Before those of you who love numbers and arithmetic and algebra and geometry and trigonometry and calculus and any other way to use numbers get grumpy, let me say that I agree wholeheartedly that numbers are very useful. But some of my earliest memories and right up to present ones make me VERY GRUMPY about numbers.
Some stories:
In elementary school I liked arithmetic. I have no memory of learning to count or any instruction in addition or subtraction. But I could do it. Comfortably. Then along came multiplication. It infuriated me that 2+3=5 but 2×3=6. Why did a + between two numbers mean one thing and an x between the same two numbers mean something else? Everyone told me not to worry about it. Just memorize the multiplication times tables. As a fourth grader, I thought memorizing times tables from 1 through twelve was ridiculous. But I did it. And I’m embarrassed to say that it was years before I figured out what that x between numbers meant and why it worked the way it did.
In high school I was confronted by algebra and geometry and trigonometry. AAAGH! I have a good memory so I survived those classes, but I can’t say that I really understood what I was doing. I could not apply any of those number systems to my real world. They were just abstract things that I perceived as torment.
Sigh.
Some years later along came an awesome movie titled Stand And Deliver starring Edward James Olmos as teacher Jaime Escalante. He taught calculus to his students and changed the nature of math education at his school. It’s a superb movie. Check it out. Mr. Escalante says about calculus, “It’s easy! Anyone can do it!” There’s a teaching scene in the movie where Mr. Escalante says: “A negative times a negative is a positive.” So many years after high school, I am still annoyed that I could not understand algebra. So my dear Hubby bought me a math book and, believe it or not, I started going through it. Got to keep those aging brain cells working! So I got to a chapter on negative and positive numbers. And there’s that line from the movie: a negative times a negative is a positive.
Why?
If (7) × (9) = 63 why doesn’t (-7) × (-9) = -63? Why does negative 7 times negative 9 equal positive 63? I asked Hubby and he said, “Well it’s a rule.” This takes me right back to memorizing times tables. Sigh. From my point of view the rule makes no sense. It has no basis in reality. There’s probably a basis somewhere, but I may never get there.
This makes me want to destroy all numbers by gathering them up and tossing them into a black hole. Let’s let black hole gravity crunch numbers so they go away. And quit bothering people like me. Sigh. The nearest black hole is too far away: 1,560 light years. It would take 37,200 years to travel one light year. More numbers to ponder. Sigh again.
Now we come to the study of economics. A dear friend teaches college economics. She is superb and very patient at answering any economic questions I’ve asked her and recommended some great books.
Still.
Our economic system is nuts. Not because it doesn’t work – it does. But it could be fairer and more sensible. It’s like inviting ten folks over for dessert and dividing the chocolate layer cake so that everyone gets a fair piece. In our present economic system, one person gets 90% of the cake and the other nine get to figure out how to share the 10% that’s left. That’s not fair and so we have strikes by furious workers and we have arguments about minimum wages and paying folks the same wage for identical skills and experience regardless of their gender. Arguments and arguments and chaos while the arguments get argued.
Sigh.
If you like crunching numbers, I am in awe of you and I congratulate you. But I’m just frustrated and likely to remain so. Maybe I can gather up all those annoying numbers and find a big truck to crunch them by repeatedly driving over them until they are crunched down to infinitesimal dust. And I’ll bet some folks know that in mathematics, an infinitesimal is a quantity that is smaller than any nonzero positive real number but is not zero itself. It is often denoted by the symbol “dx” or “dy” and is used in calculus to represent infinitely small changes or differentials in functions. AAAGH!
If (7) × (9) = 63 why doesn’t (-7) × (-9) = -63? Substitute the word “opposite” for the negative signs in -7 & -9 & it might become clear. A negative number is the opposite of a positive number. But if you add 2 negatives you are piling up more negatives. Clear as mud? LOL Fun essay.