Ambiguously Gendered Revenge of "What is the Hivemind?"

[Torm]

But.. How do you have the power to screw with the equation? It just doesn't make sense to me.

No reason to be embarassed. A LOT of people don't get this.

Take my equation for party drinks, earlier. Y times 2 = Z. Now, while I'm waiting to go buy drinks, someone calls to tell me that they are having a party the next night, and inviting all the same people, and could I please get drinks for that, too?

Y (the number of people) times 2 drinks = Z cans

But now,

Y (the number of people) times 2 drinks times 2 parties = Z cans times 2 parties

I changed the equation on both sides to reflect two parties, and I can still put in Y (number of people) and get Z (how many cans to buy.)

 

[Rystil Arden]

Not all that much. I still don't really understand equalities and such.

One of the things I hate the most about math is that they've given everything a name, and it's a horribly confusing non-descriptive, icky nasty name.

- Kemrain the Descriptive.

Did my equation with money help?

 

[Kemrain]

Did my equation with money help?

I can understand it, but it doesn't help me to understand it with equations.

Equations and figuring things out in the real world are supposed to be the same, but they're so far away from eachother it's crazy. They don't translate from one to the other for me at all. I don't figure them out like I would an equation.

- Kemrain the Confused.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I can understand it, but it doesn't help me to understand it with equations.

Equations and figuring things out in the real world are supposed to be the same, but they're so far away from eachother it's crazy. They don't translate from one to the other for me at all. I don't figure them out like I would an equation.

- Kemrain the Confused.

The equation for exactly what I wrote would just be this:

$20 check = $20 bill

$20 check - $10 = $20 bill - $10

$10 check = $10 bill

 

[Kemrain]

The equation for exactly what I wrote would just be this:

$20 check = $20 bill

$20 check - $10 = $20 bill - $10

$10 check = $10 bill

But that's not an equation, that's just true.

Ten is ten isn't an equation, even if you could technically express it as such.

- Kemrain the Discouraged.

 

[Rystil Arden]

But that's not an equation, that's just true.

Ten is ten isn't an equation, even if you could technically express it as such.

- Kemrain the Discouraged.

no. it is an equation.

An equation is just two things that are the same with an "=" in the middle

 

[Goblyn]

But that's not an equation, that's just true.

Ten is ten isn't an equation, even if you could technically express it as such.

- Kemrain the Discouraged.

But that is what an equation is. The money example is one way that the math equation translates to the real world.

 

[Kemrain]

<sigh> I understand that conceptually, but it doesn't make sense and isn't intuitive at all. It totally sucks. I didn't understand division at all until someone described it as fitting one dumber into a number of equal groups equal to the other number. After that, it just clicked, and I totally got it. I know the feeling well, and though I understand what you're saying, I'm not feeling it. It just isn't clicking.

- Kemrain the Dumb.

 

[Kemrain]

I need to take a course on basic math theory. What is addition and why does it work the way it does? Why can you add two numbers together? I've never seen a simple maththeory class. No one seems to teach itthis way. I just know I'd understand it if it was explained like this.

- Kemrain the Disapointed.

 

[Goblyn]

- Kemrain the Dumb.

Don't feel dumb. Math is like that. It frustrates the hell out of you until you're ready to invent a time machine just so you can go back in time and kill Euclid.

And then it clicks and you can hardly fathom why you couldn't understand it before.