BACK


"ROAST PIG (THE HARD WAY)" MATH (1-100 OF FAQS UNTAUGHT, PROVE OTHERWISE!)

No, Alice. This is not the pig that the Duchess' baby became in your arms. This pig stars in an essay by an older contemporary of Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Charles Dodgson) -- one Charles Lamb (1775-1834). In his essay, "Roast Pig", Lamb pretended to explain the origin of cooking, in order to show that humans often do things the-round-about-way, for the first time -- and only later find shortcuts.

In the essay, a Chinese gentleman has a favored pig. But he must take a journey, so he encloses the pig in his house, for safe keeping. Down the road a way, the Chinese gentleman sees lightning strike his house and set it afire. Hurrying back, he arrives just as the house is "in ashes". He smells something interesting. It is the pig, roasted. He cuts off a piece and tastes it. Yummy!

So, later, the Chinese gentlemman

(Elsewhere, I've a file, "Roast Pork Barrel", combining the idea of "Roast Pork" with the expression, "Pork Barrel" for Government-Paid projects that waste money for the sake of a Congressman's constituents. Meaning: do it badly, do it over -- at further expense.)

As a second opinion: "We've ... a global civilization ... depend[ing] on science and technology. We['ve] also arranged ... that no one understands science and technology ... prescri[bing] ... disaster.", Carl Sagan

Attention, Class! Put away your books. Take out pen or pencil, for your FINAL EXAM. I want 500 words or more on why and how these files expose MAINSTREAM MATH AS "ROAST PIG" MATH -- definitely not MATH-FRIENDLY.

What's this? What's this? Rebellion? You-dough-wanna? OK. Don't blubber. I'll shine "the highlights" at you. Just COUNT the FAQS.

