I’ve been seeing a few videos lately explaining why 0!=1. Over my time as a teacher, I’ve seen a lot of various explanations for this equality, and they generally fall into these categories: What I don’t recall seeing is a complete explanation from the perspective of set theory, so I’ll provide that in this article….
Author: Clio
Language and Miscommunication
Consider this dialogue, not uncommon on today’s social media: A: “Cis is a slur!” B: “It is NOT, you’re such a transphobe.” A: “What? I don’t fear trans people.” While there is a high likelihood that person A in this conversation has unfairly negative beliefs about transgender people, there are also several points in this…
09/28 – Seeing What Was
I was thinking this morning about two different issues in my life right now, and both of them coalesced around: When you only see what is, not what was, you’re only seeing part of the picture. Let’s start with Henry Ford, who is credited with creating the 40-hour work weeks. I’ve been seeing memes booing…
09/27 (Ceci n’est pas une pipe)
This post is not about a computer. Last year, I bought a new laptop. It had occasional problems charging, but nothing major. Then, over a month ago and outside its warranty window, the battery completely drained while charging and would not register the charger. I researched online, and was told that sometimes the Microsoft-proprietary charging…
Rough draft: Thoughts on Sets
I woke up this morning thinking about sets. I recently bought the (Canadian) French, (Mexican) Spanish, and German editions of “Dog Man”. This gave me a set of books in languages I can at least make a real effort to read, and the child already has a set of “Dog Man” books in English. Yesterday…
Scaffolding and Multiplication
There are two basic conceptual ways that multiplication is explained: Repeated addition and the area model. Many people who are adept at multiplication (including teachers) take for granted what many students have trouble connecting; in the case of multiplication, it’s not immediately obvious why repeated addition and the area of a region ought to result…
Long Division
The other day I saw this TikTok by the inimitable Howie Hua: This is a common topic: What is the long division algorithm about anyway? I’ve likely even seen Hua talking about it in the past, but this time, something clicked in my mind. I don’t personally recall struggling with long division. I suppose there…
08.22.23 – A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
I’m going to start with a dream I had last night, but it’s not going to be a Dream Post. In fact, I’m going to start with the end of the dream. I was talking to someone that I’d been hanging out with. I was sitting on the concrete curb by a road, and he…
Just a suggestion…
How do you say “suggest”? Think about it for a second. Say it slowly if you want. For best results, say each syllable carefully. Because my brain hurts now. Here’s a Tiktok: My initial reaction was that it’s /sʌ’dʒɛst/, that is, “suh-JEST”, without a hard /g/. Apparently some people are adamant that it’s /sʌg’dʒɛst/, with…
Spock and Chicken
Here’s a TikTok video: It reminded me of this story from my youth. When I was in middle school, the local t-shirt shop was offering a sale. I went there and found a Spock t-shirt that appeared to be my size, so I bought it. I brought it home, tried it on, and discovered it…