Re: applescript-users digest, Vol 3 #1661 - 11 msgs
Re: applescript-users digest, Vol 3 #1661 - 11 msgs
- Subject: Re: applescript-users digest, Vol 3 #1661 - 11 msgs
- From: Richard Vaughn <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 03:19:40 -0400
On Wednesday, May 14, 2003, at 01:00 AM, Doug McNutt wrote:
At 10:06 -1000 5/13/03, Reinhold Penner wrote:
On Tuesday, May 13, 2003, at 09:23 Pacific/Honolulu, Gary Lists wrote:
Having taught high school math and algebra, I can tell you that you
no one
should expect a square to be negative.
You better apologize to your students... ;-)
I am seriously considering writing a paper on this subject. Just when
was this high school course taught?
I was considering a post to the thread when your message came up. I
found the thread Subject header especially ironic given that "no one
should expect a square to be negative."
But on your point:
I graduated H. S. in 19 ought 64 and I was taught as you were. I doubt
it was the new math because I was taught that starting in 7th grade -
over the objections of my father who was a college math major. And I
doubt it was the rise of Computer Science as an academic discipline (at
least not initially) because I remember analyzing the expected
run-times of option pricing algorithms at an investment bank and often
getting at least one complex root as a solution which is exactly what
my computer scientist boss was on the watch for (as were the
econometricians).
When I see the assertion that "no one should expect a square to be
negative", I cringe because the students are obviously not being taught
much about numbers or abstraction. Of course, my practical answer is
also, slap in the parens.
Rick
P.S. By the way, there was another paradigm shift - about 20 years ago
HP declared Reverse Notation
and dropped RPN.... ;-).
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