The Math wall.....

[justoffal]

My job is very math intense. Nothing fancy mostly just your four basic operations.... A lot of number rooting and exponents...

You simply cannot do my job unless you have these skills. My company is currently grossly understaffed and begging for employees.... There are stacks of applications on the desk of the human resources manager who has the unenviable job of sorting them out and sending them off to the testing institute in town to see if they can pass the basic skill tests.

In the past 6 months it's been a 100% failure rate due to the math section of the test.

I hear they're thinking about lowering the standards which I hope they do not. There are some decisions that I have to make based on calculations that could actually be dangerous if they're done wrong.

I suspect this particular problem is widespread in the hiring process right now.

Jo

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

My job is very math intense. Nothing fancy mostly just your three basic operations.... A lot of number rooting and exponents...

You simply cannot do my job unless you have these skills. My company is currently grossly on the staff and begging for employees.... There are stacks of applications on the desk of the human resources manager who has the unenviable job of sorting them out and sending them off to the testing institute in town to see if they can pass the basic skill tests.

In the past 6 months it's been a 100% failure rate due to the math section of the test.

I hear they're thinking about lowering the standards which I hope they do not. There are some decisions that I have to make based on calculations that could actually be dangerous if they're done wrong.

I suspect this particular problem is widespread in the hiring process right now.

Jo

Did you mean "understaffed"?

 

[justoffal]

Did you mean ":understaffed"?

Yeah.... After I talk texting I usually will reread to see what got printed wrong, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Silent Warrior]

Yeah.... After I talk text I usually will reread to see what got printed wrong, thanks for pointing that out.

Math is a problem all over the country. Even simple math is causing problems. Many young retail cashiers can't even make change unless the register tells them the amount so I can imagine what problems you hare having. Our education system is failing the country.

 

[georgephillip]

Could you provide a few examples of the level of Math proficiency your job requires?

 

[martybegan]

My job is very math intense. Nothing fancy mostly just your three basic operations.... A lot of number rooting and exponents...

You simply cannot do my job unless you have these skills. My company is currently grossly understaffed and begging for employees.... There are stacks of applications on the desk of the human resources manager who has the unenviable job of sorting them out and sending them off to the testing institute in town to see if they can pass the basic skill tests.

In the past 6 months it's been a 100% failure rate due to the math section of the test.

I hear they're thinking about lowering the standards which I hope they do not. There are some decisions that I have to make based on calculations that could actually be dangerous if they're done wrong.

I suspect this particular problem is widespread in the hiring process right now.

Jo

Another field that has issues keeping people, locksmithing. Lots of work out there but it's long hours and you have to have great manual dexterity as well as being pretty strong.

 

[martybegan]

Math is a problem all over the country. Even simple math is causing problems. Many young retail cashiers can't even make change unless the register tells them the amount so I can imagine what problems you hare having. Our education system is failing the country.

The original blame for the change thing belongs to cheap calculators. It's why Engineers also don't know how to use a slide rule anymore (I went to college in the 90's, they had been phased out by then)

 

[toobfreak]

My job is very math intense.

Good, then maybe you can solve this problem. Why is it that after 60 years of football, the NFL is now suddenly giving players a 0 as their jersey number???!

Nothing fancy mostly just your three basic operations....

There are FOUR basic operations... addition, subtraction, multiplying and division.

and sending them off to the testing institute in town to see if they can pass the basic skill tests. In the past 6 months it's been a 100% failure rate due to the math section of the test.

Doesn't surprise me. Several years back my old neighbor was expounding on his bright daughter, so I gave her an old slide rule I had to play with (she was about 14-15), but she could not grasp that a 2 - 3 could represent 2-3, 20-30, 2000-3000, or .002-.003. She did not get how the decimal point could move around, but that the relationships were all the same given the same base 10.

I hear they're thinking about lowering the standards which I hope they do not.

Lowering the standards is just like saying you've had them too high all these years.

 

[80zephyr]

The original blame for the change thing belongs to cheap calculators. It's why Engineers also don't know how to use a slide rule anymore (I went to college in the 90's, they had been phased out by then)

I learned on a slide rule. Then simple calculators came along. Then scientific calculators. I was lucky, I graduated from college in 1976, and my math was mostly done by hand, with paper and pencil. Many people can "do" math because of calculators without really understanding what they are doing.

That will probably hurt us...bad.

