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Thread: Millennial math

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
    metricmonkeywrench's Avatar
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    Millennial math

    Yesterday while I was out and about running some errands I stopped in to throw some gas in the truck for the week. It’s a fairly large chain with a red logo and I’m in there at least twice a week to fill the cars as it’s convenient and the fuel seems to be good quality. I guesstimated about $70 which I pulled out and counted twice while I was in the line waiting for my turn to pay. When I got to the cashier I handed her the stack of bills which consisted of three twenties, one five and five ones and told her how much I was paying. Being a “regular” at the station it was evident she was relatively new. She fanned out the bills and tapped each one with her thumb. She then laid them out one by one on the register as if counting them out. She got a confused look and gathered them back up and did it a second time, then said “sorry I’m having a having a moment” or something like that. The third time she laid down the bills I counted out loudly

    Twenty
    Fourty
    Sixty
    Sixty five
    Sixty six
    Sixty seven and so on

    I could almost feel the folks in line counting along with us and as I wandered out a in line guy wearing a Captain America shirt mouthed “wow” to me.

    She looked a bit embarrassed and started putting the cash in the register and turned to the other cashier, a manager, and said she needed a break, he told her in a few as the store was really busy.

    I’ll omit her specific details which are irrelevant, but note that she was relatively young with made up hair and fancy store bought nails.

    Thus ended my first personal experience with the effects of “new math”

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master

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    My Grandmother worked at Tidckeys in Toledo in the 30s as a check out girl. She could still total and make change in her head at 90 years old. These new kids dont know how easy they have it. With the new registers doing it all for them.

    Want to really see smoke when you have a bill of $70.xx give them $80.XX. they cantd understand you dont want the coins back.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master hc18flyer's Avatar
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    If I don't have the exact change, I hand them change to get a nickle or dime back rather then pennies. The younger checkers go crazy, I need to stop! It had a good thing the register gives them the correct change! Most wouldn't or can't count your change back. hc18flyer

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by country gent View Post
    Want to really see smoke when you have a bill of $70.xx give them $80.XX. they cantd understand you dont want the coins back.
    I did that a while back. The casher appeared confused and then called the manager over claiming I must be trying to scam the store.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by hc18flyer View Post
    If I don't have the exact change, I hand them change to get a nickle or dime back rather then pennies. The younger checkers go crazy, I need to stop! It had a good thing the register gives them the correct change! Most wouldn't or can't count your change back. hc18flyer
    You get the confused look as they stare at the change. I usually tell them just punch the numbers into the register. Five cents or a dime pops up for change and the usual response in amazement is how did you know that?

  6. #6
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    I've amazed store clerks when figuring sales tax. Ours is 6.25% I multiply times 6 cents on the dollar and add a couples pennies dor the odd .25% and usually within 2 or 3 cents kids are amazed that U can do it in my head. You should see the looks when I convert Km to mph and convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. They don't teach kids usefull everyday stuff now 2nd grade I learned how to make change for a dollar,simple machines lever/fulcrum,inclined plane etc, look both ways before crossing the street.

  7. #7
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    My daughter who is 25, is in fast food business told me part of the interview process is making change. We also talked about how debt cards are part of problem. When she got her 1st job, we got her a checking account. She could not wait to get a debit card like moms. These cards take all the thinking out of it. Tip for all use cash with the youngsters if paying with exact change, give them the change first.

  8. #8
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    I was raised in a family restaurant business. We were taught to count back change to the customer. Due to my early years of doing that,,, I can easily make change in my head, AND often give a cashier odd amounts so I don't get back a bunch more change. (Buy stuff costing say, $16.32 & giving the cashier $21.50.) When I say my change is $5.18 sometimes I get the confused looks,, but in my small town rural areas,, often,, it's NOT a problem. Heck, my local PO likes it because I don't take all their small change. We've discussed it.

    I haven't had a manager called by a STUPID cashier yet thinking I was trying a scam. But I HAVE had cashiers give me back the wrong change, while never counting it back. I never move my hands towards myself,, saying; "Please double check this!" (And this is if it's in my favor or their favor.) Or, I lay it down, asking for the receipt (if not given one,) and ask them to double check it as politely as I can.

