Re: [Phys-l] innumeracy

[MJ and DS Weiss <martweiss@earthlink.net>]

   Think of it this way....    ask the man on the street about points 
or salaries in any sport and he can talk your ears off about over/under, 
point spread betting on the game, how much money the wide receiver gets, 
the longest field goal ever made, and a host of other trivial (to us) 
nonsense.  But, ask him about the local school budget or how much money 
is allocated for a highway project, or even money spent daily on the 
war,  and you will get blank stares.

   This entire country is numerically illiterate except for sports trivia!

   This happens every day at the gym I go to.    If the conversation is 
on sports it draws a dozen people.  Once someone turns to any other 
topic involving numbers most of them drift away.    


Marty

Rick Tarara wrote:

> Common now John, the population of the country you live in, the world you 
> live on, that cities have millions of people--thus is not specialized 
> knowledge.   These numbers effect almost every field of study--if only to 
> estimate how many books your memoirs might sell!   You are sounding like an 
> apologist for ignorance.  ;-(
>
> Rick
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John M Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>
>
>
>  
>
> > This question is not a test of innumeracy, except possibly at the ends
> > of the spectrum.  It is a test of crystallized knowledge.  A real test
> > for numeracy is to have people compare numbers like 0.5 and 3/8.  The
> > population of a given area is what might be called common shared
> > knowledge. 
> >    
>
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