They must not teach math in school anymore

[Primer]

I didn't start using a calculator until 8th grade. I mean really, who wants to sit and figure out sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))?

Anything more than $100 4-function calculators didn't even exist until I was already in calc in college. I still have my slide rule around here somewhere, but I'll be darned if I remember how to use it. Gimme some tables and a bunch of scratch paper and I can interpolate it for ya!

By the way, sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))=0.278115738 I'm assuming you're in radian mode.

(OK, I cheated and used a calculator for that!)

[BunnyJas]

:shudders: You are awakening my horrible, repressed memories of geometry and pre-calculus. Our school required us to get those fancy graphing calculators in the 9th grade for the same reasons trunks2k mentioned. We already knew the basics (adding, subtracting, division, multiplying). For some of those algebra, geometry, and pre-cal equations you'd be spending forever with just a pencil and paper.

I HATE math with a passion. I've had trouble with it since the beginning. It would often bring me to tears and make me feel like such a moron. By the time I got into geometry and those horrible Proof equations that we had to solve, I made the firm decision that I would not pick a career that involved math of any kind. I have kept that promise to myself- I'm sure that decision has made the world a better place.

[Broomjockey]

At my school we were forbidden to have calculators until 4th grade, and then we could only use them when we were told, plus we had to take speed tests to make sure we could still do the basics at a goodly pace.
Luckily my math skills hadn't atrophed yet, so I got the highest marks in the class pretty much every time.

[karma_gypsy]

. . .Several times now though, I have given over something like $20.03 for a $16.43 bill, and had to defend my reasoning. The clerk will try to give me back my $.03, I'll tell them I meant to give over $.03, they'll tell me the $20.00 is enough, . . .

I must admit, I'm terrible at math. I was always put into the high math classes too when I was in school. But even I understand that kind of equation . . .

Our computers do the math for us (before we put it in the till), so I guess I've become pretty automatic when receiving cash and giving out change.

[Ree]

When I was on cash, I used to shake my head at all the young girls, and even some of the women, who couldn't count up a basic float to $100.

I would start at pennies, taking out the odd ones to bring it to the nearest 5 cents or multiple of ten cents, then continue with nickels, taking out the extra one to bring it to the nearest multiple of ten cents, then follow with dimes, taking out the extra to bring it to the nearest multiple of ten, or even adding back a nickel to bring it to 25 cents, then continue with quarters until it came to an even dollar amount, and that's when I added in the bills to bring it to $100.

Seems confusing until you do it a few times, then it's so easy. I was taught to do that years ago by a woman who had been a cashier before they even had adding machines.
I would have my tray counted and all my turned in money counted, and they would still be counting each coin slot and writing it down, then adding it all on a calculator. Umm...if you're writing it down, then why not just add it up on the paper?

Like Norrina, I also give the extra coin so I get back an even amount to save all that change. In Canada, anything under $5 is all coin, so the less I get bcak, the better.

Quite often, it will throw the cashier.

Some of my co-workers would accidentally enter the wrong amount tendered, and they would be lost as to what change to give back.

It was actually kind of sad.

[Reyneth]

I'm good at math, although I have lost a lot of my calc knowledge and such. But at my first job, we had to know how to count back change. The registers didn't give you change. Similar to what Ree said, you start a the smallest and work your way up to the next largest item. Easy. I was always the one people would come to at other jobs when their register messed up and they didn't know how to give back change or figure out tax and stuff.

We also had to add the total of the items ourselves, not on the register. By the time you got to the register and entered your 6 things, went to the window, told them the total, got the money and got back to the register, two other people needed it. So you got to know the price of X+Y+Z and A+C and the other usual combinations REALLY well.

I worked at an ice cream stand, btw.

[Kiwi]

we werent taught "cashier math"

the amount of times I had to train new cashiers on how to "count back" change.... ugh

that and giving over so I get whole dollars back... I hate it when a cashier says "ive already opened the register".... its not just young ones either, a dithering middle aged idiot I used to work with couldnt do math for her life

she could figure out that if someones total was $4.05 and they gave her $5.05 they would get a whole dollar back... it was MAGIC!!!

mind you she was just stupid in general, nothing wrong with her, just convience stupid!

thats another thing, to keep my brain from developing cobwebs at work I would FORCE myself to add up the totals manually as I scanned them in, and calculate change in my head. Actually helped me to be happier at work, mind numbing stuff makes me cranky. I like to THINK!!!

