I've never been that great at math. Until last fall it had been over 10 years since I had taken a math course of any kind and I quickly realized how little I had remembered from high school. So I had to teach myself the basics all over again. It took some hard work, but with a lot of practice I was able to pull of an A in Math 1090 and then an A in Math 1000 (Calculus).
Since I am an Archaeology/Biology student I find myself in the midst of two distinct groups of students, Arts and Science. Last year I heard lots of Science students complaining about the English courses they had to take. After seeing the poor selection of the books they were forced to read, I could easily empathize with them.
In my Archaeology courses I often find myself surrounded with students who don't understand basic math. Some will even take a sort of pride in their mathematical ignorance. Just today I was informed that the hypotenuse is the shortest side of a right angle triangle.
Since science students are forced to endure English courses, could not a similar task be asked of Arts students? I'm beginning to think all Arts students should be forced to take a mandatory Math course. It need not be calculus, but hypotenuse should be a word understood by everyone.
2 comments:
Reminds me of an old joke:
What do you call an occupied outhouse on top of a hill?
A: A hypotenuse
regardless of math its the defenition of a word you would think arts students would have that angle.
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