I'm really excited about how well one of my new lesson ideas for fifth grade CS is working out.
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I asked chatGPT to make some problems for me. It couldn't understand what I was asking for.
Also they have put up a new paywall today you get five chats a day. Let's see how many people sign up.
(I will write a program to make some amusing problems for me, I already have an English dictionary I use for my "wordle cheating" programs... this should be fun.)
@futurebird
It's not my main objection to generative "AI" but I think a lot of people miss how much more fun it is to work things out yourself. It's sold as saving time or effort, but it's also saving you from having certain (admittedly nerdy) kinds of fun, and I don't want saved from that. -
@futurebird
It's not my main objection to generative "AI" but I think a lot of people miss how much more fun it is to work things out yourself. It's sold as saving time or effort, but it's also saving you from having certain (admittedly nerdy) kinds of fun, and I don't want saved from that.I will not be accused of ignoring this tech and not giving it a "chance" --but yeah.
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I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.
Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF
(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )
@futurebird have you tried to doing long division in hex? it's not easy.
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Why cuneiform and base 3 ?
@shortstories @futurebird
Why not? -
I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.
Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF
(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )
I trust you used the old joke about why CS folks exchange gifts on Halloween
. Because Oct 31 = Dec 25
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I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.
Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF
(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )
@futurebird
a quick scan with English dictionary words finds exactly one triple that work as a hexadecimal sum.BED + BE = CAB
Many school districts/admins would frown upon double entendre invited by
BED + 12₁₆ = BED + 18₁₀ = BFF
(but at least it reserves adultery for adults?) -
I'm really excited about how well one of my new lesson ideas for fifth grade CS is working out.
I teach them to count in binary early in the class which they LOVE. In the new lesson I have seven sets of cards with numbers and symbols on them from:
binary
hexadecimal
base 3
base 3 but with different symbols
base 5 but with different symbols
cuneiform
decimalEach set of cards contains numbers from 1 to 150. Students put them in order and match symbols of the same value.
It's chaos.
“why don’t the ancient ones have a zero?”
twas not invented then, my child
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“why don’t the ancient ones have a zero?”
twas not invented then, my child
I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)
This caused many excellent questions!
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@shortstories @futurebird
Why not?The writing system has so many rules and symbols it might be more difficult than Egyptian Hieroglyphics which are more difficult than modern Chinese with it's pictograms
And also more difficult than ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew or any ancient form of any modern language that is based on a ancient dead language
Where the ancient language forms are usually more difficult than the modern forms for the same language
Is why not
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The writing system has so many rules and symbols it might be more difficult than Egyptian Hieroglyphics which are more difficult than modern Chinese with it's pictograms
And also more difficult than ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew or any ancient form of any modern language that is based on a ancient dead language
Where the ancient language forms are usually more difficult than the modern forms for the same language
Is why not
cuneiform numbers aren’t bad at all. though it’s disturbing how they have place value but no zero
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I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)
This caused many excellent questions!
@futurebird
place value without zero seems almost as confusing as semantic distinctions between tabs and spaces. -
I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)
This caused many excellent questions!
@futurebird Have you tried balanced systems, e.g. where digits can have values of -5 to 5 (base 11)?
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I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)
This caused many excellent questions!
@futurebird cool! But don't forget that ancient mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya did have a numeral for zero which is often glossed over in eurocentric histories. I'm not sure exactly when this developed but I think it was around the dawn of the common era.
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@futurebird
place value without zero seems almost as confusing as semantic distinctions between tabs and spaces.@llewelly @futurebird now i'm imagining a system where tabs and spaces are used to designate place value in a system with no zeroes... -
@futurebird Have you tried balanced systems, e.g. where digits can have values of -5 to 5 (base 11)?
no... oh dear.
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@llewelly @futurebird now i'm imagining a system where tabs and spaces are used to designate place value in a system with no zeroes...
@apophis @futurebird @llewelly I mean, worse has been done [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) ].
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@apophis @futurebird @llewelly I mean, worse has been done [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) ].
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@futurebird cool! But don't forget that ancient mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya did have a numeral for zero which is often glossed over in eurocentric histories. I'm not sure exactly when this developed but I think it was around the dawn of the common era.
The cuneiform system is VERY old. We are talking 2900BC, so the Maya zero, is much later. But also probably independent of the zero from India.
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@futurebird have you tried to doing long division in hex? it's not easy.
Not messing with that without a big multiplication table at hand.
