Because That's the Way It Is

     

     Before I get to explaining the oh so interesting part of my day I want to share with you something that made me go hmm. You see I was working with the little boy I tutor on order of operations in math (aka PEMDAS). I believe the majority of us learned this convention by memorizing the term Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, parenthesis exponent multiplication division addition subtraction. Well at this little boys school they are teaching it differently. They set it up with the A under the M and the S under the D.
      Crawford wasn't able to explain to me how his teacher told them to use it but he was clearly very confused about the whole process. He was trying to grasp the reason behind why we do it "that" way. Why wouldn't we just work from left to right just like reading? And I had to tell him the honest truth, I did't know why. I mean I know that if you don't do it that way you get the "wrong" answer but I really only knew it's just the way it is done. And I HATE that answer.
     So this afternoon I decided to do a little research behind PEMDAS and discovered it is considered a convention of mathematics, not an operation. So just like how we have conventions in language that helps us understand what the person is saying, we have conventions in math which helps us all get the same answer.
    Basically a long long time ago people decided this is how it was going to be done and ever since THAT'S THE WAY ITS BEEN DONE, easy answer but hard to accept as a ten year old boy. But it makes sense, a person could write a problem as 4+6x10=100 and another person could do the same problem and get a totally different answer 4+6x100=604. So we all have to agree to excuse our dear aunt sally, what a pain, oh well.


Anywaaaay, today was the beginning of Courtney and I's moving process. We went over to her apartment this afternoon and packed up all of her belongings. And let me tell you the girl must hide all of her belongings well because the packing seemed endless. Before we got started I figured this would be a breeze but once we started opening cabinets and closets I realized it was going to be a different story.

                          

(jules helped :) )

When we were finally done we had worked up quite the appetite so we went to a local sub place for dinner. It is called Great American Hero and has been in Dallas for 35 years. To be honest it kind of looks like a place that belongs in Tucson. It is very eclectic and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get A's on their food safety evaluations but they make darn good sandwiches! I got the turkey, go figure, but it was great! And it's right down the street from my house, how convenient!

The rest of the night is going to be filled with more packing, my stuff this time!

If anyone has any interesting stories about their experience with PEMDAS or any pointers on how to better explain why we do it I would love to hear about it!