Magical math?

[Maryjane]

This is my 11 year old son's math notebook. He attends public school. Are we teaching magical math now??

[Pyrastra]

How can you multiply fives loaves and two fish? This is a better question:

Sam has five fish. Each produces two baby fish in one month. How many baby fish will he have in a month?

[Hurt]

Lol.

[Tycoon]

My gosh, completely off topic, but my eyes started bleeding looking at his writing. I mean, I am such a perfectionist, people say my writing looks like computer font.

[Jinei]

Quote by: Maryjane This is my 11 year old son's math notebook. He attends public school. Are we teaching magical math now??

What's written there?

[Pyrastra]

Not to mention the multiplication chart is unnecessarily hard to understand. The one I used in third grade was much easier.

[SoylentGreen]

It gets more complicated as they get older. Questions like, if a person has four limbs how many nails does it take to crucify them?, careful it's a trick question.

[Walrus]

Quote by: Pyrastra How can you multiply fives loaves and two fish? This is a better question:

Ten fishy loaves

[ItsDarts]

I may be wrong, but I think the point of this thread is WHY is a public school, using a clearly religious belief (that has no real evidence of occurance) as a math problem, not to mention, its poorly cited since you can't multiply 5 items of one object with 2 items of another, it doesn't make sense, you still have 5 loaves and 2 fish.

I'll bet $100 that they aren't asking questions like What do you get when you take the Prophet Mohamed and ADD a 9 year old girl named Aisha?(sp?) :)

[Jack]

Quote by: ItsDarts I may be wrong, but I think the point of this thread is WHY is a public school, using a clearly religious belief (that has no real evidence of occurance) as a math problem, not to mention, its poorly cited since you can't multiply 5 items of one object with 2 items of another, it doesn't make sense, you still have 5 loaves and 2 fish. I'll bet $100 that they aren't asking questions like What do you get when you take the Prophet Mohamed and ADD a 9 year old girl named Aisha?(sp?) :)

That's my take as well, and I agree it's foolish on several levels. It's unfortunate that this is being done in a grade where there's not likely to be objections from the students. Parents ought to present their concerns to the school and demand that such nonsense be corrected.

[Athena]

Quote by: ItsDarts I may be wrong, but I think the point of this thread is WHY is a public school, using a clearly religious belief (that has no real evidence of occurance) as a math problem, not to mention, its poorly cited since you can't multiply 5 items of one object with 2 items of another, it doesn't make sense, you still have 5 loaves and 2 fish. I'll bet $100 that they aren't asking questions like What do you get when you take the Prophet Mohamed and ADD a 9 year old girl named Aisha?(sp?) :)

Excellent comment.

Where does the education material come from? I think we should all write to the source and write to the school pointing out that not only can the lesson be precieved as offensive introduction of religion into the school, but it is also a bad lesson in logic. Do we can enough to do that, or are satisfied with just complaining? In a democracy it is our responsibility to take action you know. That is what our liberty is about.

Maryjane can you provide us with the address of the source of this very bad math lesson, and the address of the school. Let us experience the power of the Internet and the power of democracy, and the meaning of majority rule as the rule of best reason, as opposed to autocratic rule, which may or may not be good reasoning, but can not be changed by the people.

I am disappointed by the subject of the thread, because there is magic in math that helps us better understand reality, and I was hoping this was the subject of the thread. That would have been positive.

[xyzer]

Classifying the problem as a religious belief is nonsense? It is a story and not a belief.

I don't know what the math teacher is trying to get across but isn't it much simpler to start with rote recitations? Every kid should learn to multiply through 12 first. e.g. 2x2=4 etc. As they can accomplish that the teacher can very easily fill in the values. 3x2 or 2+2+2 = 6...multiplication is a form of addition. Like terms only?
Whether it's fish or fowl can also be added in later?

[Bractals]

I have always wondered why "through 12".

"0 through 9" makes more sense.

[Dr_Acula]

Quote by: Maryjane This is my 11 year old son's math notebook. He attends public school. Are we teaching magical math now??

5a x 2b = 10ab

Therefore

5Fish x 2Bread = 10FishBread

The math question can indeed be solved... don't get what all the fuzz is about. Would it be any different if it was "What does Jimmy get when he multiplies 5 X by 2 Y ?"

[Hostile55]

edit:-my algebra is a bit rusty

[SoylentGreen]

Dr_Acula5Fish x 2Bread = 10FishBread

That's not correct though is it. What you actually end up with is 5 loafs of bread and two fish , the same you started with.
Multiplication only works on things that can be joined together.
It makes no sense to multiply or divide the number used on a house address, just as it makes no sense to multiply things that don't go together.
This might be an exercise in multiplication but it is a very bad example of why or how things are multiplied.

Multiply 2 oranges with 2 oranges and you have 4 oranges. multiply 5 bread with 2 fish and you still have 5 bread and 2 fish not 10 fish / bread

[Dr_Acula]

Sure you do. Something x Anotherthing = Something x Anotherthing.
And another way of writting that is SomethingAnotherthing. It's just the same "spelled" diferently.
And, since you are also multipliing 2 numbers, you multiplie by them too. 5xBx2xA= 5x2xBxA = 5x2xBA = 10xBA = 10BA. You don't get anything new, you are just re-organizing the ingredients.

Quote by: SoylentGreen That's not correct though is it. What you actually end up with is 5 loafs of bread and two fish , the same you started with.

Exactly. I just re-organized them into an equal layout.

Still, 10FishBread means nothing since FishBread is not numbers, is nothing. But you still can re-write 5Bread x 2Fish into 10FishBread. You're not going anywhere with it, though.

Quote by: SoylentGreen Multiply 2 oranges with 2 oranges and you have 4 oranges.

Actually, you get 4xOranges[squared]. Don't forget to mulitply the organges between them.

ps: This is the silliest arguement I ever made, I'm just to stubborn to give it up XD

[Kamehameha34]

If this wasn't so hilarious, I'd surely be expressing my disdain for religion in the classroom.

[Thanatos]

Quote by: Dr_Acula 5a x 2b = 10ab Therefore 5Fish x 2Bread = 10FishBread The math question can indeed be solved... don't get what all the fuzz is about. Would it be any different if it was "What does Jimmy get when he multiplies 5 X by 2 Y ?"

What's a FishBread? Physically what is it? Is it related to whatever they make those square fish sticks out of?

Even if they had asked "If Jesus took five fish and multiplied them by two how many did he make?" I could forgive this. This is the work of a moron.

OP, I'd complain. If you really wanted to you could probably sue them for violating the first amendment, although unfortunately I don't believe doing a terrible job at teaching math is a crime.

[SoylentGreen]

Dr_Acula5Bread x 2Fish into 10FishBread

But thats just it, you couldn't do it by multiplication it would have to be by division and addition. Divide 5 loafs by 2 , and then add it, to 2 fish divided by 10. Then it would equal 10 fish/loafs.

Or perhaps i am missing the big picture here. Could it be significant that the question asks what jesus would do, Is this perhaps a theological question rather than a maths question.
Would it make a difference if the question has said "What happened when pythagoras multiplied 5 loaves and two fish?