Quote Originally Posted by Aprilszoo View Post
Thank you for clarifying what chem geek said.... Reading it again, it shouldn't have needed any explanation.... Where do I report for my dunce cap?
My wife is a teacher, who works with elementary school children who aren't 'getting it', and also with the teachers who aren't 'getting it across'. You would be amazed at how many teachers also don't get it -- they've learned to crank the handles on lots of 'math black boxes', and they know which box to use, but they don't actually understand the math or its application.

For years, math has been taught as numeric manipulation, divorced the real world and practical application. The result has been that most adults fail to understand that math is just a way of seeing, and thinking about, certain aspects of the real world. Years ago, when I was hiring high school teachers for the summer to help me work with the large commercial pools I serviced, I was amazed at these college graduates who were stumped when asked to calculate, roughly, the volume (and weight) of water in, say, a 42' x 75' x 4' to 10' pool -- even after I'd showed them how. Most never learned. Even the math teacher I hired took 2 - 3 weeks to learn!

So, don't feel bad -- being 'math-challenged', with respect to practical applications of math, is totally normal among college educated American adults!