What the hell does the following mathematical equation mean in everyday life?!
(a+b)³ = a³ + 3a²b + 3ab² +b³
Now, if ‘a’ were apples(A) and ‘b’ oranges(O), putting them together in three identical baskets would mean the same as…….
Three identical sets of apples and three of two identical sets of apples combined with one set of oranges and three of one set of apples combined with two identical sets of oranges and three identical sets of oranges, according to the above equation.
So, if each identical set of apples had 5 apples and each identical set of oranges had five oranges, then………
(5A+5O)3 = 5Ax5Ax5A + 3x5Ax5Ax5O + 3x5Ax5Ox5O + 5Ox5Ox5O
= 125A + 3x25Ax5O + 3x5Ax25O + 125O
= 125A + 125O + 75Ax5O + 15Ax25O
Meaning?
A total of 215 apples and 155 oranges packed in four ways…….
- a box of 125 apples
- a box of 125 oranges
- a box of 75 apples and 5 oranges
- a box of 15 apples and 25 oranges
Now, how did five apples and five oranges turn to such a huge number? The work of mathematics, or the work of nature?
And, how did apples become more than oranges? Mathematical error or unsuitable soil or natural disaster or unequal access?
Whatever, I couldn’t prove the equation right. Anybody would like to try?
PS.
Is this what meditation is doing to my brain? Gosh! I better be careful before I go crazy.
(Or, perhaps, meditation is necessary because of this state of my brain. Ha! Ha!)
Because I knew full well that it'd make me crazy, I didn't read it. I've an inborn hatred of mathematics. Just a cursory look at the equation takes me back to those school days when I'd read (just read) mathematics before test just like any other subject. I never used to practice. Sometimes I'd just copy the solution, rather a semblance of practice. The same question I looked at couple of times would be there. I'd remember the answer, but that was it - no step, therefore no marks because no teacher would award marks for just one answer, a number, a digit, etc. like bird droppings. I wasn't extremely bad in mathematics. It was that I have never had an aptitude for it. That was then. I still hate mathematics although I love + (only + of positive) like anyone.
ReplyDeleteThat's surprising.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your blog picture and reading your analytical write ups, it is hard to believe you hate maths.
I do not think there is any correlation between a person's physique and his/her mathematical ability. By the way, my blog photo is that of my dad's.
ReplyDeleteI think Aum is being a little lavish with your comments. My write-ups are my simple everday thoughts. Thanks anyway. But it's true I have always hated maths. I have so many unpleasant memories of my unhappy affair with mathematics. It's a little over five years since I escaped from the wrathful jaws of mathematics with it's calculus, trigonometry, algerba, etc. snarling at me always. I recall brooding over one problem, Xs and Ys, all day to no avail. As a former teacher yourself, I think you'd know very well about Bhutanese students' ability in or aptitude for mathematics.
Great Piece. I am a mathematics Teacher (by chance though) but I never tried to prove it that way. Why have you taken oranges and apples, Please take water melons I love them. YOu see one watermelon is as big as 10 oranges
ReplyDeleteso M=10O or 10 A (ha ha ha ...maths has already made this man crazy..you better stop doing maths)
Dear Dawa,
ReplyDeleteHaving been a teacher, I can somehow correlate a person's face (not the whole physique) with his/her abilities or intelligence. Hey! Hey! You have, however, proven me wrong today. (Since you say the picture is of your father's, is his name by any chance Sonam Tshering? Just curious...)
And about my being lavish with my comments, that's hardly true. If it were so, I would've been a chamcha in govt service and gained many favours. In fact, I'm the crudest educated woman around. Your articles interest me, just as Lobxang's wonderful stories do and Bhutaneseblogger's informative posts as well. These are my top three blogs so far. Yours, I discovered much later. They interest me because of the real life topics and thought provoking writing that I believe comes straight from your heart through your head.
Please keep visiting and commenting. I love the interaction. Keeps my brain functioning.
Dear Passu,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my post and responding. I taught several subjects and mathematics was one of them - not to say that I was an expert at that. Just love the subject, that's all. My most favourite subject in school, but by the time I got to college it got lost somewhere in the midst of my falling madly in love for the first time. The consequence - ended up taking arts and got stuck with it until today. Deep in my heart, maths is still my secret passion. But, of course, I've forgotten most of it. Today, my maths comes in handy when I'm doing research and using stats (quite easily doable nowadays with EXCEL). I sometimes wonder why students have to learn maths in the traditional way today when there are softwares that do all the calculations. (Just wondering...)
I forgot to mention iamdrukpa among my top blogs. I guess that's because he hasn't been posting as much as he used to before. Busy with the Drukpa magazine?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Your comments elongate my already long nose. It's just as well as it holds my slipping pair of glasses. If you like our blog, credit goes to my brother who first came up with the idea. We came up with the blog on condition that each will post one once in a week. But he is been playing truant, and I do not know if I'll have anything to post next. As you'd have seen, many of my posts have already been published by Bhutan Observer. You may have read them under a different name, my pen name then.
ReplyDeleteYou know we Bhutanese do not use family name. Of course, I can see many have begun this today. So Sonam Tshering is not my dad's name although Dawa Tshering is my name. My brother's name, for that matter, is totally different. I need not remind you about hundreds of registers you may have laid your hands on as a teacher - fathers' names different from their sons and daughters. The secret is in our blog's title - The Cholas Chorus.....
I hope we can live up to your expectations and maintain our slot.
My trying to guess your father's name has nothing to do with family names. The person in the picture resembles a Sonam Tshering I know of, except that he's darker. And, incidentally, this Sonam Tshering's late father's name is Dawa Tshering.
ReplyDeleteYour blog's title 'Cholas Chorus' just reminds me of the Indian Choley Bhatura, other than that it's simply beyond my schemata to even try unlocking the secret. I guess in some ways that's the exciting part - the secret.
Have a good day.
What a coincidence! But your reference is a dead person! My dad is also actually dark. He is cosmetically modified. If it's exciting, I'll not unlock it. Keep visiting and commenting. In commenting, don't you think we lose a topic for our next post sometimes?
ReplyDeleteHaha. Funny and lovely. But your equation will work only for numbers, and not tangibles.
ReplyDeleteMainly because only addition and subtraction are effective with tangibles, and not multiplications.
All the more reason why I agree with you about leaving such stuffs alone. People (and all living things for that matter) reproduce and we call it multiplication. But we always get the wrong mathematical figure(s).
Hello, Tongyal. Thanks for your interesting response. Numbers are numbers, yes, but don't they always represent tangibles? It is either money or an object we associate numbers with - one ngultrum, two pens, three cats, four boyfriends, five wives, etc. Otherwise, mathematics and equations are useless in real life!
ReplyDeleteI like your reproduction and multiplication. How very true! Reproduction is a result of multiplication of cells, right? However, sometimes instead of two (an egg and an ovum) making one zygote, we get two or more. Miscalculation?