Why Americans are bad at math

The problem i'm having is why can't i figure out 3rd grade math?!

The problem I have with this is that on the front of the text book this problem is from it probably says MATH. Then we see the title to this page, which is "Make Predictions". How are we expected to make a mathematically supported prediction without knowing how many stars, moons, and suns are in the box. One could assume that there are more suns, but how the hell do I know that. I'd stop by and call the teacher on it. Seems like California is trying to create a future generation of gambling problems.

The problem i'm having is why can't i figure out 3rd grade math?!

 

Teachers are horrible. The was math is taught is horrible. So confusing. And it's not.

 

I put my 9 year old nephew on Khan academy (bought him a computer condition was he had to do 100 problem module every day after school) and I had him solving equations in one variable within 1 month.

I feel your pain...my daughter is in 4th grade. I am grateful every day that my brother is an elementary school teacher. They send home things I've never heard of to categorize without any reference materials. Unless you are an elementary school teacher you have no idea what they are talking about because theyre teaching "new math" and "new English". I'm sorry but I'm having a really hard time trying to figure out what was wrong with the "old" way of teaching when 2+2 actually equalled 4!!!

Teachers are horrible. The was math is taught is horrible. So confusing. And it's not.

 

I put my 9 year old nephew on Khan academy (bought him a computer condition was he had to do 100 problem module every day after school) and I had him solving equations in one variable within 1 month.

 

 

Was this post meant to be as ironic as it was????

That entire homework sheet is like an ode to the problems with inductive reasoning! That's terrible!

Was this post meant to be as ironic as it was????

 

Honestly, man, I have no effing clue

 

 

The myth is that one can predict a future random event from past results. Its known as "the gambler's fallacy" and its the first thing college statistics professors teach their students is wrong. If we know the game is weighted to one result we can predict the result through odds. But if we dont know that (and they dont tell you) its impossible to predict the next result.

 

Example. It is possible to flip a coin and get heads 9 times out of ten. Its unlikely. But its totally possible. This math problem would teach you that if heads comes up 9 times out of 10 then its more likely to come up on the 11th flip as well. When of course the odds are 50/50 on every flip. Regardless of what happened last time. This problem would teach a kid to think that if a coin comes up heads 9 times out of 10, it must have three heads and 1 tails.

 

 

Gamblers will look at a roullette table and say "15 came up a lot. So it will come up again....". Or. "15 hasnt come up in a while. Its due. ". The odds that 15 will come up is 1 in 38 on every roll regardless of whats happened before.

 

I have used this theory just recently on the mega-millions lotto that was for some $640 Mill.

I picked 5 numbers plus the mega-ball number based on the most common numbers picked over the last 25 drawings.

Needless to say the theory is incorrect as a matter of fact it is totally flawed as I got not one of the six numbers picked correct.