[TequilaSunrise]

sin(.292cos(.1029tan(1.2)))

sine of [ .292 multiplied by the cosine of [.1029 multiplied by the tangent of 1.2]]

(brackets inserted to indicate what I'm taking the sine and cosine of.

It's basically a worthless equation that somewhat resembles stuff I saw in Calculus. What is fun is to get a graphing calculator, put it in radian mode, and stick some Xs into the above equation and graph it. It makes pretty pictures.

::Screams and flees from room::

[thegiraffe]

I'm with Tequila on that one lol.

I'm 21, and have barely an Algebra II background. My teacher was pregnant with twins and put on bed rest, so we had a million and a half history major subs teaching us (relatively) complex math. Yeah, right. I took trigonometry and analytical geometry because I'm good at geometry, yet didn't realize the algebra base that was necessary. I did pretty good in trig, but not so well in analyt. And college algebra? My parents wouldn't even come down the hallway to my room when I was doing my HW because I'd be having screaming matches with the book for hours on end because it just didn't make sense.

However......I CAN add and subtract and do basic change. If a customer wants to write a check for $25 over, I can calculate that. If I push the wrong button for tender, I can make change. I'm not a math whiz, but I can get by

[Mixed Bag]

I refused to buy him [a caclulator]. The teacher got upset with me and told me that it was "required".

I hope he caved.

I also hoped he didn't give other teachers a bad name by refusing to explain his rationale; schools DO want to teach the ability to reason and respond accordingly, right?

Not a teacher, but if I had time to kill and energy to maintain an experiment I'd like to see how far I could go teaching math 45 minutes a week to first or second grade. Now, I WOULD want them to have slide rules, because they're interactive and you learn about numbers from them.

More impressive than solving that aforementioned equation would be someone explaining its practical applications--anyone?

[Cyanocobalamin]

On the TI-83+, for really pretty pictures, you need to be in parametric or polar mode. The TI-83+ in my area is pretty much required from 7th grade up, according to school supply lists I've seen coming in. IMO middle schoolers do NOT need a graphing calculator. They should be able to draw up to a cubic equation by hand. /soapbox

On topic: It just takes too long to count down tills by hand. We have a nifty machine that counts money by its weight, of course you have to tell it what you're weighing. BUT someone always manages to mess up when they're counting down at closing. short 20 here, over 20 there, play hide and seek with odd amounts, round and round we go

At my job, counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and dozens should be on the job requirement list. I just finished a year of first year college calculus: I feel as if I'm now entitled to a little 4function calculator to help me out, but most of the time I really don't need one!

[JuniorMintz]

We don't have automatic registers (just a drawer, and no slots to even separate the bills in!) so I do use a calculator a lot. It's not that I *can't* do basic math, I just like to make certain that I'm doing things correctly... although sometimes I'll find myself punching in crap like "15 + 5" out of habit and I feel stupid when I realize what I'm doing.

We end up giving a 20% discount to just about everyone, and when I'm calculating the final total for the patient, I just take the original amount and multiply it by .80. A couple of my coworkers just CAN'T get it through their heads that it's the same thing as multiplying it by .20, then taking *that* amount and subtracting it from the original total. They insist that how I'm doing it is wrong...

[AFpheonix]

The only class I ever took that required a graphing calc was Statistics. Word to the wise, NEVER take a college math class at 7:30 in the morning. Bad, bad juju.
We never used it in Calc I, either, mostly because we left the answers in non-decimal form.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that adds up the totals before the register does I do it all the time at the drive thru till because it's so stinkin' slow.
And as for figuring out correct change if they do the "wait, I have 13 cents!" I had to explain to a few of my coworkers how to just add the additional change to the change calculated by the till ,and voila: new change amount.

[Mixed Bag]

multiplying it by .20

Oh yes! Kind of like the "four times more than" example; no offense to those who struggel [sic] with this, but when you increase a number by 25%, you get the new number back to the original by reducing the new number by 20%--but a lot of people confuse that one.

Speaking of teachers--is there a board where people talk about school experiences? For that matter, how does one find boards like this one for other subjects? Not sure how to search (Yahoo?)--I only occasionally stumble upon them and this is the only one that's held my interest so far as the others (of thread style like this) were too focused in areas of disinterest or xluttered with trivial comments--guess that's why I had so much blogging to unleash.

[trunks2k]

On the TI-83+, for really pretty pictures, you need to be in parametric or polar mode.

Yeah, I meant polar, not radian. I quickly forgot anything I learned in Calc I-IV, until I took probstat I & II and realized I needed to be able to integrate again. *shudder*