# Explain this 'new math' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132 "2015-08-28T02:47:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/141 "2015-09-02T19:10:49Z")
Yeah, I’m unsure what that’s supposed to make us think other than the dipshit parent has issues of their own. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/142 "2015-09-02T19:40:54Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > what happened is that she saw a number on a piece of paper and just decided that was the change. Or maybe , like my coworkers over 30 years ago often did , she accidently entered the wrong amount tendered and gave you the change that was correct for that amount tendered. I’m 52 years old, and 30 something-years ago there were plenty of people with no math sense. There were those who gave you $15 in change when you paid for a $5 purchase with a $10 bill becasue they entered $20 for the amount tendered- those people didn’t seem to even be thinking. There were those who understood that if they accidently punched $100 as the amount tendered instead of $10, they could simply take $90 off the register-provided change (if the register said there was $92.06 change for a $100 bill, the correct change was 2.06 for a $10 bill). ``` And there were those who noticed that the change was incorrect ( how could he get $92.06 in change when he gave me $10?) but didn't *understand*. They refused to believe you could just take the 9 off the front and give the $2.06 in change. They believed that the drawer would be short because they punched in that they took in a $100 bill when they didn't. They didn't understand that whether the register "thought" they took in a $100 bill and gave $92.06 in change or that they took in a $10 bill and gave $2.06 change, the only thing that mattered was the $7.94 that was added to the drawer either way. These are people who would have started school in the mid to late 1960's , so it can't be blamed on any recent teaching methods. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/143 "2015-09-02T20:11:47Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > that’s because “conservatives” are a bunch of cranky old white people who think the way things were when they were kids was absolutely 100% perfect and should never change ever. … So am I supposed to report this? Or is it sarcasm? I truly cannot believe that “new math” has such political baggage–which OP stated at the outset. But since knocking on conservatives seems to be default, fuck it, I’ll report it. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/144 "2015-09-02T21:10:56Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Why bring politics/insults into it? > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I truly cannot believe that “new math” has such political baggage You guys are the only ones who are bringing politics into it. The word “conservative” need not refer to politics; it can simply mean “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation.” (Of course, political conservatives do tend to hold political views that fit this description.) **jz78817** was responding to the OP’s use of the word, and I think it’s apparent that both were using it in this sense. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/145 "2015-09-02T21:24:02Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > that’s because “conservatives” are a bunch of cranky old white people who think the way things were when they were kids was absolutely 100% perfect and should never change ever. > [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Why bring politics/insults into it? This is GQ, not GD. Just because YOU see the wisdom doesn’t mean everyone does, regardless of age or color (or sex, for that matter). > [@Magiver](#): > > My school was racially integrated in the 70’s and all of us could make change in our heads using the traditional method and that was in grade school. It was considered an easy task back then. Not sure why we didn’t break math down by political affiliation and skin color. Would have seemed racist and politically antagonizing back then. > > But thanks for sharing. > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > So am I supposed to report this? > > Or is it sarcasm? > > I truly cannot believe that “new math” has such political baggage–which OP stated at the outset. > > But since knocking on conservatives seems to be default, fuck it, I’ll report it. > > Reported. **Moderator Note** If anyone was offended by the use of the word, they should have reported it a week ago, when the original post was made (or anyway when they saw it), rather than responding to it directly. At any rate, going forward, for the purposes of this thread let’s take “conservative” as having its social (“small-c”) rather than its political (“large-C”) meaning. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132/146 "2015-09-02T22:18:01Z")
Now _physics,_ there you’ve got a conservative subject matter! All those conservative force fields! Nary a progressive, leftish liberal force field to be found in any physics text anywhere. And mathematics is the articulated reticulum, the interwoven language by which all of physics is described and held together! It _must_ be conservative! All these liberal left-wing Common Corers, trying to re-write the narrative of science and change the very nature of the world out from under us! Feh! Who needs it? For this, we have Quantum Mechanics! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132.md?page=7)