Why Do Americans Stink At Math

[MisterCreosote]

Americans hate math because math is stupid.

 

[YankeeFan]

 

[MisterCreosote]

 

[Morris816]

Two and two are four.
Four and four are eight.
Eight and eight are 16.
16 and 16 are 32.
32 and 32 are 64.
64 and 64 are 128.

Meanwhile, Ralph Phillips has visions of the numbers coming to attack him. #obscurereference

 

[BTExpress]

Americans as a rule aren't real big fans of anything that's hard.

Yet the metric system is much easier than the inches/pounds/gallons system we use, and we STILL refuse to change.

 

[hondo]

We suck so bad at math we're the only nation that found a way to land on the moon -- six times. That took a few people with a knowledge of math.
Are there really any short-cuts, other than calculators? You can't sugar-coat long division or the times tables.

 

[Vombatus]

We suck so bad at math we're the only nation that found a way to land on the moon -- six times. That took a few people with a knowledge of math.
Are there really any short-cuts, other than calculators? You can't sugar-coat long division or the times tables.

But it was the Germans who got us to the moon!

 

[hondo]

We suck so bad at math we're the only nation that found a way to land on the moon -- six times. That took a few people with a knowledge of math.
Are there really any short-cuts, other than calculators? You can't sugar-coat long division or the times tables.

But it was the Germans who got us to the moon!

With true American hero asses sitting on top of their rockets.

 

[BTExpress]

We suck so bad at math we're the only nation that found a way to land on the moon -- six times. That took a few people with a knowledge of math.

You can thank Wernher von Braun and a host of ex-Nazis for American space superiority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_rocket_scientists_in_the_United_States

We beat the Soviets to the moon because . . . our Germans were better than their Germans.

 

[old_tony]

Americans didn't suck at math when all the work was done to go to the moon. Americans suck at math now.

 

[SpeedTchr]

We were ok at the old math. We suck at the new math. Except the computer stuff. And the oil exploration stuff. And the airplane manufacturing stuff. And Sabermetrics. We forkin' rock at sports math.

 

[YankeeFan]

The cost of being bad at math:

My hunch is that how we learn math in America has very little to do with best practices and a lot to do with how teachers remember learning math when they were children. As a result, we're seriously lacking in math skills, and it's creating a financial problem that will only compound over time.

If we don't understand what the numbers really mean, then how can we expect to make rational financial decisions? A perfect example of this disconnect is the lottery. We don't think the real odds apply, even when they're stacked against us.

In a July 16 story from NPR, David Just, a Cornell University economics and management professor, discussed the results from a study he wrote with colleagues that examined lottery data from 39 states. According to Mr. Just, "What appears to be happening is that [lottery players] really believe that there's going to be a return on this investment." In other words, they don't play the lottery for entertainment, they do it because they actually think it is a good use of money!

This belief explains why one convenience store owner, whom NPR quoted in the same story, often had people in line for the lottery register from opening to closing. People genuinely believe they can be the exception, even though lottery players can only expect to get back, on average, 73 cents or less for every dollar they spend. Of course, understanding the real probability of winning won't keep many people from buying their scratch-off cards altogether. But it might help them treat the lottery like the entertainment it is versus the retirement plan that it's not.

Our issues with math also affect our most basic financial decisions, like understanding what happens if we only make the minimum payment on our credit cards. Companies must now include information on their monthly statements about how long it will take to pay off a current balance if we make only the minimum payment. However, if we don't understand what the number means — interest plus a tiny percentage of the principal — it can be difficult to understand how our credit card debt grew so big in the first place. And if we don't understand the source of the problem, how can we hope to avoid making the same mistake again?

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