Misconceptions in Maths Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Misconceptions in Maths - Essay Example According to Swann (2001, p.147), â€Å"People makes mistakes for different reasons. Some may be simply due to lapses in concentration, hasty reasoning, memory overload or a failure to notice salient features of a situation. Others, however, may be symptoms of deeper misunderstandings or may not be mistakes at all – they may be result of alternative interpretations of the situations.† According to Sadi (2007, p.2), â€Å"More students have problems with decimals than with any other number concept. Difficulties with decimal numbers range from comprehending place value after the decimal to proper use of the algorithm of addition and subtraction.† Some of the most common misconceptions that children makes in decimal are identifying which decimal number is greater, placing the decimal in order from smallest to largest, subtracting and adding. This is illustrated by below examples In this case, some children may think that 3.501 is greater than 3.52 because 3.52 have three terms as compared to 3.501 that have four terms. They simply ignore the decimal when comparing two numbers. Children are taught that 35.90 is identical to 35.9. Now, some children may confuse with it and will be not able to determine exactly when zero be written and when it should be omitted. For example, dividing 1632 by 8 they will answer 24 instead of 204.In addition, children think that it gets bigger when they multiply and smaller when they divide. Therefore they seems to be inconceivable that 8 Ãâ€" 0.5 give 4, since 4 is smaller than 8. Similarly, they find it hard to accept that 20 à · 0.2 gives 100, since 100 is much bigger than 20. For many children, to make a number bigger, they have to multiply it and to make it smaller they have to divide it (Sadi 2007, p.3). According to Sadi (2007, p.5), only 26% of twelve-year old students could work out how much a pair of jeans which normally costs  £15 would cost after a 20% reduction and there ere thirty-three different answers were given to

Chinese and American Zombies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chinese and American Zombies - Essay Example The way people turn into Chinese or American zombies has certain similarities and differences. When it comes to American zombies, they were created by Voodoo spells. Thus, voodoo priests (through spells) could make the person their slave. Importantly, the concept of slavery has been very strong for Americans and it is the core of the idea of zombies. Another way of turning into a zombie is to be bitten by one. As far as Chinese zombies are concerned, they are created when a person commits a suicide, they are victims of premature burial or they were killed and want to revenge. The major feature of the concept of the Chinese zombie is their desire to â€Å"absorb life essence†. The difference between the two types of monsters is that American zombies eat flesh whereas Chinese zombies absorb souls of people. Major features of zombies also differ in the two cultures. Thus, American zombies walk slowly, they are almost deprived of the ability to think and they only strive to satisf y their hunger for human flesh. Their bodies often deteriorate or even disintegrate. As for Chinese zombies, they can look at living people if they turned into zombies shortly after their death or they can look like horrific monsters if they were dead for a while before becoming undead. Besides, these creatures’ hair and nails keep growing and they hop with their mouths wide open always ready to grasp a person’ soul (Bai 109). Chinese zombies hop and as the name suggests (stiff bodies) they do not move their limbs.