黄色电影

Cats and the Variables of Life

by Donna Curry

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I was given a dare: write a blog about cats and math. Since I love a dare, here I am!

I did some initial brainstorming about my own cat experiences and thought about how I used to have three cats, then wound up with five, and eventually went down to zero before picking up two shelter cats again. So, yes, we could do some counting of cats, adding and subtracting over the years. But for me, that鈥檚 not really 鈥渄oing math鈥�. That鈥檚 just performing basic computations.

Then I thought about all the cat food I buy every month. I could create an in-out table and then graph the result so I could see how much I鈥檓 spending on my two furry feline friends over a year, two years, etc. In fact, I could even derive a formula for how much I would spend over the cats鈥� lifetimes, based on the average amount of cat food I buy per month. Of course, that assumes that the cost of cat food doesn鈥檛 go up or that the cats don鈥檛 decide to eat more or less per month. But, I can at least get a sense of cost over time.

While that would be an interesting activity (for cat lovers like me, anyway), I realized that it wasn鈥檛 how I really believe math should be used. In fact, what I鈥檓 really talking about is numeracy, not math. Math is considered more 鈥渁cademic鈥�; there is one right answer to a calculation (for example, 2 + 3 = 5). I think of math as being devoid of life variables that upset the 鈥渙ne right answer鈥� concept. Numeracy is something different 鈥� it鈥檚 the practical application of math to actual life situations. Let鈥檚 look at a couple of examples of how numeracy and the variables of life play out:

I had three cat carriers that each hold two cats. Here鈥檚 the question: Did I have enough cat carriers to move my five cats from Massachusetts to Maine? Easy answer, right? No. Although two cats could  fit into one carrier, some of my more ornery cats demanded their own space. The actual answer to this probIem was that I had to go out and buy another cat carrier; I needed four cat carriers for five cats. This is the difference between math (just doing calculations) and numeracy (looking for patterns and having to make real decisions based on what those calculations show plus other life variables).

Let鈥檚 move away from cats for a second and look at a couple of other numeracy examples, where the arithmetic is influenced by situations that could come up in real life.

We are are planning an outing at a summer camp.  If each van holds 9 people, and we have 46 people planning to attend, how many vans do we need? A quick calculation will show that 46 梅 9 = 5.111. Hmmm鈥�that doesn鈥檛 work. Maybe we could round that result to 5 and squeeze 10 campers into one van? Or, maybe one camper might decide to stay behind and take the basket-weaving class that day? The problem is that neither solution is ideal or feasible. We really need 6 vans. 

Here’s another simple example that I remember being used (incorrectly) in some old math workbooks:

 If you have 9 yards of material, and each dress requires 2 2/3 yards, how many dresses can you make?

No, the answer is not 3 3/8.  Sure, it鈥檚 the result of 9 梅 2 2/3, but it鈥檚 a meaningless answer for deciding how many actual dresses can be made.

Adults encounter tricky math situations all the time (which may or may not involve ornery cats). Numerate adults are able to apply what they know about math and real life to arrive at practical solutions.

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