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LONG DIVISION!
- Thread starter Wendo
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I had a discussion about this in class. Some people felt that there was no need to have to deal with long division if they could use repeated subtraction instead. Other people just said that they had calculators for division, and one person went so far as to use a crappy analogy of a car (ie, "You drive a car, but you don't have to know how it works").
Anyways, I found this interesting. Because, as Ghost said, lots of people haven't done long division since middle school. I've even heard that there are parents out there saying that it's an "outdated" concept, and shouldn't be taught in schools.
Anyways, I found this interesting. Because, as Ghost said, lots of people haven't done long division since middle school. I've even heard that there are parents out there saying that it's an "outdated" concept, and shouldn't be taught in schools.
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Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
at 26, I can almost guarantee that I would probably fail a longdivision or algebra test. In fact, even though I was quite good at maths in school, I'm not sure I even remember what long division was. can anyone post an example?
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I can think of several recent occasions I've had to long divide something with pen and paper, like the time I was bored at work and was figuring out various financial stuff. Long division is great for when you need decimals but have no calculator to save your lazy ass.
I can think of several recent occasions I've had to long divide something with pen and paper, like the time I was bored at work and was figuring out various financial stuff. Long division is great for when you need decimals but have no calculator to save your lazy ass.
Ash Housewares
The Mountain Jew
yes of course
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Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
Hitokage said:
Oh, I'm sure I have the brainpower, it's simply a matter of not remembering how. Not like riding a bike at all. I used to be very good at maths in school. I seriously have not used a single maths technique (past basic number skills) learned in school in 8 years.
I'm 18, going to university next year- never done long division in my entire life :lol. I remember it being taught in school when I was about 8 or 9..But i somehow got away without learning it, actually I pretty much never did any work in primary school at all and nobody ever seemed to notice.
I live in Australia, fairly laid back school system. At my primary school they didnt even grade us, the teachers would just write comments about us on our reports, I always got like comments like "Tom is a very capable student but would do much better if he worked harder and spent less time talking to friends and drawing"...I didn't really start actually doing schoolwork until i was about 15.
Yeah, after doing complex partial derivatives, vector calculus, integrals or whatever, simplying by performing the various multiplication, division and log rules was a relaxing cool down. I miss having to fill up a whole page with the work for one math problem. You calculator people have no idea what's going on under the buttons.
I liked Wendo's old avatar better. I don't know who that skanky looking girl is.
It's wierd, I can do long division in my head, but I barely passed Calculus. Higher levels of mathematics seem to be more about memorizing things and organization, as opposed to math fundamentals.
My wife can not do any type of simple math (Adding three sums together as an example) in her head, and she has a Masters degree in Education. It's almost like a different, remote region in your brain is used.
It's wierd, I can do long division in my head, but I barely passed Calculus. Higher levels of mathematics seem to be more about memorizing things and organization, as opposed to math fundamentals.
My wife can not do any type of simple math (Adding three sums together as an example) in her head, and she has a Masters degree in Education. It's almost like a different, remote region in your brain is used.
Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
It's weird how the higher in math you go (advanced calculus and up), the less you use basic mathematical techniques. Still, I use long division regularly. Synthetic division is the king though 
All calculators should be banned in math classes until you enter college. It's the worst thing to have happened to math since everybody's so lazy.
All calculators should be banned in math classes until you enter college. It's the worst thing to have happened to math since everybody's so lazy.
It doesn't surprise me that there are people coming out of college today who can't do long division, it's long been clear that the standards in education are declining and school and college are more about teaching people how to pass exams and use calculators rather than things that they should actually be learning. I may not remember how to do integration or differentiation any more but long division is a very basic operation and I am unlikely to ever forget how to do it.
I try to do all reasonable math in my head first. If I can't, then I move to pen and paper, and then finally to calculator. No reason, really -- I just like to keep myself sharp, and as an added bonus I'm reasonably good at working out day-to-day math in my head (a grocery bill, balancing a checkbook, etc.).
I thought long division is dealing with polynomials not numbers and division is with just numbers.
Polynomial division briefly appears in upper level Abstract Algebra but I haven't seen this technique used anywhere else since middle school math class. Division, on the other hand, seems to be more useful and used more often.
Polynomial division briefly appears in upper level Abstract Algebra but I haven't seen this technique used anywhere else since middle school math class. Division, on the other hand, seems to be more useful and used more often.
Danj said:
Ignorant sunvabitch. I suppose you know what those people actually use advanced maths for? Yeah, they'll take 3-5 year courses to strengthen their basic mathematic abilities. What the shit are you talking about you douche? DO YOU EVEN READ WHAT YOU WRITE ANYMORE YOU NUTSACK ON A CHRISTMAS TREE?!
I've long held to Douglas Coupland's theory that nature ensures we know how to do what we need to know how to do - with the easy example being that my dad does lots of practical math stuff in his head that blows me away but he needed my 11 year old brother to help him set up his first fax machine. I myself can remember long division enough to do it, but I can easily imagine people getting through life without it ever coming up after they finish elementary.
cloudwalking
300chf ain't shit to me
I hated math in school. As soon as I hit 4th grade, and we started getting homework, I would do 3 problems on my own in class and then finish up the rest at home with a calculator. I figured doing it three times was good enough to pass the test, why do it 50 times? I did this all the way up until I graduated -- when I switched to homeschooling it just got easier since I had a calculator with me all the time.
Well, when I ended up taking my ACT, I saw what a mistake I had made by using the calculator for 95% of my math work all these years. I didn't have a graphing calculator with me, so I bombed anything that I became dependent on that for. Even pretty basic stuff I had trouble with.
I haven't done long division since elementary school, and I would have no idea where to even begin if you put a pen and paper in front of me and asked me to do a problem. I haven't needed any math other than basic addition/subtraction at my job, and I don't see it being much different in the future. If I can find the calculator I just use that anyway.
Well, when I ended up taking my ACT, I saw what a mistake I had made by using the calculator for 95% of my math work all these years. I didn't have a graphing calculator with me, so I bombed anything that I became dependent on that for. Even pretty basic stuff I had trouble with.
I haven't done long division since elementary school, and I would have no idea where to even begin if you put a pen and paper in front of me and asked me to do a problem. I haven't needed any math other than basic addition/subtraction at my job, and I don't see it being much different in the future. If I can find the calculator I just use that anyway.
Escape Goat
Member
i was writing a check the other day and realized I had forgotten how to write a capital F in cursive. I think I last wrote in cursive regularly was back in sixth grade.
Teh Hamburglar said:
I can still do all of the letters, but I write impossibly slow in cursive. It doesn't matter though, no one uses cursive anymore except on signatures.
And on topic, I can still do long division, but my math ability has declined dramatically since I have graduated from college. It seems like I have forgotten like 80% of the things I learned in college.
Excess Poo Flakes
Banned
I can do long division, I can do it with functions too. Damn people.
Meatpuppet
Member
Some of the replies in this topic make me weep for western civilisation.
Escape Goat
Member
I hate cursive. In school writing in cursive is frowned upon because everyone has their own style and the teacher's have trouble grading it. I find it harder to read/organize when I am taking notes.
Screw cursive and lets just use a standard form!
Screw cursive and lets just use a standard form!
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