Republic of Mathematics blog

Posts Tagged ‘fractions

Is rationalizing rational?

Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: May 3, 2011

Rationalize or get it wrong? Text books and test setters regularly mark students wrong if they give an answer of to a problem. A student is supposed to know, as part of mathematical convention, that should be rationalized to . This issue has been discussed before by @suburbanlion at SuburbanLion’s Blog and @jamestanton at Rationalising […]

Save 30%, be 30% better off?

Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: February 22, 2011

A travel advertisement running, currently in the US, says you can save 30% on travel costs, and so be 30% better off. Is that right? How about 50% off? To make it easier to think about, let’s think how much we would save if we got 50% off the price of something. Suppose some item […]