Question for non-literalists

[artybloke]

Some facts about the people of the ANE:

90% at least would have been illiterate.

About the same number innumerate, except for simple sums.

They had no seperate number system. Try doing higher maths with Roman numerals!

They had no zero, therefore no negative numbers.

They had no algebra, no calculus.

They had primitive ways of measuring things. For instance, they had no clear glass, in particular, no lead crystal glass. Now, glass is needed for advanced scientific instrumentation from the simple telescope to the cathode ray tube. It's also the least reactive substance in general use, and has a refractive index of very close to zero. Without glass, you can't do science.

They had no centralised time zones. No universally accepted standard weights. Etc etc etc...

There is no way that the ANE people could have begun to understand very large numbers, not because they were thick, but because they neither had the technology nor the concepts to do so. That they achieved as much as they did with the limited means available to them is a constant amazement to me.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

<cough><sputter><cough>
Harumph!

Be very glad I have good self control or I would have had to send you the bill for cleaning coffee out of my keyboard!

I occasionally try to teach my children math that is several years ahead of where they are in school. When their school math courses come to what I've gone over with them they say "OH! That is what Dad was trying to say", while most of the rest of their classmates are totally confused.

I suppose it is time to go over aleph null and mapping functions.

<evil grin>

sorry about that.....

i remember my first experience with math in the 5th grade and how the teacher reacted*. it is a good thing what you are doing pushing kids a bit, it ought to be done regularly with everyone.



notes:
*i saw Euler's formula when i was in 5th grade, although it was a decade later that i realized it had a name. I was inattentive to the teacher while sketching out what i had seen, he walked back to my chair to see what i was doodling and didn't say a word, but called my folks that evening. my first experience with math. cool.

sorry about the trailing "a" on aleph. my brain thought aleph and my fingers typed alpha.

 

[shernren]

<cough><sputter><cough>
Harumph!

Be very glad I have good self control or I would have had to send you the bill for cleaning coffee out of my keyboard!

I occasionally try to teach my children math that is several years ahead of where they are in school. When their school math courses come to what I've gone over with them they say "OH! That is what Dad was trying to say", while most of the rest of their classmates are totally confused.

I suppose it is time to go over aleph null and mapping functions.

<evil grin>

Lol. I remember once when I was about 12 and the pastor was starting to not make sense (to me), I doodled in the front cover of my Bible (with a color pencil, at that) trying to figure out how to complete the square to get the general quadratic formula. I pestered my dad to help but he at least was paying attention to the sermon.

Maybe that's why I'm a TE, doing math in church must've been a forewarning or something.