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Turning a Nail Polish Disaster Into a Teachable Math Moment

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-make-sure-your-kids-spill-stuff-in-interesting-ways dept.

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!

10 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Black nail polish? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Black nail polish? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not necessarily. Any child who has a parent who would immediately think 'is that a logarithmic spiral' rather than 'how in the hell am I going to clean this mess up and how much is it going to cost me' is pretty much assured to wind up really fucked up.

    2. Re:Black nail polish? by funwithBSD · · Score: 5, Funny

      The emaciated boyfriends could be a plus, less likely to pull a muscle while dragging the body to the trunk.

      --
      Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
    3. Re:Black nail polish? by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Something's not right here....

      "Daddy! Daddy! Help!" isn't the response that you would expect from a Goth child. It would be more like "Whatever. We're all doomed anyway...."

    4. Re:Black nail polish? by plopez · · Score: 4, Funny

      Guys making passes at anything that moves is a redundant description.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    5. Re:Black nail polish? by plopez · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Cutting yourself again Brianna? Whoa look at those neato fractal patterns the blood splatter is making!"

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  2. Re:Angular momentum at the park by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    He should be too. Have you seen what septic engineers make these days? No seriously, it's insane. Some of them even get in to the six figures.

    Making six figures and at knowing you are dealing with actual shit instead of corporate shit doesn't sound insane at all.

  3. log spirals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    'Oh my goodness!' I exclaimed. 'Is that a logarithmic spiral?'

    No!

    https://xkcd.com/spiral/

  4. Re:Angular momentum at the park by hawguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    He should be too. Have you seen what septic engineers make these days? No seriously, it's insane. Some of them even get in to the six figures.

    I haven't seen what a septic engineer makes, but I'd imagine that they make the same thing as that guy's son, but larger (though 6 figures sounds like exaggeration unless you're measuring in milligrams). Of course, it all goes the same place when it's flushed.

  5. Re:Angular momentum at the park by Deadstick · · Score: 4, Funny

    One of them once told me "It may be shit to you, but it's bread and butter to me."