Roger - this is great! I'm sure the teacher thinks it's advanced material more suitable to HS than JHS but there's any number of us who started APL in Junior High.
Regards, Devon On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 2:05 PM, Roger Hui <[email protected]>wrote: > I got myself invited to talk to a grade 7 math class at my kids' school. I > was given 20 minutes. The following is a record of the session of my talk, > with my comments added afterwards. > > 2 + 3 > 5 > 2 - 3 > _1 > 2 * 3 > 6 > 2 % 3 > 0.666667 > 2 % 5 > 0.4 > > NB. I was told that the talk I had was "too advanced", so my goal > NB. was to get across one main simple idea, the following one. > > 2 3 4 + 8 1 7 > 10 4 11 > > NB. a student thought that 2 3 4 was 234, and gave 1052 > NB. as the expected answer. > > 234 + 817 > 1051 > > 2 3 4 - 8 1 7 > _6 2 _3 > 2 3 4 * 8 1 7 > 16 3 28 > > NB. Some students seem quite smart, so I slipped in "insert". > > +/ 2 3 4 > 9 > */ 2 3 4 > 24 > 2+3+4 > 9 > > NB. a student asked about order of operations > > 2 + 4 * 3 > 14 > 2 * 4 + 3 > 14 > (2 * 4) + 3 > 11 > > NB. I wanted to tell them the story of Gauss as a schoolboy > NB. summing the numbers from 1 to 100 in no time flat. > > +/ 1 2 3 4 5 > 15 > 1 2 3 4 5 + 5 4 3 2 1 > 6 6 6 6 6 > 5 * 6 % 2 > 15 > 100 * 101 % 2 > 5050 > 1 2 3 4 ... + 100 99 98 ... > |spelling error > | 1 2 3 4 ... + 100 99 98 ... > | ^ > > NB. a student asked about exponentiation > > 2 ^ 3 > 8 > 4 ^ 3 > 64 > 2 4 ^ 3 2 > 8 16 > > 2 ^ 123 > 1.06338e37 > > NB. A student ask where he can get the software. Another asked "PC or > Mac?" > > At the end, the teacher suggested I go talk to the high school (8-12) > classes. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
