[TUHS] Photos of University Computer Labs - now off topic
Dr Iain Maoileoin
iain at csp-partnership.co.uk
Fri Dec 24 02:47:19 AEST 2021
On 12/23/21 4:35 PM, Larry McVoy wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 04:28:26PM +0000, Dr Iain Maoileoin wrote:
>> On 12/23/21 4:00 PM, Larry McVoy wrote:
>>> On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 03:29:18PM +0000, Dr Iain Maoileoin wrote:
>>>>> Probably boomer doing math wrong.
>>>> I might get flamed for this comment, but is a number divided by a number not
>>>> arithmetic.?? I cant see any maths in there.
>>> That's just a language thing, lots of people in the US call arithmetic
>>> math. I'm 100% positive that that is not just me.
>> Interesting - have you always done that??? Or is it a more recent use of the
>> word?
> It's always been that way, arithmetic is a mouthful so people use math
> to mean arithmetic. You are correct, arithmetic is a distinct subset
> of math. But it's pedantic to call that out, math is a superset of
> arithmetic so it is perfectly reasonable to call doing some arithmetic
> "math". If we started nit picking about those types of differences,
> we'd never get anything meaningful done.
I totally agree. My question is about language use (or drift) - nothing
else. In Scotland - amongst the young - "Arithmetic" is now referred
to as "Maths". I am aware of the transition but cant understand what
caused it to happen! I dont know if other countries had/have the same
slide from a specific to a general - hence the questions - nothing deeper.
In lower secondary school we would go to both Arithmetic AND also to
Maths classes. I suspect that no longer happens in the schools. I
guess I will need to go speak to some teachers.
I am not nit-picking, this is just the first time I have picked up the
use of maths in the context amongst eh how do I phrase it "the older
generation" oops....
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