    I used to think home schooling wasn't a good idea. Then, back in the early 1980's,, I met a kid who was my first actual exposure (to my knowledge) a teen who'd been home schooled. While his social skills were a little lacking,, this kid was a hard worker, smart, and obviously well educated. I still chuckle at something he did.
    He bought a 1957 Chevy,, black, with a small broken window,, off of a movie set. The movie was filmed locally, a "B" grade, lower budget film. If I recall correctly,, he gave them $1800.00 for it. He kept it,, fixed the window,, drove it,, and when the movie hit the world,, smiled as he drove the 1957 Chevy that Patrick Swazey had used in "Dirty Dancing." He later sold that car for a VERY handsome profit as all of us locally KNEW he'd gotten the car directly & it was a Dirty Dancing collectable. He moved from the area & I often wonder how he's done.
    My point is that now,, I know several home schooled people. By far,, they seem to have a MUCH better education of REAL WORLD skills than many of the public education types out there.
    Of course,, it's probably because they have parents that actually CARE about their kids.

    Schools need to go back to the hard core basics of Reading, Writing & REAL Math! School sports dominate the money & prestige. All while a real education takes a back seat to all kinds of non-essential classes. And the vocational classes that made the students USE the skills they learned need to be stresses. Shop, Home Economics, the 4-H, FFA, etc. all should be required classes in some form.
    Heck,, hand a kid a check book, and teach them about accounts & balances.

    Sadly,, we've about lost a lot of it.
    Not completely,, but too much is already lost.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master elmacgyver0's Avatar
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    I'm pretty lousy at math myself but compared to some I'm a genius.
    I pretty much don't use cash anymore.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by country gent View Post
    My Grandmother worked at Tidckeys in Toledo in the 30s as a check out girl. She could still total and make change in her head at 90 years old. These new kids dont know how easy they have it. With the new registers doing it all for them.

    Want to really see smoke when you have a bill of $70.xx give them $80.XX. they cantd understand you dont want the coins back.
    This is me! But you get the weirdest looks from the cashier!

    I am trying to both them and myself a favor and it’s amazing how few get it.

    I am sure the fancy machine tells them so as well but dumbfounded they are irregardless!

    Perhaps I need to announce what is about to happen to reduce the shock?

    Three44s
    Quote Originally Posted by Bret4207

    “There is more to this than dumping lead in a hole.”

  11. #11
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    In all my schooling, speed math taught for 6 weeks in my senior year was THE MOST beneficial course of all! They would give us a sheet with maybe 20 problems on it, and you had ONE MINUTE to see how many you could get correct.

    The problems were usually addition, with 5 columns of numbers, 4 and 5 digits wide. We were taught to quickly scan the vertical column starting on the right for tens, and combos that make tens, you "carry" these tens mentally then write down the right hand digit of the solution while carrying the rest to the top of the next column.

    I got where I could nail those sheets of paper, toss my pencil loudly on the desk to announce I was through, some in only 30 seconds. You get really good at this after a while, you can be scanning and adding one vertical column, and your brain is separately scanning for tens in the next column over before you even get to it so you are multi tasking and multi threading these problems, you actually have 2 or maybe more strings running at the same time as you work your way through the numbers.

    I had no idea how valuable this 6 weeks of cramming math would help me in real life.

    I started in the shipyard in 1970, as a shipfitter, then as a burner, and I moved on a lot in the next 50yrs, always involved in steel fabrication and welding. You MUST HAVE strong math skills to rise to the top of the heap and be known as one of the best guys they had.

    Steel is always in fractions in the US, and you need to be able to quickly add multiple fractions together in your head, and arrive at a correct answer. Not only in thickness, but weight, and figuring the weight of an assembly by calculating the pounds per square foot of the steel.

    I was also a CCO certified crane operator, and again you MUST HAVE a strong working knowledge of all 4 math operations, since making a lift is done with numbers FIRST.

    If they taught THIS kind of math in the last two years of high school, Americans would be MUCH BETTER prepared for real world applications once they finish school. We would have more hands on craftsmen, and less thumbers of smart phones, we'd have more skills and trades not afraid of denim work clothes and leather gloves, and less thugs and complainers or career welfare recipients.

