yendi: (Default)
[personal profile] yendi
We just bought a nifty looking division puzzle for Elayna from Garlic Press We opened it and started playing with it, only to discover that they think you can not only have a problem of one divided by zero, but that the answer is zero. They repeated it for two and three. I'm assuming that someone just fucked up in their factory, but I'm appalled. This is basic math literacy, and in a toy designed specifically to teach math skills. Yeah, I've written the company. I'd also highly discourage anyone from buying from them at this point. I'll update if I hear anything from them (like offering replacement pieces with the correct facts.

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-14 02:52 pm (UTC)
dwivian: (Default)
From: [personal profile] dwivian
But, that's valid!

Say you have one pie, and you divide it into no pieces -- then you have no more pie, because the local universe implodes. Thus, the answer is zero, and everyone around you vaporizes.

Seems like just the puzzle you'd want for Elayna!

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-14 03:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fornorald.livejournal.com
Hey no, no joking about the universe imploding! That's where I keep all my stuff!

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-15 09:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thejunebug.livejournal.com
That's what my math teacher in 8th grade told us, anyway-- if we divided anything by zero, the world would end.

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-15 05:45 pm (UTC)
dwivian: (Default)
From: [personal profile] dwivian
I'd have filled a page with DIV0 errors and watched for the catastrophe. I was just that kind of kid....

I just had to share . . .

Date: 2003-09-14 03:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alphafenris.livejournal.com
The best "divide by zero" story I ever heard. (http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/august31/1.htm)

Re: I just had to share . . .

Date: 2003-09-14 03:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com
"All new apps must run under NT, Navy CIO Ann Miller says."

Be afraid. Be extremely, whitefaced, shrieking, running headlong into walls, rip your face from your skull afraid.

"Oo, I know! Let's run the entire Armed Forces on the most hackable, expensive to support, POS operating system we can find!!"

Re: I just had to share . . .

Date: 2003-09-14 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alphafenris.livejournal.com
Well, to be fair the article is quite old (at the time NT was the new kid on the block . . . and seemed less hackable and easier to support than previous MicroSoft products). Who know's what they're trying to use now.

Re: I just had to share . . .

Date: 2003-09-14 04:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com
Mm, true; I heard some part of the Navy had ordered a bunch of XServes (http://www.apple.com/xserve/) and were running a Linux on them. So yay for that anyway.

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-14 03:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com
Must be Pentium-based = )

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-14 05:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jerel.livejournal.com
I wonder if they make a multiplication puzzle, where a number times zero is the number?

V. disappointing!

(no subject)

Date: 2003-09-14 07:22 pm (UTC)
amokk: (Default)
From: [personal profile] amokk
It's that new, "feel good" math stuff, where there's no such thing as a wrong answer, just an answer that eventually leads to the correct one.

;)

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