Do You Know How To Count?

Every Ferengi business transaction is governed by 285 Rules of Acquisition to ensure a fair and honest deal for all parties concerned... well most of them anyway.

The Dome at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I read a lot these days.

I particularly like reading at sources based in other countries where frequently they point out the silliness of some of the things Americans are doing.

Recently, I saw at a British news source and then at a news source based in India, that the Internet, (which to me means anyone in the world who has access to a computing device) is confused that 550 divided by 2 is not 225.

550 ÷ 2 = 275.

In case you were confused there.

And.

77 + 33 = 110.

Apparently, another point of confusion.

Now, if I see some quirky bit in more than one source abroad (out of one's own country) it gets me thinking about the silliness of some of the things Americans are doing.

Currently, and actually for a long time now, there is a debate over the idea that there is racism in mathematics programs in the United States. Other countries, far older than America, who have bigger sins than slavery, roll their eyes at this idea coming from the America education system.

There are differing viewpoints regarding racism in American public school math programs and they seem to fall into liberal and conservative camps, nothing neutral.

Much of the debate involves ethnomathematics (the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture). The term “ethnomathematics” was introduced by Brazilian educator and mathematician Ubiratan D'Ambrosio in 1977. He considered his Program Ethnomathematics just a research project that did not reject the importance of modern academic mathematics.

Distilled in America, meaning removing the part where D'Ambrosio did not reject the importance of modern academic mathematics, ethnomathematics apparently blends beautifully with Critical Race Theory (CRT) (where children are taught there are oppressors and the oppressed and they must identify as an oppressor or oppressed and move forward with that label) and so therefore, it is a legitimate basis for corrupting something that is considered a universal language.

Various cultures all over the world, throughout history have developed methods of counting and measuring. Each method was unique until new, differing cultures came into contact through trade, migration, travel and conquest. Movement in the world required a common vocabulary be used with trade, but especially in Math and Science.

I did my graduate work in Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 80’s where there were other students from just about every country you could imagine. While we couldn’t ever agree where to go get lunch, math was one language we all spoke. We all worked very hard, in Math, in getting the correct answers in order to get into MIT. We all worked very hard, in Math subjects, in getting the correct answers in order to receive our degrees.

What American educators seem to forget, in order to compete, to communicate, to survive in a technological world, getting the correct mathematical answer is essential. And if they believe BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) are disadvantaged and unable to get the right answer, here in the United States, I would ask them too look within their own house, at how basic math was presented in early education.

Students from all over the world, from all walks of life can and do end up at MIT. (Though I’m not sure what admissions games get played these days.)

Perhaps if we weren’t so obsessed with regendering our kids, math wouldn’t be a problem.

Star Trek character: Quark. He’s Ferengi. The Ferengi are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek.

The majority of the countries on our planet are capitalist (an economic ideology in where production is controlled by private business. Meaning that individual citizens run the economy without the government interfering in production or pricing).

Even Science fiction likes to portray capitalism, the Star Trek franchise (Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry) features characters called the Ferengi.

The Ferengi have a culture which is based entirely upon commerce. They follow a code of conduct known as "The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition."

"Every Ferengi business transaction is governed by 285 Rules of Acquisition to ensure a fair and honest deal for all parties concerned... well most of them anyway." Quark

The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition 1-3

Rule of Acquisition #1: Once you have their money, you never give it back.
Rule of Acquisition #2: The best deal is the one that makes the most profit.
Rule of Acquisition #3: Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.

But unlike the Ferengi, the United States seems to have slipped in economic freedom. The United States does not even make the top 10 list of the world’s most capitalistic nations anymore.

In 2018, the United States was on the list of the 10 Most Capitalist Economies (number 6) in the World, but as of 2022, the United States’ economic freedom score was 72.1, dropping our economy to the 25th freest.

Our economy is being crushed by reckless government overspending.

But is there something else?

In getting back to perceived racism in math idea, remember, in order to participate in a capitalist society, one must understand it and speak a similar language no matter what color you are.

And in order to participate in a capitalist society you need some basic math skills.

In a trade deal, don’t you think a foreign trade partner would be a little perturbed if the American said:

2 + 2 = 5?

(In the Novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, "2+2=5" is a false statement created by the Party (the bad guys) and an example of the many ways the Party controls people. In making people believe that a random, false statement is an objective truth, the Party distorts and claims control of truth itself.)

I know most Millennials don’t carry cash. Mine doesn’t and it makes me insane and I’ll tell you why.

