Monday, September 14, 2009

Sense, Sensibility, Math....Whuh?

This weekend I watched the first two parts of the HBO miniseries "John Adams" which is really great and I saw Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and I noticed that in both shows the characters used the phrase "I can not tell you" when they meant "I have no frickin' clue." Being a language usage lover, I got a kick out of that because today if someone said, "I can not tell you." it would mean either they were sworn to secrecy or that they thought telling you would be a really bad idea. I really love the English language with all its weirdness and morphiness. (And that you can make up words using the general rules and people know what you mean like the word "morphiness.") I don't remember how it happened, but I happened upon this SAT question of the day thing and I put it on my home page. I really love the language questions but the math questions always depress the hell out of me because they A) Make me feel stupid B) Make me feel like a stereotypical female C) Make me feel like a stereotypical U.S.citizen D) All of the above.
~
Yes, the answer is unfortunately D. I have no problem with the other questions, like the one above and the one below:
In fact, they seem too easy. Crazy easy, even. But the math ones..... I get all "Whuh?" Then the other day I got this one and thought , "I can do this!":

Well, I was wrong. And I got it wrong. And it irritated the hell out of me. Then 3 days later, I got this one, and I decided that by golly, I was going to figure it out.

I pulled out a little piece of paper and started trying to figure it out and Holy Cow I got it right!

And if you really want to laugh at me, this is the piece of paper:

So that's how my brain works and that's why I'm not good at math. And if you've been reading my blog for a while, you are probably wondering why I always get the SAT grammar/sentence structure questions right. I can not tell you.

9 comments:

Jazz said...

I'm like you. I'm good at languages but really stupid when it comes to math. If I do figure it out, I go through X T and S to get from A to B. See, even explaining it goes through letters...

OldLady Of The Hills said...

OY! It's all too much for me this early in the morning..lol!
Couldn't make that last one bigger....So, I don't the answers to any of it!

XUP said...

You're still better at math than I am, so that should cheer you up. I would just break out in a cold sweat if someone told me I had to figure this math thing out.

Scarlet said...

The thing with writing is you can come up with many different ways to say the same thing. In Math it either adds up or it doesn't. I cannot tell you how much I detest math!

Anonymous said...

This was just too challenging for me for a Monday. Maybe later in the week.

geewits said...

Jazz,
~~Huh?

Naomi,
~~Oh come on, the first two are easy.

Xup,
~~Can't do math OR take photographs?

Scarlet,
~~Yes, math bites.

Ian,
~~Math doesn't change over time.

Anonymous said...

I know, I'm hopeless. I have a very limited range of skills - but I'm really, really good at the things I DO know how to do.

Carole said...

I thought the first math problem was easier than the second, but both were good problems! I find them fun and challenging, and it looks to me like you did fantastic on the 2nd one. You are SO smart and a unique thinker that I think you just have to find YOUR own way of looking at the problem to find a solution. Also, with just a bit of regular practice you'd be doing these in your sleep.

geewits said...

Xup,
~~Three words: Point and click.

Carole,
~~People are going to start thinking you are running for office!