Just checked the rest of the thread and it appears I got it right.

Quite pleased with that, did it completely in my head.

Cougar… yes I did. She was still doing still on the PC and i didn’t want to disturb her.

Was your kid’s problem with division of fractions or with the algebra?

For division of fractions: Keep the first fraction, change the sign to a multiply, flip the second fraction. Keep, change, flip.
Probably both. But when I mentioned KFC KCF she remembered. It was probably the algebra that confused me her.

Took me five goes to pass my maths O level – my housemaster was so happy when I finally passed that he gave me £5 (lot of money back then) to go to the school bar (yes, our school had its own pub!) 🙂

It’s amazing how much you forget are taught at school that’s NEVER NEEDED FOR ANYTHING ELSE BUT SCHOOL MATHS!. I did a-level maths but then spent the last 20 ish years in the bike trade and ive spent ages tryning remember

It’s amazing how much you forget are taught at school that’s NEVER NEEDED FOR ANYTHING ELSE BUT SCHOOL MATHS!

… and appearing to be clever on a mountain biking forum. (-:

Dividing one fraction by another is quite useful, no?

I use the maths that I was taught at school all the time.

It’s amazing how much you forget are taught at school that’s NEVER NEEDED FOR ANYTHING ELSE BUT SCHOOL MATHS!. I did a-level maths but then spent the last 20 ish years in the bike trade and ive spent ages tryning remember

It always amazes me that statements like that are made about Maths, but never about English or pretty much any other subject. I did Higher English and I’ve never had to write a criticism of a play, novel or poem since then. In fact I don’t think I’ve even read a poem since I left school. It doesn’t mean that I think that the time I spent in school doing it was wasted.

Yeah, when I’ve got half an ounce and want to know how many eighths that is, fractional division is indeed useful.

To be honest I do think the time I spent reading poetry was wasted. That, and latin. A surprisingly large proportion of the rest has come in handy one way or another though.

I do think the time I spent reading poetry was wasted

This makes me as sad as the other thread where someone said they’d got to 45 years old without ever going to an art gallery.

There’s more to life and education than preparing yourself for a career.

Yeah, you could say that about any subject that you don’t decide to use as a career. As an occasional coder I find maths very useful. But great swathes of my education are largely useless day-to-day. History for example; “having knowledge” is obviously a good thing, but my life wouldn’t have been ruined by not knowing who won a war in the middle ages. It’s not like I can do anything to change the outcome. Or RE, the only use I’ve got for that is a) realising it’s all fairy stories and b) arguing on STW. Chemistry; moles, valences, atomic weights, who cares beyond chemists?

But that’s the point though isn’t it. Without teaching everyone science (say), a handful of them would never go on to become scientists.

but never about English ..

Course English is useful in later life. Speshly now what we haff internet forum’s to show off how mush we learnded an that.
(Ps. I read loadsa book an all)

Ps. I was really kinda paraphrasing my kid complaining about Spanish and RE classes.

Yeah, when I’ve got half an ounce and want to know how many eighths that is, fractional division is indeed useful.

A skill only useful to drug dealers and Americans these days, I’d have thought?

Oh I’ve done my fair share of reading and enjoy various other arty things a bit. Just never got much out of poetry. Not saying it’s a bad idea in general, I wouldn’t know I didn’t care for it if I hadn’t tried!

Just never got much out of poetry

Me neither. (How annoying are those Nationwide adverts?!)

The sum total of what I learned and I can still remember from school can be summed up in:

Meandering rivers cause ox-bow lakes.

The sum total of what I learned and I can still remember from school can be summed up in:

Meandering rivers cause ox-bow lakes.

Did you learn to read and write after leaving school?

Did you learn to read and write after leaving school?

Pretty well much yes actually – certainly the writing side of it. At school I didn’t know where to put an apostrophe nor when to use there or their but I have since worked out the fundamentals for myself.

And I wouldn’t know (then or now) where to start with the OP’s maths question.

Cougar – Moderator
But great swathes of my education are largely useless day-to-day.

What a sad thing to read. I hope you didn’t pay (directly) for any of it.

History for example; “having knowledge” is obviously a good thing, but my life wouldn’t have been ruined by not knowing who won a war in the middle ages.

As a hirer of lots of history graduates (for good reason, and in the past) and with mini THM reading history know, I am glad that history is nothing like what is implied in that comment

Or RE, the only use I’ve got for that is a) realising it’s all fairy stories

Bravo Sir

but my life wouldn’t have been ruined by not knowing who won a war in the middle ages.

Be crap at Eggheads though

I admit I worked hard at school, and learned quite a lot of maths over the years, and it suits my strengths, but…

I use mental arithmetic dozens of times a day in my work, in safety critical siuations. Speed and accuracy being important.

I use algebra regularly to solve everyday problems, because once the scenario is recast as an equation the result can easily be calculated and might be a surprise, something you might not come to with gut feeling or intuition, or experience. Although, admittedly while true, often not practical. The biggest skill I learned was how to extract the equation from the question!

I often find those who claim they never needed maths since school are simply those with no interest in the help that maths could give them!

often find those who claim they never needed maths since school are simply those with no interest in the help that maths could give them!

I don’t even know what that means!