Numeracy is a portmanteau of "numerical literacy" and refers to the understanding of mathematical concepts such as orders of magnitude, probability, and statistics.
Conjecture
.jpg)
Certain concepts in math are necessary for critical thinking. Many people, however, struggle to learn these concepts well thereby reducing the effectiveness of their policy choices.
Commentary
In a country of over $12 trillion dollars deficit (and counting), about 80% of people cannot concieve of the magnitude of a trillion. Very small quantities are equally confusing, because people are unaccustomed to seeing them in their everyday lives. However, thanks to wonderful videos and interactive comparisons you can get a better sense of how orders of magnitude work.
Of course, that's only a very small part of overall numeracy. Probability and statistics, it can be argued, play an important role in everyday discourse, especially as we continue to be bombarded by facts and figures of every sort. When I was younger, someone told me a joke:
Two boys are walking home from school and one asks the other,At the time I recall laughing very hard. As I got older, this joke became less funny for I encountered more and more people who surprised me with their ignorance and actually maintain variations of this sort of thinking.
"What's the chance that I'll see a man riding a dinosaur in the street?"
His friend thinks for a moment, and responds,
"Fifty percent. Either you will or you won't."
I currently do not have any solutions to this problem, yet I do not believe it unsolvable. Part of the issue may lie with trying to solve the wrong problem. But that will have to be another post.
indicates a link to a different website.
3 comments:
a)
50% is wrong and still demonstrates incorrect, if humorous, logic - but, what if...
it was more likely than you think?
while one could expect that there are no dinosaurs roaming the streets nowadays, and therefore the odds = as close to zero as statistically appropriate, do not forget to consider the alternative fulfillments of the schoolboy statement -- in ways he may not have meant, but that he would still be more likely to notice and accept than a non distraught-and-superstitious adult in his position.
e.g. television programming in the electronics store window ; a movie poster ; an advertising billboard; an insert-many-quarters-here child's mild bronco ride shopping mall distraction ; a painted playground climbing structure ; a powerfully and prehistorically named vehicle ; action figures ; a news clip of barney being attacked ; etc.
you must be on the lookout with this kind of imagination and intensity if you are going to manage to obsess over prophecy fulfillment...
:-)
b)
box-arrow link symbols overlap words when they are split by a line break
e.g. `random walk` & `magnitude of a trillion`
I suspect that this will present itself the same way on any screen because the text parameters are fixed?
c)
congratulations to you on your successful month-old blog, and to me for finally finding my way on.
@Ben-Torah: Good point about being imaginative; I expect you to point this out whenever it becomes appropriate. You mention that the "box-arrow" icon doesn't work correctly when the link is split by a line break; what browser are you using? (Let me know via email.) Thanks!
@Ben-Torah: Assuming you were using Internet Explorer, I fixed the "box-arrow" problem for split lines.
Post a Comment
In addition to comments, please indicate any typographical errors or issues related to this post.
Or you can contact me in private.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.