When we were merchants at Farmer’s markets we regularly dealt with credit cards on small purchases. When you pay with a credit card, the merchant pays a transaction fee and a percentage of the sale to the credit card company he is using. Now some merchants may include that in the price charged, but some may not. 

The credit card you hand to a farmer at the farmers market, is more than likely going to cause that farmer to take a hit on his profit for the day with the credit card fees he pays. 

Why? 

Because he doesn’t want to charge you too much for a $2.00 bag of tomatoes. So, while he wanted $2.00 for his bag of tomatoes, he got maybe $1.85 for them because of the fees. 

How does that work?

We used Square, a mobile credit card processor, here’s their fees: 

“When a customer taps, dips, or swipes their card in person, you (the merchant) pay 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction.”

On $2.00, that’s about 15 cents.

For a farmer, those fees really add up. 

But that’s the price of doing business; perhaps you wouldn’t have purchased the tomatoes at all if he didn’t accept credit cards. My point is to think about when to use a credit card versus other ways to pay, especially if you’re carrying a balance on the credit card.

If what you are charging is less than $20.00 and you are carrying a credit card balance, in the long run, you end up paying more for the item and you caused the farmer to lose out. 

A lose-lose situation.

How’s that for making one insane?

Antique change counter.

Cash is king (especially at the Farmer’s market), unless, you can’t count change back.

And I think there’s a whole lot of “I can’t count change” out there.

I taught my Millennial how to count change using an antique change counter.

I found it in an antique store and was going to use it as a research and writing project, but my student already knew what it was from multiple trips with grandpa to major league baseball games. So instead, it became a math project and he learned to count change using it. 

Without a cash register you’d probably never know if you got the right change back from a purchase. 

Or would you?

Cashiers just dump the change and the receipt into your hand and you are to trust that the amount is right. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a checkout line and if the purchase was $11.12, the terror on the Millennial cashier’s face when they have already keyed $20 into the machine and I hand them $21.12.

Did you do that math already?

Why would I give them $21.12?

The answer is because I want a ten-dollar bill back.

I know math is frightening for most, but this is really easy.

In getting change back, your change is going to be the amount charged subtracted from the cash given. 

Easy right?

Subtraction is hard for people but addition is not.

Here’s another way to do it.

Your change is going start at the amount charged adding up to the amount paid.

Say my purchase was $11.12 and I handed the cashier $20.00. You count back change in this way:

The cashier will count out 3 pennies (3 cents) and that gets us to $11.15. 

The cashier may announce the total at each interval like “this gets us to $11.15”.

Then the cashier will add a dime (10 cents) and “this gets us to $11.25”.

Now the cashier will add 3 quarters (75 cents) and “this gets us to $12.00”.

Then the cashier will add $3.00 (3 dollars) and “this gets us to $15.00”. 

Now the cashier will add $5.00 (5 dollars) and “this gets us to $20.00”.

We didn’t have to do subtractions, only addition. 

Our change is $8.88.

If you haven’t ever counted change back like this, practice it a few times with that jar of coins you collect from the sofa and your dryer. 

It might save you thousands in the long run.

Also works when you’re traveling abroad and using local currency.

Counting With Roman Numerals

The original US Constitution and the Bill of Rights used Roman Numerals to enumerate (to count off or name one by one), which was common in those days. When my student was studying those documents he wanted to understand this number system, he was also studying Latin at the time so that helped.

Roman Numerals are also used in many depictions of the Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments is a photograph by Vanessa Parent at Fine Art America. 

You don’t see Roman Numerals many places these days, in fact about the only place I ever see Roman Numerals used is by the National Football League (NFL) when they are describing the current Superbowl. 

Beats me why, but here’s some fun facts about that.

Here’s how to translate for reading the U.S. Constitution, the Ten Commandments and the Superbowl:

Roman Numeral = Number 

I=1

V=5

X = 10

L = 50

C = 100

D = 500

M = 1000

A string of letters means they should be added together. 

A string of Roman numerals such as XXVII is 27 or 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1.

If you see something like XIV, XIV is 14 or 10 + (5 - 1). If a smaller value (I) is placed before a larger one (V), you subtract instead of adding.

I personally think it is a pretty clean way of adding and subtracting.

In looking at the 2022 (played in February 2023) Super Bowl LVII, 50 + 5 + 1 +1, or 57. 

Pop quiz. Go back up to the top of this essay and look at the “Dome” at MIT. What’s the date on the dome?

So, now do you know how to count?