Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Why Math Is Scary

Believe it or not, I find the idea of math fascinating. Hence, my friendship with Connie the Math Guru. I wish she'd been my high school math teacher. I think I'd have done better.

She amazes me with what she can do in her head. Like she could tell me, if my sales numbers stayed on the same pattern, what I could roughly make this year in royalties. Without a caluclator, she did this.

But math can be scary, too. Like over at Query Tracker, there are over 2000 registered users. This, of course, does not count the ones who don't register.

And 37 success stories.

You do the math. I'll wait. (I had to find my calculator to do this one. There's a reason I'm an English teacher and Connie is the math guru.)

1.85%.

That's really scary, when my request percentage is only 7.

I think I'm going to stick with words. Words can be scary, in the right hands. But they can be warm and wonderful and emotional. They can be terse and suspenseful and exciting. They can be sexy and hot and sensual. And they can be angsty and painful and aching.

I have 2075 words on the brand-new WIP. I think that's the math I'll stick with tonight.

What about you? Is math scary or fascinating?

4 comments:

Amie Stuart said...

I hate math with a passion. #1 son has to help #2 son with math that's how bad it is (how over my head it is).

Unknown said...

I'm on the other side: math lover. That's why I went into teaching, to share my passion with students so they can enjoy(?) it too! I teach algebra at a community college, so am very familiar with the math haters, those who had that awful teacher that crushed the pleasure of math for them. I try to lead them over from the dark side!

Words? I *love* to read them, but am lucky if I can put them together for this post! Thanks to the wonderful writers out there!!! Your talent amazes me.

Linda Winfree said...

Amie, I can still do math homework help . . . but that's probably b/c the eldest Monster is in middle school. Once we get past Math 1 in high school, I'm going to have to get him a tutor. But he's a math whiz, so maybe he won't need it . . .

Linda Winfree said...

Esther, you'd love Connie. Last year, she turned her trig and pre-cal classes into CSI. They used math to solve "crimes scenes" around campus. We're blessed with a plethora of really good math teachers at both the middle and high school levels.

I think I'll stick to stringing words together . . . although I do tell my kids that some English is math. They look at me funny until I explain that MLA format is really a formula, like in math, and all you have to do is slot in x, y, etc.