  1. Why students aren't told about Kierkegaard's prescription for understanding the universe's processes and taking control of Life.
  2. Why the "Algebra" is kept a mystery to students and the general public.
  3. The term "algebra" is never adequately defined.
  4. No explanation that MATHEMATICS INCLUDES MANY DIFFERENT ALGEBRAS.
  5. No explanation that what most people label "algebra" should be called Numerical Algebra" or "Arithmetic Algebra", or say, ""NUMALGEBRA".
  6. Much PUZZLEMENT derives from the way ARITHMETIC is TAUGHT, which seems to SUGGEST CHEATING in subtraction;
  7. and CHEATING in division.
  8. No explanation that THE GENERATIVE METHOD constructs Arithmetic and BYPASSES CHEATING.
  9. No explanation of "some of the funny rules of Arithmetic", say, the rule of signs;
  10. or DIVISION of a FRACTION (RATIONAL NUMBER) by a FRACTION (RATIONAL NUMBER).
  11. No defense against the "School of Social Constructivism", arguing that ANY MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM IS JUST A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION -- on par with Table Etiquette.
  12. No answer to Bertrand Russell (1872-1972) saying, axiomatics "has all the advantages" over generatics "that theft has over honest labor" -- assuming what should be generated from a basis of elements.
  13. No explanation of the "sacred" RULE OF CLOSURE ("All in The Family") which DISTINGUISHES MATHEMATICS.
  14. THE REAL NUMBER SYSTEM is explained "exogamously" (not-All-in-the-Family) as arising GEOMETRICALLY ("the diagonal of a square"), instead of explaining it "endogamously".
  15. Making logarithm seem "like something the cat drug in".
  16. No explanation as to why ARITHMETIC RESEMBLES TYPICAL QUIZZING: QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED -- whereas, ALGEBRA (in any form) RESEMBLES "JEOPARDY" QUIZZING: ANSWERS TO BE MATCHED TO RELEVANT QUESTIONS.
  17. No explanation that NUMALGEBRA is implicit in what is done in "First or Second Grade Subtraction.
  18. No explanation that each ARITHMETIC OPERATION yields a SINGLE NUMBER.
  19. No explanation that NUMALGEBRA IS THE ARITHMETIC OF SETS OF NUMBERS or THE ARITHMETIC OF FUNCTIONS OF SETS OF NUMBERS.
  20. No explanation that the "Question in ALGEBRA often has MORE THAN ONE "ANSWER".
  21. No explanation about "The 4th R" --REWRITE, another way of understanding ALGEBRA.
  22. No explanation that SOLVING AN ALGEBRAIC EQUATION is LIKE UNRAVELING A KNOT.
  23. No explanation that ALGEBRA is a kind of "JEOPARDY" MATH.
  24. Students are not taught about OPERATIONS, which make ALGEBRAS the INSTRUMENTS OF REALIZING KIERKEGAARD'S KIKBAK IN NATURAL PROCESSES & IN LIFE.
  25. Students are not taught as to how ALGEBRAS ATTAIN OPERATIONAL GROUPS: the BESTMATH.
  26. Students aren't taught how a math-structure becomes INVERSIVELY an ALGEBRA.
  27. Students are not taught how to derive an OPERATION from the FORMALIZATION of an everday concept: RELATION.
  28. Students aren't taught Standard Form of a RELATION.
  29. Students aren't taught how RELATIONS are ORDINALLY classified.
  30. Students in general are not taught to write RELATIONS as ORDERED n-tuples, as in RELATIONAL DATABASES (such as ORACLE).
  31. Students are not taught as to how ALL FINTE RELATIONS are MODELED, and can be DERIVED FROM, the BINARY RELATION.
  32. Students are not taught to single out "the three most important RELATIONS in ARITHMETIC and ALGEBRA.
  33. Students are not taught the proper definition of FUNCTION, as a SPECIAL FORM OF RELATION.
  34. Students are not taught the proper definition of OPERATION, as a SPECIAL FORM OF RELATION and FUNCTION.
  35. Students are not taught the OPERATIONAL DEFINITION of a GROUP.
  36. Students are not made aware that the CONCEPT OF GROUP can be gleaned by watching a creeping baby.
  37. Sudents are not taught as to how OPERATION achieves CLOSURE.
  38. Students are not taught the connection between the GROUP CONCEPT and NATURAL LAWS OF PHYSICS.
  39. Students are not taught how ALGEBRA provides us for SURVIVAL.
  40. Students aren't taught that MATH HAS THE VALUABLE ASPECT OF INCORRIGIBILITY.
  41. Students aren't taught The FIGURE&GROUND STRATEGY and its CONNECTION WITH INCORRIGIBILITY.
  42. No LINKING MEASURING with PREDICTION.
  43. No teaching of MEASUREMENT PREDICTION in example such as STONE BLOCK FITTING INTO PYRAMID.
  44. The NONPREDICTIVE nature of IQ SCORES should make them questionable.
  45. No teaching of CONNECTION with notion of ALEBRA-AS-BACKWARDS-ARITHMETIC.
  46. No clarification of the GOAL OF MEASUREMENT.
  47. No mention that Cervantes in his Don Quixote connects ALGEBRA with "restorer" or "bone-setter".
  48. No teaching that al-Khwarizmi, Islamic astronomer, is "The Father of Algebra", whose name gave us the word "algorithm".
  49. Students are not taugh about debt we owe to Islamic mathematicians before the Renaissance for preserving an advancing knowledge.
  50. No explanation that some mathematicians attributed to Renaissance Europeans may be due to earlier Islamic or Jewish mathematicians.
  51. Students are not told that al-Khwarizmi made advances in both algebra and astronomy.
  52. No explanation that the word "algebra" means "restoration" or "completion" by transfering operational subterms (such as subtracted subterms) to the other side of the equation.
  53. No explanation that there is a "balancing" analogy for an equation -- algebraic or otherwise.
  54. No teaching that al-Khwarizmi often used algebra in problems of inheritance.
  55. No explaining of difference between accounting for wealth and apportioning wealth.
  56. No teaching that classical problems such as "the camel problem" demonstrate algebra-in-inheritance.
