Blog Post #7 – Babylonian Word Problems

First of all, it is incredible that we have such rich history about word problems, dating to societies thousands of years ago! It fascinates me to understand how things are done historically, compared to how we behave today, and to try and deduce how we got here.

With respect to whether or not these problems are practical, it doesn’t seem like it. For example, one of the first problems we see is someone trying to divide their estate, and they do it by saying a stranger will get 1/8 + 1/7 of it. While this problem would be good for practicing fractions, it doesn’t seem realistic that anyone would divide their estate that way. They might say one child will get the house, one child will get the family treasures, one child will get the monetary savings, etc. I’m not sure how to interpret generality in this context – keeping that in mind I would say that while these problems aren’t practical they are helpful for students learning about mathematics.

The concept of abstraction is very apparent here. Some of these problems are far-fetched, and rather than being rooted in reality, are designed for the purpose of trying to teach mathematics. When completing these problems, one needs to take a step back and rather than think about these problems as real life situations, treat them as learning opportunities. The idea of pure and applied mathematics to me is puzzling. I study investing in my Commerce program and there is a disaggregation between “value” and “growth” investing. You can’t have valuable businesses if they aren’t growing! I find myself struggling with the same contradiction here that there is a need to divide pure and applied mathematics when in reality they complement each other.