosher. Their advertising tag line is “We answer to a higher authority.” The dogs are made of all beef, presumably shoulder (i.e. chuck, pun intended.)
Morris Keesan Aug 26th 2009 at 10:28 am 23
I read the flashcard as saying “5×9″, just as if the top number were, for example, a 15, I would read it as “5 times 15″.
chuckers and Its Justme, I was probably at least in my teens when I discovered that there were hot dogs that contained meat other than beef.
Adrian Gilstrap Aug 26th 2009 at 11:42 am 24
Tom T. just reminded me of the animated cartoon that would be played between double features at the drive-in theatre. It was advertising the concession stand and all its offerings. The particular segment I’m thinking of was for their hot dogs. It showed a weiner, obviously male because of his hat, running around. And then, coming on the scene is the bun, obviously female because of her fashion accessories. Eye contact, and then the weiner leaps through the air to land in the bun in perfect longitudinal alignment. Whew … I can’t even talk about the part where they added the condiments.
Ian Osmond Aug 26th 2009 at 01:19 pm 25
It’s Justine: actually, the issue is that kosher meat is more expensive than non-kosher meat, because of the special slaughter and treatment. As such, to manage to maintain close to the same price point as the other hot dogs, they do seven to a pack instead of eight.
Mark in Boston Aug 26th 2009 at 07:44 pm 26
Does anyone else here reduce fractions on checks?
Like: Pay to the order of John Smith $ 7.20
Seven and 1/5 dollars
Joshua Aug 26th 2009 at 08:01 pm 27
Mark in Boston: I have never seen a reduced fraction on a check like that, and somehow I suspect that banks would not be thrilled to see that either, as it could slow down processing or result in errors.
chuckers Aug 27th 2009 at 05:45 am 28
On the one check a year I have to right, I reduce the fraction.
$179.50
One hundred seventy nine and 1/2 dollars.
The bank hasn’t any problem with it.
I have heard that if there is a discrepancy between the numbers and the words, they
default to the numbers although that might be a small town thing. Likely, they would
probably toss it so don’t try it. But reducing the fraction should *NOT* make a difference.
If the complain, tear them a new one about not being able to do math properly.
tristara Aug 27th 2009 at 07:33 am 29
I figured someone would post this right away, but since no one has, I guess I need to..
http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/2006/12/funnychec-thumb.jpg
Mitch4 Aug 27th 2009 at 10:00 am 30
* Yes, I sometimes reduce the fraction on a check. But it hasn’t disagreed with the numerical amount, so there has never been an issue. (Also, sometimes if it’s a round number, I skip the fraction, write out the “dollars” and scratch out the printed “dollars”. Like, “Two Hundred Dollars exactly.”)
* The way I always heard it, in case of disagreement they go by the worded one. But in any case it seems you’re right that there’s a rule for resolving it without sending it back.
* In that fancy math example, it looks to me that the exponential would amount to -1, the summation would have a limit of 1, cancellling each other; and the $0.002 would be two-tenths of a cent. That’s an amount the banks can’t actually do anything with, so for me the clever gesture pales a little — if it came out to, say, two cents, it would have made a more effective point.
paperboy Aug 27th 2009 at 01:56 pm 31
I always write, say, $12.43 as “Twelve and Forty-Three One-Hundredths” and only once did the receiver not understand. We’re asked to write out the number, so that’s what I do.
Jordan Aug 27th 2009 at 08:33 pm 32
The reason hot dog buns and the hot dogs themselves are packaged in different quantities is because two different kinds of people prepare and package them.
Buns are made by bakers, who usually do things in dozens. That’s been the way since the Roman Empire and not likely to change.
Hot dogs are made by butchers, who sell their product by weight. Chances are your hot dog packages conform to a specific pound/ounce value.
So that’s the big secret. Jaw-dropping, isn’t it?
Jeff S. Aug 28th 2009 at 02:15 pm 33
When I write a check and it’s an even dollar amount, I print it like this…
The Amount of: Six and no/00~~~~~~~~~~~ Dollars
furrykef Aug 29th 2009 at 11:24 am 34
Jeff S. — you divide by zero?
Nathaniel Aug 30th 2009 at 06:01 am 35
Mitch: the fancy math check is in response to an incident wherein Verizon Wireless quoted a guy .002 cents/kB and charged him .002 dollars/kB. When he called to complain, he couldn’t find anyone in the call center who understood the difference.
Mitch4 Aug 30th 2009 at 11:21 am 36
@furrykef - I s’pose you’re just kidding, but for the record the form Jeff S mentions is pretty much the standard recommended one. The “00″ denominator shows up whether the numerator is a actual number of cents or yet another convention like writing “no” or “xx” (which is meant for zero, not twenty!). Why it’s considered a big help to leave off one digit from “/100″ is far from obvious.
So reducing the fraction, or leaving it off in the case of a round dollar amount, might be a gesture against the mathematically meaningless division-by-00 convention. (Of course, we could just pedantically write the “35/100″ style.)
@Nathaniel — thanks for connecting the dots! I’ve heard the audio clip and thought it maddening and hilarious. The company certainly deserved the ridicule or even contempt the distribution of the clip garnered for them. I didn’t connect it with this fancy check though until you pointed it out.
But in a way the check goes beyond the real point. The accounting department and the customer-service department who go over our bills with us certainly need to understand the pertinent math. Also the promotions or advertising people who cook up special deals. But what is the pertinent math? For the customer-service call anyway, it’s mostly decimal notation and units. Do they actually need to be able to evaluate the convergent power series on the check?
Morris Keesan Aug 30th 2009 at 08:55 pm 37
Mitch4: Really? number/00 is a standard recommended form? I’ve NEVER written a check like that; when I fill in the cents on the written-out-in-words line, I ALWAYS write “/100″, and I’ve written checks that way ever since I got my first checking account in 1970. It’s never occurred to me that this was pedantic, or that there was any other way to write it.
Mitch4 Aug 31st 2009 at 12:40 am 38
I hope I didn’t say ‘pedantic’ about the obviously more correct use of 100 as the denominator.
The odd ‘00′ as denominator was what I was taught, long ago now, and evidently also what Jeff S. learned. But if it ever was as standard as I supposed, it no longer is: a quick check on the first few results of Googling “how to write a check” all show 100 as the denominator unhesitatingly.
The first one I saw with a variant was http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-write-a-check (step 5), which offers “xx” as the denominator (I had only run across it as numerator), and in the fractional part of the numeric amount field (which for me would normally be a decimal part). The same source (in step 6) offers “NO” as one form for the cents numerator when it is zero, this time for the text amount field.
The user-answers sites do have a variety of responses, but just like here it’s a matter of “this is how I do it”. I liked the French-learners one, where they also find the right phrasing for “write a check”.