This reminds me of a remedial junior high class my wife student-taught eons ago in which students described a particular topic as the "gazintas" (as in "4 gazinta 20 5 times").
John Hagood
Northern Arizona University
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From: Post-calculus mathematics education [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of (Mr) Bill [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 3:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: math language (grammar) question
Gary Davis's stance makes good sense to me. There are abuses of mathematical language that produce conceptual or computational errors; Jonathan Groves's example of expression v. equation falls squarely into this category. In my experience, "minusing" a number does not. I have never observed anyone commit an error as a result of this usage, and I have been attuned to this issue for many years. I am open to hearing evidence or arguments to the contrary.
Bill Rosenthal
Land O' Lakes, Florida
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"Each individual contributes to the corrupting of our time: some contribute treachery, others (since they are powerful) injustice, irreligion, tyranny, cupidity, cruelty: the weaker ones bring stupidity, vanity, and idleness, and I am one of them."
~~ Montaigne
(Mr) Bill Rosenthal (often equaled, never imitated)
Adjunct Instructor of Secondary Education
USF Polytechnic, Lakeland, Florida
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:39:35 -0400
>From: Post-calculus mathematics education <[log in to unmask]> (on behalf of Gary Davis <[log in to unmask]>)
>Subject: Re: math language (grammar) question
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Well the word was a 15 th century modification of an adverb, so why
>should students today not modify a preposition to a verb? I rather like
>it. The notion is rather cute: "I did not like his awful hat so I
>decided to minus it from his head". We know what a student means when
>they say I minused one number from another, so why are we fussed, upset,
>or outraged? Language changes, ladies and gentlemen. I guess you just do
>not like it being changed by your students - maybe you'd be happier of
>the editor of Merriam-Webster changed it first?
>
>Gary Davis
>
>Ralph A. Raimi wrote:
>> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, Jonathan Groves wrote:
>>
>>> Barbara Wendell wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> I teach 8th grade science and am continually amazed
>>>> at the number of students who write the following:
>>>>
>>>> I would minus this number by the first number to get
>>>> my answer.....
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