I think she's being a hardass, Debet. The zeroes aren't necessary for the algorithm, but they sure as hell help to give you a visual check that you've got the columns lined up right. Especially when you have third-grade not-yet-too-lined-up handwriting to contend with.
We knocked 'em deader!
Willow ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'
Natter 40: The Nice One
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
amych - Nov 02, 2005 3:57:35 am PST #654 of 10006
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
DXMachina - Nov 02, 2005 3:58:52 am PST #655 of 10006
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
She maintains that not putting in place-holding zeros is the Right and Proper Way.
If I'm understanding you correctly, that's the way I was taught.
DebetEsse - Nov 02, 2005 3:58:54 am PST #656 of 10006
Woe to the fucking wicked.
We're using graph paper, so it's less of a concern, and they've got the idea of Tens times Units starts at Tens. It just still seemed odd.
DXMachina - Nov 02, 2005 4:03:07 am PST #657 of 10006
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
It may be something akin to Tom Lehrer's line about "If you're under thirty-five or went to a private school, you say '7 from three is six,' but if you're over thirty-five and went to a public school, you say '8 from 4 is six.'"
FWIW, I never had problems lining up the columns. In fact it never even occurred to me that someone would put zeroes there until this morning.
DebetEsse - Nov 02, 2005 4:13:48 am PST #658 of 10006
Woe to the fucking wicked.
Yeah, I thought it might be a generation gap thing.
amych - Nov 02, 2005 4:15:44 am PST #659 of 10006
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
Mmm... graph paper...
I don't remember having problems either, but then again, my elementary-school self viewed any such crutches as a sign of weakness and needing to be culled from the herd. I was not a particularly nice child.
DXMachina - Nov 02, 2005 4:18:43 am PST #660 of 10006
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
I should also point out that when Games publishes those puzzles where the numbers in a multiplication problem have been replaced by letters, they don't include no steenkin' placeholders.
amych - Nov 02, 2005 4:20:17 am PST #661 of 10006
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
I should also point out that when Games publishes those puzzles where the numbers in a multiplication problem have been replaced by letters, they don't include no steenkin' placeholders.
Of course not. In a puzzle, it would give away too much.
Steph L. - Nov 02, 2005 4:27:10 am PST #662 of 10006
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe
It may be something akin to Tom Lehrer's line about "If you're under thirty-five or went to a private school, you say '7 from three is six,' but if you're over thirty-five and went to a public school, you say '8 from 4 is six.'"
Whuzzah? I don't understand what that means. It it a base-8/base-10 thing?
tommyrot - Nov 02, 2005 4:27:50 am PST #663 of 10006
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Oopsie.
Greenpeace to pay fine for damaging coral reef
MANILA, Philippines - Greenpeace said Tuesday it will pay nearly $7,000 in damages after the environmental group's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior II, hit a coral reef at a world heritage site in the southern Philippines.
The accident Monday was "very regrettable," Greenpeace said in a joint statement with the Tubbataha National Marine Park, but it laid some of the blame on maritime charts showing its ship was 1.5 miles from the reef.