  57. No teaching of the Strategy of Problem-Solving by adjoining DATA, of which the Camel Problem is an easy example, preparing for the powerful use of LINEAR PROGRAMMING to solve problems in many fields.
  58. No teaching of the "conjugation" or BYPASS Strategy, of which the Camel problem is an example, so that students can learn to apply this powerful Strategy in so many different ways.
  59. Students are not taught about use of the backwards-tactic of linear programming in thwarting Soviet Blockade of Berlin, Germany, in 1948.
  60. Students are not taught about use of backwards-tactic in Leontief input-ouput analysis in the decision by President Truman to fire General MacArthur in Korea in 1949.
  61. Students are not taught about use of linear programming in dealing with personal problems, as was able to do for our son, Tim.
  62. No teaching that "algebra-as-inheritance" relates to "the welfare state" and our "fiducial society".
  63. No teaching of our debt to Abraham de Moivre for "the bell curve" and beginnings ANNUITY.
  64. No teaching of our debt to Florence Nightingale for creating the military allotment system and helping to initiate our present "welfare state" or "fiducial society".
  65. No teaching of our debt to Prince Otto von Bismarck for this "welfare state" or "fiducial society", especially for social security.
  66. No explanation that Galbraith's characterization of our "fiducial economy" makes ALGEBRA primary in our lives!
  67. No explanation that the backwards-tactic formalized in ALGEBRA is as old as Hommy Hominid finding his way home.
  68. No teaching that ALGEBRA is behind all methods for NAVIGATING-MAP-TO-TERRITORY, as in the DEAD-RECKONING of SHIP NAVIGATIONAL which helped to discover this continent and parts of the world in THE GREAT PERIODS OF NAVIGATION and TRADE.
  69. No teaching that this algebra-cum-dead-reckoning was behind the success of the great adventure of Lewis and Clark in helping to double the size of the existing America.
  70. No explaaining that ALGEBRA must be defined as ANSWERING by A SET OF MEMBERS.
  71. No teaching that ancient Egyptian mathematicians realized the set-structure behind ALGEBRA in their concept of "aha".
  72. No explaining the nature of "rhetorical algebra" in the development of this subject.
  73. No teaching of the contribution of ancient Chinese mathematicians to the development of ALGEBRA.
  74. No teaching of the counsel of Kierkegaard about the way we "live life".
  75. No relatimg the "Kierkegaard kikbak" to the inverse operations (subtraction, division, etc.) of Arithmetic.
  76. No relating of the "Kierkegaard kikbak" to the GROUP property, behind ALL LAWS OF NATURE.
  77. No explanation that SEARCH FOR INVERSE CLOSURE GENERATES ALL NUMBER SYSTEMS BEYOND NATURAL NUMBERS.
  78. No relating of the kikbak and the Group property to the ANTITONE STRATEGY, which may be behind "every process of Nature".
  79. Students who know TOPOLOGY are not told its relation to ALGEBRAIC KIKBAKS.
  80. Most students are not told about TOPOLOGY as a subject in daily life.
  81. Students are not taught the fascinating TOPOLOGICAL trick of taking off a vest.
  82. Students are not taught the topological distinction between, say, a circle and a figure-eight.
  83. Students are not taught as to how a CUT in a figure helps to classify it TOPOLOGICALLY.
  84. Students are not taught the definition of TOPOLOGICAL EQUIVALENCE of FIGURES.
  85. Students are not taught the TOPOLOGICAL aspect of an ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
  86. Students, especially physics students, are not told that Kirkhoff derived his CIRCUIT LAWS by means of TOPOLOGY.
  87. Kids are not taught the TOPOLOGICAL ACTIVITY of TANGLES.
  88. Physics students are not taught that TOPOLOGY definitely entered physics in Newton's invocation of INERTIAL FRAMES (in which Physical Laws are simple).
  89. Physics students, in general, are not taught about TOPOLOGICAL CONSERVATION LAWS articlated in Particle Physics in recent years.
  90. Students are not taught about the TOPOLOGICAL nature of KNOT THEORY and molecular chemistry.
  91. Students are not taught that the UNRAVELING OF KNOTS is homological equivalent to SOLVING ALGEBRAIC EQUATION.
  92. Students are not taught the association in Morris Kline's Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, v. I, pp. 8-10, that the first society to advance in ALGEBRA was also the first to advance in ASTRONOMY -- Babylonia.
  93. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests devoted a period of 10,000 years to the developing of ASTRONOMY and ALGEBRA -- a record far outclassing anything in "Western"Science.
  94. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests were adept in solving QUADRATIC EQUATIONS.
  95. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests were adept in solving CUBIC EQUATIONS.
  96. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests were adept in solving SYSTEMS OF LINEAR EQUATIONS.
  97. Students who have heard a little about ancient Babylonian ASTRONOMY and ALGEBRA are not taught that this Mesopotamian MATH is mainly algorithmic in style.
  98. The Babylonian priests often transformed complicated algebraic problems into simpler problems for solution, showing implicit use of THE BYPASS STRATEGY (described elsewhere).
  99. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests solved compound interest, implicitly working with exponential and lgoogarithmic math.
  100. Students are not taught that Babylonian priests used Sumerian-Akkadian languages as METALANGUAGE for discussing the MATH, just as we can use English to talk about the SYMBOLIC ALGEBRA.
  101. Students are not taught that "ancient Babylonian priests were perhaps first to realize that "celestial bodies" move so REGULARLY as to DEFINE TIME AND DIRECTION ON EARTH.

    UNTAUGHT FAQS 101-200.

    BACK