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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 bigg
by 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 agoThe 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.