The Proof is in the Pudding
I have stated this before… but I am a geek.
When I was in High School, I listened to my teachers because I loved learning (and still do). My high school was fairly small (about 500 students) so there were only two math teachers (one of the math teachers also taught chemistry and physics). In fact, there were only five math classes you could choose from - general math, algebra, geometry, algebra II and calculus. To graduate, you had to take two years of math. College bound students started at algebra and took 4 years of math.
My geometry teacher was Mr. Anderson. I remember hearing that he was a strange bird. In fact, a lot of my student peers tried to avoid taking his classes. He was allergic to chalk dust (all boards were chalk boards back then) so he used an overhead projector. He was also left-handed so he wore a white glove with the fingers cut out (think about being left handed and writing using a marker that doesn’t instantly dry).
Anyway, on the first day of class for the year, he told us that geometry was different than all the math we had taken before then. He assured us that it would make sense to us after a while - how long that ‘while’ was would vary by student. He also explained that what he hoped we’d get out of the class was the skills to logically think through a problem using what we know and knowing when to look for additional data.
One of the first problems he shared with us was called “the proof is in the pudding.” In this problem, a salesman is talking to a homeowner and asks if the homeowner has any kids. The homeowner says yes, he has three kids and the product of their ages is 72. He also adds that the sum of their ages is the same as his house number. The salesman, wanting to impress the homeowner, rushes out to look at the house number 14. When he comes back, he says that he doesn’t have enough info to figure out the ages of his kids. The homeowner replies that his oldest likes chocolate pudding. The salesman knows the ages of the kids, what are they?
“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:1-7 ESV
“And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” - Acts 2:6-13
I know math teachers like word problems because they are closest to real world situations. I believe that all teachers who ask their students to write papers are trying to do the same thing of forcing the student to translate given information into something that means something to them. I asked questions such as the classroom is 20’ x 30’ x 8’ ignoring the windows and doors and assuming a gallon of paint covers 350 square feet, how many gallons would you need for 2 coats of paint? This turned a simple area formula calculation into something that the kid may need to at least have an idea of reasonableness in the future.
I also asked questions like if a 16” frozen pizza fell out of car and rolled all the way from say Topeka to Lawrence, how many rotations would it make if the distance was 25 miles. This one may not have practical applications, but it is fun. By the way, the answer to the pudding puzzle is 3, 3 and 8. If you want to understand the logic, look it up. It’s actually a famous logic puzzle.
