Poll of the Day > 56% of Americans don't want Arabic numbers to be taught in schools

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kyuubi4269 posted...

_AdjI_ posted...

Pretty much. This doesn't prove that 56% of Americans are racist, it proves that (at least) 56% of Americans are too stupid to ask for clarification on a concept they don't understand before providing their opinion on it.

They may have refused to clarify, considering the malicious intent of the survey.

That's a pretty baseless reach, but even if it's true, it's still stupid to answer a question you don't understand.

What a Dick.

Hopefully he's enjoying his "15 minutes of fame".
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_AdjI_ posted...

That's a pretty baseless reach

It's pretty baseless to assume Fox was being honest when collecting data for malicious use.
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_AdjI_ posted...

That's a pretty baseless reach,

Kyuubi thinks everyone has a right to be stubbornly ignorant and stupid. How dare Fox highlight that fact.
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BlackScythe0 posted...

Krazy_Kirby posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

Bugmeat posted...

But this doesn't proof bigotry in any way. Just uninformed people who responding to a trick question. The people responding aren't saying no because of the word Arabic. They're saying no because they think it's a different set of numerals. An additional set to what we already have.

Dear god.

Why wouldn't their first question be "What are arabic numerals?"

Who the fuck hasn't seen people who ask trick questions? Everyone has heard the term arabic numerals in math class even if they don't remember it.

Anyone willing to answer stupid fucking questions doesn't deserve to be protected.

never heard of it

"Even if they don't remember it"

never heard of it. not everyone was taught the same thing
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

Krazy_Kirby posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

Bugmeat posted...

But this doesn't proof bigotry in any way. Just uninformed people who responding to a trick question. The people responding aren't saying no because of the word Arabic. They're saying no because they think it's a different set of numerals. An additional set to what we already have.

Dear god.

Why wouldn't their first question be "What are arabic numerals?"

Who the fuck hasn't seen people who ask trick questions? Everyone has heard the term arabic numerals in math class even if they don't remember it.

Anyone willing to answer stupid fucking questions doesn't deserve to be protected.

never heard of it

"Even if they don't remember it"

never heard of it. not everyone was taught the same thing

Knowledge. Only learn when they make you.
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If you not once heard the term Arabic numbers, you need to call a bunch of your math teachers and tell them that.
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pedro45 posted...

If you not once heard the term Arabic numbers, you need to call a bunch of your math teachers and tell them that.

Why? They're not linguists or historians.
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BlackScythe0 posted...

Why wouldn't their first question be "What are arabic numerals?"

Who the f*** hasn't seen people who ask trick questions? Everyone has heard the term arabic numerals in math class even if they don't remember it.

Anyone willing to answer stupid f***ing questions doesn't deserve to be protected.

Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe they did ask and the answer was "the number system invented in the Arab peninsula." So what else is the natural answer going to be? "no."

Also my knowledge of Arabic numbers being used in the western system is extra curricular. And guess what? I can actually read Arabic. The reason why I didn't know the numbers as we see it in the west were called "arabic numbers" were because teh Arabs literally don't have the same symbols. For example, the "five" doesn't look like a "5" but rather an "o."

Don't be so shut in your own world. People do stupid things all the time. They answered a question and you think its stupid, but in reality its minor. Someone came up to them, they answered it, life moved on. Only seconds were wasted.
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pedro45 posted...

If you not once heard the term Arabic numbers, you need to call a bunch of your math teachers and tell them that.

I knew someone was going to pull this card. And why? My math professors did their job. Just because YOU learned about numerical history in math class doesn't mean everyone else got a poor mathematical education.
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keyblader1985 posted...

How would they know it's fluff if they clearly don't even know what it is?

Let's ask the multi variable calculus class, or Partial differential equations class how many know Arabic numbers. Lets see how many of them know what it is.

They're doing actual math. Not numerical history or anything to that effect. Meaning the class is about the subject header.

btw, how many people know who created the squeeze theorem or the history surrounding the fundamental theorems of calculus both 1 and 2? Even those who took the classes that actually use them? Most of the time, they know how to use those theorems and don't care about the other stuff.

the point is they know what numbers are. That's enough to do math.

Valiant_Kaiser posted...

Being stupid is barely better than being racist. They're both bad.

What defines stupid? You do konw only seconds was wasted during this poll? And for all we know, they actually did ask "what are arabic numbers?"
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It seems to be a talking point that people should have just asked for clarification on what Arabic numbers are, but when's the last time you asked a teacher during a test about a question and you got a real answer?

Outrage culture is stupid and so is this topic

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'd be against teaching Arabic numerals in American schools, because it's a historical mistake and classical ethnocentrism to call them Arabic numerals in the first place. They were invented in India.

Pretty much. A lot of things we seem to credit to Arabs were stolen from other cultures, though.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'd be against teaching Arabic numerals in American schools, because it's a historical mistake and classical ethnocentrism to call them Arabic numerals in the first place. They were invented in India.

Pretty much. A lot of things we seem to credit to Arabs were stolen from other cultures, though.

Everything is stolen from everywhere basically if you trace things back enough

Its why the whole idea of cultural appropriation is so dumb
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