Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 04, 2011

She IS the one with the 40 mph preset speed. . .

If you’re doing long division, you have to do a bunch of multiplication and a bunch of subtraction.

You’re right.

In the long division algorithm I learned, you ‘carry down’ the next digit in the dividend next to the remainder from each successive subtraction.

I hate division!!! Thank God for the Calculator.

Well, it is the digital age….

And nobody wonders what digit Caulfield is referring to? I only wonder which hand it’s on.

The sad part is, with education being what it is, no one remembers how to do long division anymore. I was in high school in ‘93 and didn’t have a calculator in one math class. So out came some scrap paper and I quickly jotted down a long division equation to do my work. When I looked up, the 6 kids sitting around me were all staring at me oddly. One leaned over and asked what I was doing, so I told him.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” is what he asked me. (This was a Grade 11 Math class.)

You have no idea how difficult it was to keep from beating my head on my desk in frustration.

I used to get so stressed out over long division that I would end up with a migraine and would vomit. My teacher at the time was so mean that my mummy had to have three meetings with her.