Maureen M. McCarty (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stardustgirl) wrote,@ 2009-01-25 11:53:00 |
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Today's Foxtrot
If I hear the phrase "the value of x", my mind will first go to the book by Poppy Z. Brite rather than algebra, possibly for the same reason I would think of a comic strip rather than food if I heard "peanuts". It's just how my brain works: the more familiar data registers first.
So, how many people will think today's Foxtrot is funny because Paige is an airhead mall-shopping teen girl who isn't too bright? And how many will laugh because it's a perfect example of why so many people are confounded by math?
When I read the strip in the paper this morning, part of my brain was trying to do the "2x + y" part and I couldn't do it. As soon as I read Jason's bubble about sweaters and shirts, the number popped into my head and I had Paige's answer before I'd read it.
And just like Paige, I still don't know how I got the answer. I just know you could plug in 80 and 100, or 20 and 25 instead of 60 and 75, and each time it works and the difference between those two numbers is the same as "the value of X", but what happens when you're trying to do it for a weird combo of, say, 32 and 51? Or do you just not shop at places like that? :P
If I hear the phrase "the value of x", my mind will first go to the book by Poppy Z. Brite rather than algebra, possibly for the same reason I would think of a comic strip rather than food if I heard "peanuts". It's just how my brain works: the more familiar data registers first.
So, how many people will think today's Foxtrot is funny because Paige is an airhead mall-shopping teen girl who isn't too bright? And how many will laugh because it's a perfect example of why so many people are confounded by math?
When I read the strip in the paper this morning, part of my brain was trying to do the "2x + y" part and I couldn't do it. As soon as I read Jason's bubble about sweaters and shirts, the number popped into my head and I had Paige's answer before I'd read it.
And just like Paige, I still don't know how I got the answer. I just know you could plug in 80 and 100, or 20 and 25 instead of 60 and 75, and each time it works and the difference between those two numbers is the same as "the value of X", but what happens when you're trying to do it for a weird combo of, say, 32 and 51? Or do you just not shop at places like that? :P
