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Turning a Nail Polish Disaster Into a Teachable Math Moment
theodp writes: In The Spiral of Splatter, SAS's Rick Wicklin writes that his daughter's nail polish spill may have created quite a mess, but at least it presented a teachable math moment: "'Daddy, help! Help me! Come quick!' I heard my daughter's screams from the upstairs bathroom and bounded up the stairs two at a time. Was she hurt? Bleeding? Was the toilet overflowing? When I arrived in the doorway, she pointed at the wall and at the floor. The wall was splattered with black nail polish. On the floor laid a broken bottle in an expanding pool of black ooze. 'It slipped,' she sobbed. As a parent, I know that there are times when I should not raise my voice. I knew intellectually that this was one of those times. But staring at that wall, seeing what I was seeing, I could not prevent myself from yelling. 'Oh my goodness!' I exclaimed. 'Is that a logarithmic spiral?'" So, got any memorable teachable math moments you've experienced either as a kid or adult? Yes, Cheerios Math counts!
When dealing with the shame of owning an Emo/Goth child, it's important not to blame yourself.
It was likely exposure to some toxic chemical that turned her bad, not your parenting.
At least that is what you should tell yourself.
Nary a one
I love math(s) but this logarithmic spiral shit has got to stop. Let us not mistake the formalism for the reality.
Teaching kids to go faster on the roundabout by using the preservation of angular momentum at the park.
Spin them around while they lean out as far as they can, then get them to pull themselves in - the roundabout will go faster.
Explain why.
When my window replacement contractr cheated me by installing windows with IR coating I showed my kids how so visualize it from the reflection of a butane lighter flame. (the colors of the multiple reflections should red shift if it preferentially reflects red light).
I also showed them how the sun is about the size of a quarter and lands in arizona at night.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Part of an old password for my wireless setup included a sequence of numbers: in order, all of the single digit prime numbers. So, when verbally telling someone the password, I gave them the beginning phrase of the password and then told them to append all of the single digit prime numbers in order. It sparked some intense debate about 0 and 1 being omitted.
Seriously? You have other parenting things to work on!
The author of the article states that the spiral probably is not really logarithmic, though it is a very good fit. He also makes a physics based model using the acceleration of gravity.
As much of life does, this reminds me of a Far Side cartoon where a boy is sitting in front of a chalk board as his father writes equations on it, and to the right there is a broken window. To paraphrase the caption, 'Of all punishments Jimmy most hated his father's physics lectures.'
Has it really come to this? Really. Fuck. Theodp go fuck yourself.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Who is theodp? Based on his (significant) story posting history he seems to be obsessed with preventing CS education and hates H1-Bs. My guess is he is afraid of his jerb being taken away.
Did somebody buy out slashdot while we weren't looking?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
No!
https://xkcd.com/spiral/
If you'd attacked the stain right away, before the solvents evaporated, you could have cleaned up the wall. But instead you chose to grab a camera and take pictures, and solve math problems with your kid. Now you've got a minor DIY nightmare on your hands. Consider yourself lucky if your wife allows you to use the same colors, and doesn't consider this an opportunity for a bathroom makeover.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Here at CERN we have uploaded your data as part of our LHC data set.
Not only does it provide confirming evidence for the Higgs boson, but it
also hints at the existence of 3 yet undiscovered particles. If you get a
call from someone speaking with a Swedish accent, don't hang up.
Every time somebody I know turns an age that is a "round" number in my head I get a special nerd-glee. Squares and Cubes do it, for example: 9,16, 27, 64 etc.
l also enjoy hiding the Fibonacci Sequence in things, just to see who notices.
On my 27'th birthday I got a "Happy Birthday" message with Fibonacci exclamation points. I was most pleased.
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
Following a recipe is like following a procedure or algorithm. A segue to programming.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
http://www.gocomics.com/calvin...
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I can't think of any ways something can slip out of mine or anybody else's hand to cause that kind of spiral splatter. I'd suggest the top half which consists of individual blobs is real with the rest made up of the solid line was added later for the purposes of making a click-worthy article.
Moms all over the country return to find their nail polish splattered against their basement walls.
Just kidding -- most of the nerds already left /.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Maybe just because it's Friday on /., but for me the "force STEM on girls" vibe brought this Onion vid to mind:
http://www.clickhole.com/video...
So she can paint her nails black. HTH HAND.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
Nothing ruins the world for parent, child, and innocent bystanders like making everything a teachable moment. Let's leave the teaching for the classroom and let the rest of the time be free of the tyranny of pedagogy.
I was helping my son with his math homework.
It was factoring polynomials: stuff like x^2 + 5x + 6 -> (x+2)(x+3)
He basically had the mechanics down.
He looked at the next problem, and picked up his pencil to start grinding his way into it.
Without thinking, I slapped my hand down on the place where he was about to start writing, and said, "No! It's easier to think than to do it."
And he thought, and he wrote down the answer.
Or Triscuits, Chex, etc... Spinning a giant wet LEGO gear as a top shows tangents...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
"I was given 30 minutes to spend at the arcade. There is only 5 minutes left. Is this enough time to play the free game I just won? Or should I leave now since there may be a chance I won't be able to finish it?"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
in SAS we have customers who are raising teenagers. I am happy they are not using freeware when their teen daughters splatter walls with black nail polish.
Sure. Isometric grid paper is a great thing to have around to teach 2d and 3d construction, geometry and can be very creative. Like lego blocks on paper.
I prefer the dot only type.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Thanks to this video probably not anymore.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Math-Equals-Jean-Stenmark/dp/0912511060/
Some people wear black nail polish for the same reason that Steve Jobs wore black turtlenecks: because black goes with everything.
If you're as fashion-impaired as I am, it's useful to stick with something that you know will work. Dressing with some modicum of sense is a courtesy to others.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
My son was on the highest point of a playground set and fell off, breaking his arm. Instant lesson of g = GM / r^2 and and all three of Newton's Laws! It was a great day for learning!