 

[justoffal]

Could you provide a few examples of the level of Math proficiency your job requires?

Very basic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.....

We do a lot of area measurements and figuring for component sizes.

For instance what is the diameter of the safety valve that has 85 square inches of surface?

The standard shop math for this would be:

A = .7854D²

85 = .7854D²

A little basic algebra:

85/.7854 = D²

108.225 = D²

Sqrt 108.225 (10.403) = D

 

[martybegan]

I learned on a slide rule. Then simple calculators came along. Then scientific calculators. I was lucky, I graduated from college in 1976, and my math was mostly done by hand, with paper and pencil. Many people can "do" math because of calculators without really understanding what they are doing.

That will probably hurt us...bad.

We still learned the theory in the 90's, but expanded on it with programs such as MathCad and Maple.

My degree is in Chemical Engineering, so I got to do Physical Chemistry, which is Chemistry+Calculus.

 

[justoffal]

Very basic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.....

We do a lot of area measurements and figuring for component sizes.

For instance what is the diameter of the safety valve that has 85 square inches of surface?

The standard shop math for this would be:

A = .7854D²

85 = .7854D²

A little basic algebra:

85/.7854 = D²

108.225 = D²

Sqrt 108.225 (10.403) = D

This particular problem has blocked 100% of the recent candidates. But there are others like dilution ratios and effluent totals measured in gallons and liters per hour where the candidates have absolutely no idea what to do.

 

[1srelluc]

I absolutely suck at math....Thank goodness for TI.

 

[justoffal]

Good, then maybe you can solve this problem. Why is it that after 60 years of football, the NFL is now suddenly giving players a 0 as their jersey number???!


There are FOUR basic operations... addition, subtraction, multiplying and division.


Doesn't surprise me. Several years back my old neighbor was expounding on his bright daughter, so I gave her an old slide rule I had to play with (she was about 14-15), but she could not grasp that a 2 - 3 could represent 2-3, 20-30, 2000-3000, or .002-.003. She did not get how the decimal point could move around, but that the relationships were all the same given the same base 10.


Lowering the standards is just like saying you've had them too high all these years.

Lol? 0 as a jersey number....? Seems a bit belittling.... Hahahaha

The old slide rule engineers almost never made mistakes.... That much I remember.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Good, then maybe you can solve this problem. Why is it that after 60 years of football, the NFL is now suddenly giving players a 0 as their jersey number???!


There are FOUR basic operations... addition, subtraction, multiplying and division.


Doesn't surprise me. Several years back my old neighbor was expounding on his bright daughter, so I gave her an old slide rule I had to play with (she was about 14-15), but she could not grasp that a 2 - 3 could represent 2-3, 20-30, 2000-3000, or .002-.003. She did not get how the decimal point could move around, but that the relationships were all the same given the same base 10.


Lowering the standards is just like saying you've had them too high all these years.

Did you know computer only do one operation? Addition.

For subtraction, they add negatives, for multiplication they add repeatedly and for division it is repeated adding of negative numbers.

 

[justoffal]

Did you know computer only do one operation? Addition.

For subtraction, they add negatives, for multiplication they add repeatedly and for division it is repeated adding or negative numbers.

Algebraic sums

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

This particular problem has blocked 100% of the recent candidates. But there are others like dilution ratios and effluent totals measured in gallons and liters per hour where the candidates have absolutely no idea what to do.

My grandson is doing those exact same types of problems in his technical mathematics class online, sitting beside me right now.

 

[Unkotare]

Math is a problem all over the country. Even simple math is causing problems. Many young retail cashiers can't even make change unless the register tells them the amount so I can imagine what problems you hare having. Our education system is failing the country.

Here we go again..... "I got the wrong change at 7/11, so nobody in the whole country can do math!"

 

[toobfreak]

Did you know computer only do one operation? Addition.

This is because the computer math processor basically only has COUNTERS for doing numerical operations.

 

[georgephillip]

Very basic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.....

We do a lot of area measurements and figuring for component sizes.

For instance what is the diameter of the safety valve that has 85 square inches of surface?

The standard shop math for this would be:

A = .7854D²

85 = .7854D²

A little basic algebra:

85/.7854 = D²

108.225 = D²

Sqrt 108.225 (10.403) = D

Speaking as someone who never invested the necessary resources into acquiring basic math skills, I wonder if you're underestimating the complexity of your job?

How many engineers work for your firm?