Anybody here good at Algebra?

[HughJass]

because 'maths' just is our way of shortening 'mathematics' I guess


it would sound odd to say "I'm going to mathematic class"



btw, why do you yankybeans always say "I'll write my senator", "I'll write my mother"



It's infuriating.

 

[pratc]

May I ask why British people (and non-British people who have been living there for a while) insist on using the word "maths" (plural) in writing things like the previous examples?

Hello Bryan.

Not unsurprisingly, math sounds strange to our ears. It is also used in some other countries, for example, Australasian and some African.

Anyway, I think it is because it was conidered a plural and the word 'the' was placed infront. The 'the' is now usually dropped and mathematics is contrued as singular. In Latin it was a plural (mathematica) and also in French.

So, I suppose it comes from it being a plural (originally) and hence our 'maths'. For statistics we say 'stats'. Do you say this?

 

[Bryan]

because 'maths' just is our way of shortening 'mathematics' I guess

it would sound odd to say "I'm going to mathematic class"

It seems odd that anybody would "shorten" the word mathematics by removing ONLY the letters "ematic" near the end, leaving the "s" intact.

Why not truncate the entire word to just "math", like we do? When I see the word "maths" in this context, I keep wondering which particular "maths" the person is talking about. Is he referring to TWO different maths, like maybe the "new math" and the "old math"??

btw, why do you yankybeans always say "I'll write my senator", "I'll write my mother"

It's infuriating.

What's infuriating about it? Please explain exactly what it is you dislike about it.

 

[Bryan]

So, I suppose it comes from it being a plural (originally) and hence our 'maths'. For statistics we say 'stats'. Do you say this?

Yes, we also say "stats". Except in hospitals!

 

[HughJass]

Please explain exactly what it is you dislike about it.

if you wanted to send a letter to your congressman you would say

"I'll write to my congressman"

Saying "I'll write my congressman" suggests that you intend to write the words 'my' and 'congressman' on a piece of paper.


see?


you don't 'write someone' for the same reason you don't 'speak someone' or 'talk someone' or 'point someone' or 'go school'

 

[Bryan]

To say something like "I'll write my congressman" is so common in this country, everybody understands that the word "to" is clearly implied. Nobody here would give it so much as a passing thought.

Are you saying that that modest little shortcut isn't used AT ALL in Australia? What about you Brits? Is it used over there?

 

[ali777]

Bryan, certain sciences are written in plural form, I don't know why... For example, mathematics, physics, electronics, etc are all plural. So, the natural abbreviation of mathematics would be maths.

 

[ali777]

Don't worry Ali, I have been working on the problems myself! I'm not foolish enough to expect to learn algebra by having other people tell me the answers!

From your avatar, signiture and location, I would hazard the guess that you yourself are quite profficient with Mathematics. May I ask what you do for a living and how far you took Maths in education? (A-Levels, degree level?)

Perhaps you yourself have some interesting Mathematical problems for the good people of HairLossTalk.com to solve!!

PS: "I can solve them without using pen and paper" - show off :tongue:

I'm an engineer. The last time I studied maths was 10 years ago when I was at uni. I haven't used maths ever since. I still solve the occasional maths puzzle and I like reading books on the history of maths. One of my favourite authors of all time is Simon Singh.

I'm fed up with software development, I'm thinking of going back to my roots and getting a job that requires me to write algorithms as opposed to software architectures.

Here's a few more for you mathematics, then.

1) A = h(a+b) / 2

a) find h when A=40, a=10 and b=6
b) find a when A=36, h=9 and b=6

2) The final velocity (v) of a body is related to the initial velocity (u), the constant acceleration (a) and the distance (s) for which the acceleration acts, by the formula:
v^2 = u^2 + 2as

a)If a body starts with a velocity of 10m/s and is accelerated at 2m/s^2 for a distance of 11m find the value of v^2 and hence find the final velocity.
b) Find the value of s when v = 30m/s, u=5m/s and a=1om/s^2.
c) Find the value of u when v=20m/s, a=2m/s^2 and s=10m

OK, I'll give you the solutions.

Problem (1) is a simple replacement problem, where you replace the variables with the given numbers.
1.a: A = h(a+b) / 2 where A=40, a=10 and b=6 would become:
40=h*(10+6)/2
40=h*16/2
40=h*8
h=40/8
h=5

1.b: A = h(a+b) / 2 where A=36, h=9 and b=6
36=9*(a+6)/2
36*2/9=a+6
8=a+6
a=8-6
a=2

(2). this is the same as (1), but requires using square and square root
2.a: for v^2 = u^2 + 2as, find v if u=10m/s, a= 2m/s^2, s=11m

v^2=10^2+2*2*11
v^2=100+44
v^2=144 => 144 is the solution for the first part of the problem
sqrt(v^2)=sqrt(144) => to find v apply square root to both sides of the equation
v=12m/s

2.b: v^2 = u^2 + 2as find s if v = 30m/s, u=5m/s and a=10m/s^2.
30^2=5^2+2*10*s
900=25+20*s
900-25=20*s
875=20*s
s=875/20
s=43.75m

2.c: v^2 = u^2 + 2as find u when v=20m/s, a=2m/s^2 and s=10m
20^2=u^2+2*2*10
400=u^2+40
u^2=400-40
u^2=360 => to find u square root both sides
u=sqrt(360) => there is no real number square root of 360, so you could either use a calculator to find the solution or leave it as it is.
Alternatively, you could think of 360 as 36*10 and the solution would be:
u=6*sqrt(10)

the calculator tells me that u=sqrt(360)=18.97

 

[Ian Curtis]

Finding a value in an expression...Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

 

[The Gardener]

So, I suppose it comes from it being a plural (originally) and hence our 'maths'. For statistics we say 'stats'. Do you say this?

Yes, we also say "stats". Except in hospitals!

To add fuel to the fire....

Americans say "sports", and Britons say "sport".

 

[Bryan]

To add fuel to the fire....

Americans say "sports", and Britons say "sport".

You gotta be kidding me....can you give some examples of such usage?

 

[The Gardener]

In the UK, you don't have a "Sports page", you have a "Sport page":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/

There are times when they use the word "sports", but it is only when they are specifically referring to a plural of sports, i.e. "he is good at both sports, football and cricket". But when referring to the concept of "sports" in general, they use the word "sport".

 

[Bryan]

Fascinating. With all the Brits that post here and all the past discussions of football and soccer, I wonder why I've never seen (or at least noticed) such an alternative use of "sport" and "sports". I would have said something about it.

 

[pratc]

The link shows headings where both 'sport' and 'sports' are used.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/sports/

 

[HughJass]

To say something like "I'll write my congressman" is so common in this country, everybody understands that the word "to" is clearly implied. Nobody here would give it so much as a passing thought.

Are you saying that that modest little shortcut isn't used AT ALL in Australia? What about you Brits? Is it used over there?

Nope. We don't use it here at all. Adding 'o' to the end of many words is our speciality:

eg 'hey tim-o we're just going to the bottle-o (liquor store) with marko and shaneo

Also, 99.99999% of the population is incapable of pronouncing the name of our country. Here it's pronounced Austray-ya.I guess it's just too hot to speak properly.


I'd like to see the look on Bryan's face every time he encounters one of these little linguistical differences between english speaking nations. He seems to find them absolutely intriguing.

 

[The Gardener]

LOL... One thing that Aussies and Americans have in common...

I have heard someone explain rather rationally how our accents both descended from folk who spoke English in a way that allowed them to keep their mouths as closed as possible, so as to prevent bugs from being inhaled whilst speaking, resulting in our vowel sounds being distorted from those as pronounced in the UK.