The previous post reminded me of something that happened in 7th grade pre-algebra: Someone (perhaps me) asked the teacher one day why we used x to represent an unknown quantity. Without hesitation, the teacher answered, "By convention." He then moved on to solve 2x+6 = 16, or whatever the equation was we were working with.…
I love math paradoxes.
Okay, for those of you who know me, you’ll understand. I came across this website via Digg.com this morning, and it’s right up my alley. http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numbers/Num1_69.html