Can't do arithmetic
Dear Friends, I appeal for support if any of you - like me - have had a lifelong problem with arithmetic.
I remember how it started in infants school some time in the 1950s: there were squares round the classroom wall giving numbers as they appear on a dice (a 'die' if you want to be grammatical). So number one, was one dot, number two was two dots and so on.
This I understood, but nothing else. I could not multiply, divide, add or subtract. The only lifeboat for me was the multiplication tables: two twos are four, three twos are six ... etc and chanted to a rhythm which I still use seventy years later. Oh dear.
It gets worse. I must have been about thirty before I realised that seven times five, is the same as five times seven. And even unto this very day I hate odd numbers ( seven and thirteen especially) and tolerate even numbers. Don't ask why because I don't know.
And yet, and yet ... I am not dim. I have an honours degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. concerned with the interaction of Chloroquine (an anti-malarial drug) and the plasmodial DNA. So who's a clever boy then? But I still can't do sums. If I buy anything I give more than asked, and do not count the change because I cannot. Or these days I pay with a card or just tap. Happy days indeed.
So, and because I rather suspect I am not unique, and because all we innnumerates dare not admit it for fear of being labelled stupid ... I ask you, my friends, if any of you are like me? Do tell. I would be so happy, and I think you would too.
All the very best, John Drake
I remember how it started in infants school some time in the 1950s: there were squares round the classroom wall giving numbers as they appear on a dice (a 'die' if you want to be grammatical). So number one, was one dot, number two was two dots and so on.
This I understood, but nothing else. I could not multiply, divide, add or subtract. The only lifeboat for me was the multiplication tables: two twos are four, three twos are six ... etc and chanted to a rhythm which I still use seventy years later. Oh dear.
It gets worse. I must have been about thirty before I realised that seven times five, is the same as five times seven. And even unto this very day I hate odd numbers ( seven and thirteen especially) and tolerate even numbers. Don't ask why because I don't know.
And yet, and yet ... I am not dim. I have an honours degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. concerned with the interaction of Chloroquine (an anti-malarial drug) and the plasmodial DNA. So who's a clever boy then? But I still can't do sums. If I buy anything I give more than asked, and do not count the change because I cannot. Or these days I pay with a card or just tap. Happy days indeed.
So, and because I rather suspect I am not unique, and because all we innnumerates dare not admit it for fear of being labelled stupid ... I ask you, my friends, if any of you are like me? Do tell. I would be so happy, and I think you would too.
All the very best, John Drake
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Candis
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Mar 07, 2020 08:11AM
Good thing you're not on the account, or you would get taken for your share of the booty! :)
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I send out cosmic thanks to the person a Texas Instruments who invented the calculator that allowed me to extend my still unsuccessful college experience.
Hallo Don, Thanks for that. For me, here in England, my salvation was the 'Sinclair Cambridge' pocket calculator. It was the first that was small enough to fit, genuinely, into a pocket. It killed my fear of arithmetic so long as I had hold of it. But I still can't do sums in my head. With age comes wisdom, so now I just smile and I don't even try. I just push the buttons, the machine does the work ... et voila.All best, John
Math and I are not on friendly terms. I surprise myself by being able to do basic math in my head when I don't have to think about it, but the moment I HAVE to think, forget it. What even are numbers, anyway? I prefer words, always have.
Tina wrote: "Math and I are not on friendly terms. I surprise myself by being able to do basic math in my head when I don't have to think about it, but the moment I HAVE to think, forget it. What even are numbe..."Hallo Tina, Will you marry me? I have been seeking for anyone who feels the same as me in this matter. With fond affection, John Drake
