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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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People's Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery
#7628749 - 11/13/07 01:53 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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In England the National Lottery recently introduced a scratch card game called ‘Cool Cash’. In the game you have to scratch off a temperature lower than the temperature a nefarious penguin has. The problem? Sometimes the penguin has a negative number and the general population doesn’t remember from year 6 mathematics that -15 is a lower temperature than -10.
From the article: As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.
But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.
Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.
The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: “On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won… and so did the woman in the shop. “I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I’m not having it.”
luminiferous-aether.net
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7628867 - 11/13/07 04:02 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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If they would stick to the kelvin scale, then this wouldn't be a problem.
On a side note, I wonder how many of these folks are members of the Scholars for 9/11 movement.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Seuss]
#7628934 - 11/13/07 05:17 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Posts: 21,287
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7629415 - 11/13/07 08:58 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Diploid said:
The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: “On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won… and so did the woman in the shop. “I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I’m not having it.”
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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maggotz


Registered: 06/24/06
Posts: 7,539
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7629559 - 11/13/07 09:44 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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i wonder how many people actually won and threw the tickets away. 
"damn, -8... almost lower than -7, fuck"
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: maggotz]
#7629711 - 11/13/07 10:35 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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> i wonder how many people actually won and threw the tickets away. 
*laugh* A very good question.
I know there is a country that makes you take a simple math test before being allowed to enter contests (or the like). By simple math test, stuff like what is three minus five. Canada, perhaps?
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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trendal
J♠



Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Seuss]
#7629755 - 11/13/07 10:47 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yep! Canada's the one!
It's to get around a law we have that makes gambling illegal...this way you aren't "gambling", you're "receiving something for the question you answered" 
In effect, it disqualifies anyone with really poor math skills...or at least everyone who doesn't know how to use a calculator.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: trendal]
#7629894 - 11/13/07 11:11 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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The voluntary tax, as paid by the underclass of society. I have no sympathy for these fuckwits!
And that's not maths, that's counting.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Visionary Tools]
#7630238 - 11/13/07 12:22 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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so I wonder what they think the negative sign is for? How the fuck do they do subtraction? so many questions
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7630618 - 11/13/07 01:33 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Nice to see not all the stupid people in the world live in America.
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minesstudent
Who knows?



Registered: 12/12/05
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Silversoul]
#7631836 - 11/13/07 05:52 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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This was in England.
-------------------- "The universe is the way it is because if it wasn't we wouldn't be here to talk about it"
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: minesstudent]
#7632044 - 11/13/07 06:22 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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> This was in England.
Finally, it happens to somebody other than me! 
> Nice to see not all the stupid people in the world live in America.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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wps
Well-PaidScientist


Registered: 09/22/07
Posts: 579
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7632251 - 11/13/07 07:18 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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if they knew how to do math,
then they probably wouldn't be playing the lottery in the first place.
-------------------- "America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve." - Tom Morello
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: wps]
#7632632 - 11/13/07 08:54 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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good point
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wps
Well-PaidScientist


Registered: 09/22/07
Posts: 579
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: johnm214]
#7635500 - 11/14/07 02:44 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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yeah, I would say my knowledge of mathematical probability is what deters me from playing the lottery.
-------------------- "America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve." - Tom Morello
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RuNE
bomberman


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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: wps]
#7638835 - 11/15/07 09:59 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
wps said: yeah, I would say my knowledge of mathematical probability is what deters me from playing the lottery.
I know someone who's won it twice.  However unprobable, there is still that small chance you can shoot for. I mean in the end, it's really just a game. $2 a week is not much for a chance at financial freedom.
-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: RuNE]
#7638900 - 11/15/07 10:15 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Actuarially, it's a horrible investment.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: wps]
#7639349 - 11/15/07 11:39 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
wps said: if they knew how to do math,
then they probably wouldn't be playing the lottery in the first place.
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Newbie
User of semicolons.



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Re: Peoples' Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Silversoul]
#7639498 - 11/15/07 12:12 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Wow...that's sad. It's definitely funny too, but sad.
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Veritas

Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: People's Math Skills So Poor They Can't Tell if They Won the Lottery [Re: Diploid]
#7640664 - 11/15/07 04:43 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Isn't the "number line" covered in 3rd grade math? Sheesh..."Idiocracy" is seeming less like sci-fi and more like a sneak preview.
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