Tina Farrell is a dullard and even more stupider for actually for being quoted. The shopkeeper is a dullard too.
Ugh, that's just depressing. herbs - you have no right to call people dullards when you say that they're "even more stupider" than someone else.
So is the difference between 'your' and 'you're'. A much simpler concept than negative values (you're = you are, your = possessed by you), but, on the evidence, not every poster here is in the pink on Nexxo's chart.
The difference is that negative numbers are taught pretty early on in maths. I don't remember which year I was in, but it was definitely way before the GCSE years. (I don't think any teacher mentioned quantum physics to me until I was in Uni. By that time I didn't need to pay attention. It wasn't something I ever plan on using.) Out of the huge number of people who don't know how they work how many of them could possibly be mentally disabled in some way. I say they were just lazy in school and didn't give a crap.
Maybe, but that doesn't mean they're some kind of sub-human category because they aren't good with numbers.
Not sub-human by any means. Someone would have to devolve and be really crap at maths to gain that title. What I found most amusing was that this even got so far as a newspaper. Surely someone along the way would have tried to explain that she was just being a little dim.
Interesting argument, that. On the one hand I think that anyone who has a concept of numbers on a ruler must be able to grasp the idea of negative numbers. Even the logic of basic subtraction should get you there: if I take away 8 pounds from you, that is a bigger loss than if I take away 6 pounds... On the other hand just as we have such a thing as dyslexia, we have something called dyscalculia. We tend to think of such conditions as disorders, deviations from the norm, but until less than 200 years ago being taught to read or use maths was a privilege for the select few. Who is to say that everyone should be able to read any more than everyone should be able to drive a car, speak several languages fluently or have an aptitude for mechanics or playing musical instruments? Everybody has their strengths and their weaknesses... Perhaps the human species simply is not that bright. Perhaps we're too used to being in the top 10 to 5% of intellectual functioning and thinking that everybody should be there. But that may be no fairer than athletes thinking we should all be able to run marathons, or gifted musicians thinking we should all be virtuosi.
Maybe. But you'd think they'd apply a real-world situation to it: If I'm £500 in debt, thats a smaller amount of debt than if I'm £1000 in debt. It must therefore be true that -8 degrees is Colder and hence lower than -6.
Fair points Nexxo, but you also have to remember that basic concepts like negative numbers are taught to everyone enrolled in school by second or third grade (at least in the states). Over here, we're given introductory classes to the arts and athletics and can carry on with them if we choose, but we take mathematics courses throughout our educational career.
The thing is though, that these people were most likely given the opportunity to learn, they just didn't take it. If someone from the middle of a rainforest didn't quite understand the concept of negative numbers then you would understand; it's not that they aren't smart, they just have a completely different life. However, I bet that if that person didn't quite understand the concept of tracking animals they would be given some abuse from their peers.
Not the point though. Many people may just not have the ability. But this would not be obvious until the opportunity to develop that ability presents itself. In an illiterate culture, nobody is dyslexic. My animal tracking abilities may be pretty crap, but I wouldn't know until I lived in the rainforest and was taught these things.
I have every right I live in a free country. If you are correcting my grammar then that's upto you but as this is a web forum, the use of correct grammar and spelling is not exactly rife here. But if you want to make it your crusade to correct people, good luck and what a waste of your time. Finally don't argue with me, I'll only bring you down to my level (although not as low as Tina Farrell) and beat you with my experience
You cannot compare quantum physics and negative numbers. Negative numbers are something everyone is taught at an early age, it's something everyone comes across in daily life and finance. Quantum physics is an esoteric subject practised by only those few people with a physics degree.
That's no excuse not to use proper English. Give me one good reason why you shouldn't try and improve your English.
Imagine her looking at her thermometer. "oh! -15deg.C outside today. That's warm enough to drop the jacket today." I guess it's natural selection when she freezes to death... Joking aside: I have to agree with the above posts that some people just don't have the ability to learn, and that's OK. But going to a newspaper with that comment makes you look pretty stupid. Especially when someone have already proved you wrong. (Oh, and if someone want to pick on my spelling, please do. I'm trying to learn the language properly )
