Math Woes

Hey everybody! Time for a pop quiz!

How many of you have ever heard of the wonderful mathematical terms known affectionately as GCF, or LCM? Can we have a show of hands? Hint: this was Grade 7 math from my daughter’s textbook.

Well, as it turns out, GCF is short for Greatest Common Factor, and LCM is for Least Common Multiple. And despite what the names say, the end result of finding these out are not the numbers you initially think they should be. For myself, having been away that time from Grade 7 math for approximately… (let’s see, this was 2017, I was 47, subtract…19 something, carry the six…divide by…hmmm…), well, it had been oodles of years, let’s leave it at that – I assumed that the GCF results in a problem of comparing several numbers would be a larger number (Greater), and the LCM would be a little number (Least), but it’s actually opposite of that.

So, she’s in Grade 11, now. And the math she is doing was considered advanced math back in the dark ages of the mid-80s. But, when she was in Grade 7, I found myself one evening, through no fault of my own, with my daughter’s textbook, some paper, and pencils, and my trusty calculator (the mathematical genius of most grown up out-of-school adults), trying to assist her with these problems, which, I will now reveal to you, I had absolutely no idea what they really meant, or how to even begin to figure out how to solve them. For those of you with children currently in Grade 7, you may identify with this adventure from several years ago. I guarantee – the math probably hasn’t changed all that much.

The other mathematical genius in our house (not requiring batteries), is my wife, who also happens to be a school teacher. She has the wonderful experience of having been a math mentor, and has a university education, and can do math in her head! Wow!

And of course, there’s me! I, who barely squeaked out of high school with a 56 in math, and an 80 in English (seeing a pattern here?), now finding myself having to ‘step up’, as my wife would say, and help my 12-year-old with this highly complex problem.

Fortunately, there is the internet! Which I found more helpful than the actual math textbook, which was probably written by a math teacher, rendering it unreadable to all other normal human beings. So I ‘Googled’ GCF, and got the definition of what it was, and how to do it. I even found a video of a nice man in front of a white board demonstrating just how to calculate this problem! Which was very helpful, except that the numbers he used weren’t the same ones as in Gwen’s word problems, making the whole thing less than helpful after all.

There were several questions that needed to be solved, but I thought that I would spare you eight pages of tedious details, and only highlight the one that really twisted my brain. Here it is, directly quoted from the textbook:

Hardware To Go has three types of nails in stock: 9100 ungalvanized, 2600 galvanized, and 2100 enamel coated. The store is going to package these nails into cartons. Each carton will have the same number of nails.

A. What is the maximum number of nails in each carton?

B. How many cartons will there be?

So I look at the question, and see…a mess. Maximum nails in each carton? Can’t I just pick a number? Doesn’t that depend on how many cartons I would use? Which means, I have to find out how many cartons there will be. I don’t know, how many cartons would I like to use? Isn’t it up to me, aren’t I in charge of the nails at Hardware to Go? And what kind of store already gets the nails in bulk? Aren’t they usually pre-packed at the distribution warehouse just to avoid such heartache?

Then, I had a brainstorm. What if I add up all the nails together? Then I would get 13,800, and then I could divide them up. I was thinking maybe many cartons of assorted nails? Wouldn’t that work? A carton of assorted nails would be perfect for the contractor on your Christmas gift list, wouldn’t it?

But, if we go back to the main “Rules of Word Problems," this doesn’t take the question and use the type of solution we are trying to learn in this chapter. It looks like I need to find the…something. LCM, GCF, GST, USB?

By this time, my wife, who was still at play rehearsal, phoned to ask if I had helped her with these problems, to which, I, quite sure of myself, told her we were stumped. I was trying to figure out how to make many cartons of assorted nails for Hardware to Go.

And over the phone, this is what she told me, after I read her the question. Let me repeat that – over the phone! Not in person, not actually looking at the problem, but in her head, and then relayed over the phone, “It’s 100, that’s the common multiple between these numbers. You have 100 cartons to work with per type of nail.

Really?! (I think I said that already.) Sorted per type of nail? Ohhhhhh….

“You don’t really think any carpenter wants an assorted carton of nails, do you?” And she hung up.

Well, we got through the questions, eventually. And I did discover that this is all quite confusing. Now I remember why I was so anxious to get out of high school, and go to film school. So now, I try and listen to my wife help my daughter with her math at home, this way I can learn along and join in all the family fun.

And if my wife is reading this, and sees that I am still confused, there might be some math lessons later this evening.

But don’t worry, folks, I still have my calculator.