I still have some Tom Lehrer songs in my playlist. They sound like they're a product of their time but are still relevant today. I am also amused that I learned "new math" in elementary school, but I think it's actually different from the "new math" in his song of that name. I didn't hate it, honestly. "Now the book wants you to do it in base 8." This is actually relevant to my day to day work. (Though in base 8, I h…
The song "New Math" is actually funny to listen to, I think most people don't pay attention to what's happening in it. In the first verse, he's mocking the idea of teaching kids the concept of borrowing, as if it's a bizarre and confusing concept that almost no one would understand. He was completely wrong, of course, and it's the way almost everyone - at least in the U.S. - does subtraction now. The "right" way that…
> "Three from 2 is 9, carry the one"; it seems to be a completely algorithmic way of doing the calculation, where you end up with the right answer at the end, but it's completely detached from what's actually happening.
I can't understand what you're trying to say. The only difference in the patter is whether you carry the one before or after you subtract 3 from 2. "Both" approaches have you do the same thing in the same way. What's the contrast?