Obligatory Numberphile video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xJfP7-HCc
Is there any point to the 12 times table?
31–40 of 198 posts
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is only yet another reason in literally infinite ones why the US needs to actually push metric units. We bleed our stupidity into the UK and Canada while the rest of the world makes sense.
Makes sense..until you talk about time. Time makes no sense.
If you want to terrify an american, ask them about switching to metric time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time
This comes up all the time for me as americans use a different date format. I've had contract negotiations grind to a halt because someone was doing math based on 06/05/15 rather than 05/06/15.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#33Twelve has more divisors than ten (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 & 12 vs 1, 2, 5 & 10). If we were really smart, we'd switch from base 10 to base 12: many more 'decimals' (really duodecimals) would be non-repeating. One can very quickly count by twelves on the joints of one's fingers, using the thumb as an index (0-143 is a much larger range than 0-10, and it's easier to hold one's hands in the shape necessary). If we were really sm…
Base-60 math is even superior.
The Sumerians had it right?
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#34Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#35I recently worked with a person who had to do her three times table using her hands, starting from 3. She would still struggle at about 6 or 7 times. We worked behind the counter in a builder's merchant. She is no longer working for us.
You know, whether or not children should learn up to 12 by the age of nine is debatable, but by the time you're an adult, assuming no learning disabilities you should be able to do mental math proficiently enough that you don't need to memorize any tables, you can just do it.
I hope that person you worked with can at least work a calculator.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#36Am I going to be the only one to comment that the article actually was pretty cool? He put up some really nice plots in a masterful way, which is better than most of the hand-waving I see here.
The best attempt he put forward to deal with the distribution of numbers one would see in daily life (a generalization of the "non-metric" argument) is using Benford's Law[0], which is as good a blog post that doesn't turn to hardcore statistics (of all numbers used, if any such thing actually exists) can do.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is only yet another reason in literally infinite ones why the US needs to actually push metric units. We bleed our stupidity into the UK and Canada while the rest of the world makes sense.
No, the US is not exporting its stupidity to the UK in this case. There's a reason those units are called "imperial."
The US doesn't use Imperial units though! They use the US customary system (if that's quite the right term): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units
Though either way, you are quite right that the US has little influence on the UK in this respect.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#38Forget the stats and calculus. Think carpentry, measuring and cutting wood products. If you are building things in the US/UK/Canada then you are using feet and inches. 12 inches to a foot. It's a tiny thing to learn and will serve kids well in any number of professions. Now 11, that's a total mystery. Other than it being between 10 and 12, I see no reason to memorize 11s.
That is only yet another reason in literally infinite ones why the US needs to actually push metric units. We bleed our stupidity into the UK and Canada while the rest of the world makes sense.
> another reason in literally infinite ones
There are perhaps about three good reasons to push metric units, and the vast majority of us don't find them compelling enough to care. It's truly a non-issue.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#39I recently worked with a person who had to do her three times table using her hands, starting from 3. She would still struggle at about 6 or 7 times. We worked behind the counter in a builder's merchant. She is no longer working for us.
I had a job once where we hired a derivatives trader who couldn't multiply 8 and 4. In the job interview.
At my next job we hired another trader who came up to me and said "what does the little 2 in a superscript mean?". As in what does 3^2 mean?
Both very friendly people.
Re: Is there any point to the 12 times table?
#40Yes we would not have this cute little ditty.
http://youtu.be/_uJsoZheTR4