Insufferable mathematicians

Elizabeth had some homework this week which involved asking a member of her family to write some random numbers between 0 and 1,000 on a piece of paper for her to put in the correct numerical order. She asked her father and this is what he gave her:

869, 17, 3.5, 29, 19, 437, 832, 999, 1, 412, 3, e, ฯ€, โˆš2

Elizabeth is 7 years old.


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17 responses to “Insufferable mathematicians”

  1. cbegg1950 Avatar

    I laughed my socks off when I read this!! Thanks for posting.

    1. Rachel M Avatar

      Good! I’m glad to hear it.

      1. alison Avatar
        alison

        I’m impressed you could find all those symbols on your keyboard. I can’t!

  2. cbegg1950 Avatar

    Christine, who was a teaching assistant before retiring, just said โ€œAwww! Wickedโ€

  3. Hangaku Gozen Avatar

    Oh! Tell Elizabeth’s father that if he wants his daughter to hate math, keep doing what he’d doing!

    On the other hand, I wish I’d had a father who was good in math. I had to struggle all through high school with algebra with no one to help me at home. It took Khan Academy to actually teach me the principles of mathematics, 40 years later.

    1. Rachel M Avatar

      I struggled through maths in high school too. Having someone at home to help makes a big difference, I’m sure. I’ll have to wait another 10 years to see what Elizabeth thinks of it then ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. scifihammy Avatar

    My Dad was like that!
    But I bet Elizabeth still managed to order most of them.

    1. Rachel M Avatar

      I think Ben gave her some hints ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. bmartin516 Avatar
    bmartin516

    I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Just for the record, the homework didn’t say they had to be *whole numbers*. Anyway, all but two of the numbers were rational, and only two were transcendental.

    As Rachel said, I did give Elizabeth some hints.

  6. Chaitanya Avatar

    Hilarious! ๐Ÿ˜€

  7. Keith Wilkinson MBE Avatar

    That was more than a bit cruel….

    ๐Ÿ˜

  8. wakinguponthewrongsideof50 Avatar

    My husband would do the same thing……

  9. Valerie Avatar
    Valerie

    Ha, amazing ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. Denise Avatar

    Isabel went to school as the imaginary number when she was six. Nice easy costume when you have to think of mathematical fancy dress.

    1. Denise Avatar

      Oh she just gave up maths though. Decided not to do it for A level.

  11. Victor Venema Avatar

    Reading the title I had expected the insufferable mathematician to refuse to give Elizabeth any numbers because anything he would write down would not be *random* numbers.

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