I was volunteering at a non-profit. Nothing going on, but there was a meeting in the conference room. All these bright young people, college grads, interns, etc. Grappling with some thorny problem regarding a massive project.

So, thinking I might learn something, I popped my head in and asked if I could sit in. Sure, they said, and found me a seat.

The white board was full of complicated formula, diagrams, and figures. Puzzled, I asked what the problem was.

Someone whispered that they had to order printer cartridges; they were figuring out how many to order. They'd been trying to figure this out for an hour.

"May I ask a couple questions?", I asked the leader. With an indulgent smile, he said, "If you make them quick. We have to get this order in immediately."

What's the print run?

4500

How many copies does each cartridge provide?

900

I looked around in amazement.

"May I say one more thing?"

"Yes."

You need 5 cartridges, but I'd order 6 to have a margin of error.

Looks of absolute total disbelief and amusement. What could this old cow be talking about?

I moved to the whiteboard and wrote 4500 divided by 900 = 5.


Five minutes of scribbling and figuring. Someone finally said,
"Mark one up for the old folks," and the room dissolved into laughter.

They ordered 6 cartridges.

Seven bright young college grads.

One old person who doesn't know New Math.

Just posting this for your giggles.

I see they taught you the gozintas where you went to school. Bet they also taught you ciphering.

Well done! @ceasesmith you should have written your answer first in cursive. Then said, "oh, my bad, let me translate in longhand" and then print it.

Dang you @maverick1 I was going to write the same thing. Beat me to it!

You know I'm really surprised one of the young folks didn't think about pulling up their calculator on their phones.

But then I guess they would have to know what function to use and which number to divide by the other.........never mind.

Six words: 'All the Math You'll Ever Need: A Self-Teaching Guide'

From the back cover:

"Teaches you practical math for your personal and professional lives, with most examples based on everyday situations"

"Contains no complex formulas and no unnecessary technical terms"

Wait. It contains actual words. Never mind.

I'm rolling on the floor laughing out loud at your responses! Well done!!!

What is "New Math?" It's been a thing since I was in 3rd grade.

Um.........I was probably 50 when you were in 3rd grade.....

I'll add to this "math" discussion...

As a STEM major, I've taken many college semesters of Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, etc.

But what's most useful in everyday life? I'd say Trigonometry is essential (determining the height of a tree in your yard, helpful in building things like a deck, etc.) and an understanding of Probability / Statistics (good for understanding many topics in many industries).

Great fun and amusement for you ceasesmith, but I find this hard to believe. All the bright young people I know are able to do the simple math during your experience. Contrary to others' beliefs.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I was volunteering at a non-profit. Nothing going on, but there was a meeting in the conference room. All these bright young people, college grads, interns, etc. Grappling with some thorny problem regarding a massive project.

So, thinking I might learn something, I popped my head in and asked if I could sit in. Sure, they said, and found me a seat.

The white board was full of complicated formula, diagrams, and figures. Puzzled, I asked what the problem was.

Someone whispered that they had to order printer cartridges; they were figuring out how many to order. They'd been trying to figure this out for an hour.

"May I ask a couple questions?", I asked the leader. With an indulgent smile, he said, "If you make them quick. We have to get this order in immediately."

What's the print run?

4500

How many copies does each cartridge provide?

900

I looked around in amazement.

"May I say one more thing?"

"Yes."

You need 5 cartridges, but I'd order 6 to have a margin of error.

Looks of absolute total disbelief and amusement. What could this old cow be talking about?

I moved to the whiteboard and wrote 4500 divided by 900 = 5.


Five minutes of scribbling and figuring. Someone finally said,
"Mark one up for the old folks," and the room dissolved into laughter.

They ordered 6 cartridges.

Seven bright young college grads.

One old person who doesn't know New Math.

Just posting this for your giggles.

In September 1961 my 4th-grade class was selected to help pilot so-called "new math" using a set of draft textbooks in typewritten paperback format produced by the School Mathematics Study Group (SMSG) of NSF. I assure you that the "new math" that I learned then (and for the rest of my elementary school years) provided all of the tools required by the scenario presented by Cease. My children learned how to do arithmetic (no longer called new math, of course) and would easily know to divide 4500 by 900. Maybe they would have whipped out a calculator rather than doing it in their heads the way I would still do it. I asked a current 5th-grade teacher if her students would be able to do the calculation. She laughed and said yes. Maybe the group Cease encountered was playing a Millenial-style joke on her.

My high school calculus teacher referred to SMSG as Some Math, Some Garbage.

I agree. The necessity of doing arithmetic in different bases is limited, although Base 2 (Binary) came in useful when programming now antique computers. Same with Base 8 (Octal) and Base 16 (Hexadecimal). I can say the same for many academic subjects, but as I told my kids, you need to learn it all because you can't predict what you are going to need to know. That being said, I had never found a use for synthetic division. Changing to English, I hated sentence diagrams, but they have come in useful occasionally during "disputes" with editors!

@DRJ wrote:

My high school calculus teacher referred to SMSG as Some Math, Some Garbage.

Hmm. I was thinking that the youngsters did not know how to set up the problem, not that they were unable to divide 4500 by 900.

Bottom line?

This country is totally freaking doomed...

No, I'm not kidding, and I'm not making this up. It truly happened exactly as described.

I actually thought for a second that I was sitting in a room full of idiots. I didn't have a clue why they couldn't figure this out.

I considered writing "45 divided by 9" but wasn't sure they could extrapolate!

I am NOT kidding.

The way my mind works, I can SEE a problem and solve it. I don't know why, but when others are floundering around, I can say ":This is the problem."

And I can actually never comprehend why others can't see what the problem is.

In B-school, we had a famous speaker. Head of Halliburton. He said, "Gonna ask you a question no other class has ever answered correctly.

There is a pie. Two groups are fighting over the pie. How to resolve equitably, so both sides happy?"

The solution was obvious to the most casual observer. I popped up and said,
"One group cuts the pie in half, and the other group decides which half they want."

Stunned silence.

That, of course, was the correct answer.

Just the way my brain works.

I'm not kidding!!!