    They should bring back SHOP CLASS! And include this math in class and homework. And yes it works for counting money in a flash as well..
    Last edited by DougGuy; 04-24-2022 at 10:13 AM.
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  12. #12
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    I prepaid for some gas awhile back with a fifty , could only fit something like thirty five in the tank .
    Went back in for my change and the dufas at the counter gave me back thirty five dollars .
    I spent a good three or four minutes trying to explain that he gave me back to much money and only owed me fifteen .
    He didn't want to hear it , I was wrong , he was right and that's all there was to it .
    I went back in the store a few days later and the manager was working the register so I asked her what happened to the dimwit

    Oh we fired him for stealing from the register . His drawer was short a few hundred bucks two or three days in a row .

    Then I explained what happened with me , He wasn't stealing just couldn't add and subtract

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by metricmonkeywrench View Post
    Yesterday while I was out and about running some errands I stopped in to throw some gas in the truck for the week. It’s a fairly large chain with a red logo and I’m in there at least twice a week to fill the cars as it’s convenient and the fuel seems to be good quality. I guesstimated about $70 which I pulled out and counted twice while I was in the line waiting for my turn to pay. When I got to the cashier I handed her the stack of bills which consisted of three twenties, one five and five ones and told her how much I was paying. Being a “regular” at the station it was evident she was relatively new. She fanned out the bills and tapped each one with her thumb. She then laid them out one by one on the register as if counting them out. She got a confused look and gathered them back up and did it a second time, then said “sorry I’m having a having a moment” or something like that. The third time she laid down the bills I counted out loudly

    Twenty
    Fourty
    Sixty
    Sixty five
    Sixty six
    Sixty seven and so on

    I could almost feel the folks in line counting along with us and as I wandered out a in line guy wearing a Captain America shirt mouthed “wow” to me.

    She looked a bit embarrassed and started putting the cash in the register and turned to the other cashier, a manager, and said she needed a break, he told her in a few as the store was really busy.

    I’ll omit her specific details which are irrelevant, but note that she was relatively young with made up hair and fancy store bought nails.

    Thus ended my first personal experience with the effects of “new math”
    It's not New Math. That's what I got out in SoCal in the early 60's. As immortalized by Tom Lehrer. There have been dozens (if not more) of attempts to deemphasize mathematics if favor of developing our cute little personalities. I have always had troubles with math, myself. Getting New Math in elementary school didn't help, and having teachers as late as high school who couldn't or wouldn't tell me why I needed it didn't help. I eventually found out for myself how many fields it was necessary in, and started applying myself to learning what I could, which turned out to be "Not very much! I've decided I must be brain damaged. My little brothers & sisters, and my own children, have no trouble with math. I do. Particularly anything the least little bit abstract. I was severely anemic as an infant, and nearly died. Needed blood transfusions. I figure that is probably why. I did wind up teaching math for a short time. Certified to mid-level & intermediate math, and for a time was the only math certified sub in the district. My math teachers, at least, would have totally freaked.

    Bill

  14. #14
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    What is this cash you are all talking about?

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master


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    It's possible she really was having a moment. Dyslexia, or something else.

    She also probably was not a millennial.

  16. #16
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    I had an argument with a convenience store clerk as it seemed like he was charging for every other item. There was no winning and I left shaking my head. A couple miles down the road I started laughing. The clerk Really hated the boss and was giving away the store.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  17. #17
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    2 + 2 = brown

  18. #18
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    Scrounge

    I was taking some math classes in night school. The professor was talking about teaching things that made no sense and no one ever used. Her first example was "why would anyone memorize the decimal equivalent of a fraction". I explained to her that shop drawings (machine shop) would have the hole sizes in decimal. For example .375, and drill bits where listed in fractions 3/8 (didn't want to explain letter and number bits LOL). She was amazed. Said she never knew that anyone really used that type of information.

  19. #19
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    I rarely use cash anymore. Both are selfish reasons. First, I get cash back on my CC, and that adds up to about $700/year. Second, tired of dealing with dumb cashiers.

    BTW, these are typically the folks who believe they are underpaid and do not show up for work every day
    Don Verna


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