reductio ad absurdem?

[acroyear]

Monday Math: A Rant About Fractions : EvolutionBlog:

Let me tell you what happens when you are morbidly obsessed with reducing fractions. A while back I had to install a new doorknob on a closet door in my house. This meant buying one of those small, hand-held power drills, since new holes were needed for the screws that would hold the small metal dingus to the door. When I prepared to begin drilling I discovered that the five thirty-seconds bit was too fat, but the three thirty-seconds bit was too thin. So I went hunting around for the four thirty-seconds bit. Do you think I found it? Of course not, because whoever stamped the widths onto the bits came from the zombie-like, “must reduce my fractions” school of fraction manipulation, and therefore I had to find the one eighth bit. That's right! My bits were stamped in halves, fourths, eighths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds, all because of an educational system that thinks reducing fractions is an inherent good, like charity and kindness to others. Of course, as a highly trained math professional I can do these conversions in my head. But I shudder to think of all the missized holes that have been drilled in the nations door jambs over this.

Comments

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

More like having a measuring system based on fractions, rather than something more elegant like the metric system.

In any case, drill bits are usually stored in order, so people don't have to do the math to get the next size up or down.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

only if you haven't already pulled them out of the case or the case doesn't lock them in place and they all fall out as soon as you open it.

no, not speaking from experience. really.

[tomble.livejournal.com]

This is why I harness the awesome power of metric!