Lemons(?) of Lemmy, what is something that feels so obvious to you that you just get lowkey pissed at the world for not knowing?

Technological_Elite@lemmy.one to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 229 points –
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8% of 50 is 50% of 8

This is the third time this year that I have come across this. I am pissed that it was never taught in school... and that apparently I keep forgetting it every time.

A way to remember it is to remember why that’s the case

8% of 50 = (0.01 • 8) • 50 = 8 • (0.01 • 50) = 50% of 8

It all just boils down to the fact that multiplication is associative and commutative (aka u can multiply numbers in any order you want)

Ask me if you have any questions (im a math tutor i love teaching math) 😊

Thank you for taking the time to write it out! Funnily enough I'm not too bad at math (I tapped out at around linear algebra level) but I was taught in a very rigid way. Useful concepts like commutativity were just... read out loud to kids to be remembered as a Law Of Nature, instead of allowing kids to play with numbers and develop our numbers intuition. So while I have a decent theoretical knowledge, I'm terrible at applying what I know to real life. If that makes any sense?

Also, if you have any tricks for teaching percentages, ratios and basic statistics PLEASE SHARE. My partner has a new job and while he shines at the field work aspect, he has trouble with the mathier parts. He's had godawful terrible teachers his whole life. I've tried coaching him in math but my methods don't click with him. We also don't have the time to wade through dozens of YouTube videos hoping to hit the holy grail...

Yeah in my experience watching youtube videos passively is a waste of time. Time is better spent struggling with math practice problems and guiding him theough it when he’s stuck :-)