FoxTrot by Bill Amend for November 02, 2008

Yeah, like I’m going to get out a ruler to measure pie slices…

Thats why theres guesstimating.

Somewhere, Danica McKellar is smiling.

This is fabulous. My wife and I have been mentoring 5th graders for an hour a week, and this is their constant complaint: why do I have to study math? The second problem is really easier than the first. Cut the pie into six slices and give Peter 2. This makes 60 degree angles, which are easier to deal with. (You can skip one of the cuts to give Peter a single large piece rather than 2.) BTW, you would use a protractor to measure angles, not a ruler. Sorry to sound like a math geek, but I are one.

I gotta write that trick down.

lol

RayC says: BTW, you would use a protractor to measure angles, not a ruler. Sorry to sound like a math geek, but I are one. OK, then. Yeah, like i’m going to get my protractor out to measure pie slices.

margueritem says: ” Yeah, like i’m going to get my protractor out to measure pie slices.”

I would! But first I’d have to wash off the pizza sauce.

many basic types of math are useful..what I don’t get is upper level math like trig or calculus..now there’s something you don’t need in real life!!!

“I are one?”

Picture a clock. Every 5 minutes is 30 degrees, so 15 minutes is 90 degrees or a right angle. If you want 72 degrees, remember that each minute is 6 degrees, so 12 minutes on a clock face covers 72 degrees. BTW, we use trig and calculus as life-savers - if you can’t pass them, you don’t get into medical school.

I guess RayC is a math geek not a literacy follower.LOL.

There are a lot of T-shirts printed with slogans like “I are getting an educayshun at State U” or “I never thought I’d be a college graduate, but now I are an English teacher!”

I’m guessing Ray C was thinking in that vein, although it would have been even funnier had he said “but I are two”, thus being both gramatically and mathematically incorrect!

funny. common scenario at my house.

Sternvogel says: “There are a lot of T-shirts printed with slogans like “I are getting an educayshun at State U” or “I never thought I’d be a college graduate, but now I are an English teacher!” ” I’m guessing Ray C was thinking in that vein, although it would have been even funnier had he said “but I are two”, thus being both gramatically and mathematically incorrect! Thanks for standing up for me, Sternvogel. I was thinking of the tee shirt, “Last year I cudn’t even spell injuneer, and today I are one.” Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

Ray C says:

Sternvogel says: “There are a lot of T-shirts printed with slogans like “I are getting an educayshun at State U” or “I never thought I’d be a college graduate, but now I are an English teacher!” ” I’m guessing Ray C was thinking in that vein, although it would have been even funnier had he said “but I are two”, thus being both gramatically and mathematically incorrect! Thanks for standing up for me, Sternvogel. I was thinking of the tee shirt, “Last year I cudn’t even spell injuneer, and today I are one.” Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

I understood what you meant. Like minds, I guess.

Well, I use trig all the time, calculus less so, but that’s for work, not “real life”.

I call my kids whenever I find myself needing it at home. They don’t always know the answer but when I show them, they know. From my 19yo to my 6yo, the question “Why study math” has never been asked in my house.

Math IS everywhere. AND The point of learning math is not the same as learning how to write. Math teaches abstract thinking - a skill that is utilized in many different fields.

–Journalist (also Wife of a High School Math Teacher)

Actually Marguerite, you’d want a protractor, or maybe even a compass if you wanted to challenge yourself. Not much could be done with a ruler. :)

Not much could be done with a ruler. :) As a straightedge - gotta get those slices cut cleanly! lol

Using only an unmarked compass and straightedge, can you make 72-degree angles? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass%20and%20straightedge%20construction

This is no joke… I just watched my math major sister cut my dad’s birthday pie into equal pieces for 9 dinner guests. Stared at it a moment, went to work, and it came out perfectly. Geesh!

i know that feeling so well -o- “sigh”

Substitute by the WHO! Jabo

Why do they make us study math is school?

notice how the leaf in the picture in the background flips around in the different pannels?

I wouldn’t be able to live without math <3

Jason would have solved the problem using something other than base ten.

and if peter solved it there would be no pie.

este es uno de mis cómics favoritos en el mundo entero! Estoy totalmente de amor este comic porque me hace reír!

Equal Angles

Is no one going to give the answer?Ok I will, cut it in four 60 degree slices, and then a fifth slice that is 120 degrees. Just in case someone hasn’t learned that math yet lol,

i thought paige was stupid

Cutting it into six slices is easy, then just give Peter two of them.