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"It shows how powerful the right metaphor can be in understanding something" Just like how I was taught the difference between "<" and ">". Our teacher drew th

"It shows how powerful the right metaphor can be in understanding something" Just like how I was taught the difference between "<" and ">". Our teacher drew the rest of Pac-Man around the "<" or ">" so that we'd think of "<" or ">" like the mouth of Pac-Man. It wants to eat the larger number. But that was back around 1983 when Pac-Man was all the rage (when I was drawing Pac-Man eating ghosts on my folders).

evincarofautumn 14y ago
My elementary school teachers used a similar metaphor with alligators. But I never could remember which number it was that got eaten, so I just figured the bigger side was for the bigger number. Since an equal sign doesn’t have a “bigger side”, it would imply that both sides are the same. Then I wondered why they didn’t just teach that. Then I liked school even less. (Oddly enough, my childhood intuition about equals signs isn’t historically accurate—the equality is actually supposed to be represented by the equal length of the two strokes.)
- bonobo 14y ago
  The greedy alligator always wants the bigger prey. It took me a long time to differentiate the symbols because, before using the alligator metaphor, my teacher tried this one: cross a line that goes perperdicular to the bottom part of the symbol. If it turns into a 4 it's smaller than; otherwise, if it turns into a 7, then it's bigger than. I remember seeing a "5 < 8" and thinking "ok, I know which number is smaller and which one is bigger, and I know how which symbol is named, but which one should I use?" For some reason it wasn't obvious to me that I should read the assertion from left to right. I just saw two numbers and I didn't know if I should indicate that one of them was bigger or that another was smaller—both assertions were true. I remember having a list of exercises to do as homework and just circling the bigger numbers in frustration. When I hearded the alligator metaphor, however, I got it instantly.
showerst 14y ago
I learned the same thing in school, but with an Alligator instead of Pac-Man =).
- Myrmornis 14y ago
  wow. what? what's all this stuff about alligators and pac-men? Isn't the side with two lines just bigger than the pointy side? how do these new entities help? I'm really confused by the small side being the alligator that wants to eat the big side (or did i get that wrong?), let alone the stuff about 4s and 7s!

evincarofautumn 14y ago

My elementary school teachers used a similar metaphor with alligators. But I never could remember which number it was that got eaten, so I just figured the bigger side was for the bigger number. Since an equal sign doesn’t have a “bigger side”, it would imply that both sides are the same. Then I wondered why they didn’t just teach that. Then I liked school even less. (Oddly enough, my childhood intuition about equals signs isn’t historically accurate—the equality is actually supposed to be represented by the equal length of the two strokes.)

bonobo 14y ago
The greedy alligator always wants the bigger prey. It took me a long time to differentiate the symbols because, before using the alligator metaphor, my teacher tried this one: cross a line that goes perperdicular to the bottom part of the symbol. If it turns into a 4 it's smaller than; otherwise, if it turns into a 7, then it's bigger than. I remember seeing a "5 < 8" and thinking "ok, I know which number is smaller and which one is bigger, and I know how which symbol is named, but which one should I use?" For some reason it wasn't obvious to me that I should read the assertion from left to right. I just saw two numbers and I didn't know if I should indicate that one of them was bigger or that another was smaller—both assertions were true. I remember having a list of exercises to do as homework and just circling the bigger numbers in frustration. When I hearded the alligator metaphor, however, I got it instantly.

showerst 14y ago

I learned the same thing in school, but with an Alligator instead of Pac-Man =).

Myrmornis 14y ago
wow. what? what's all this stuff about alligators and pac-men? Isn't the side with two lines just bigger than the pointy side? how do these new entities help? I'm really confused by the small side being the alligator that wants to eat the big side (or did i get that wrong?), let alone the stuff about 4s and 7s!