Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum

General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: tinkerman on March 09, 2012, 17:39:47 PM

Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: tinkerman on March 09, 2012, 17:39:47 PM: Logarithms, what was that all about? I remember telling my maths teacher it was a total waste of my education time and so far I have proved him right:D Has anyone ever used them?? ;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 09, 2012, 17:56:18 PM: Latin hasn't come in too useful in my extensive travels either. I haven't even found Latinia.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: grahamturner09 on March 09, 2012, 17:59:27 PM: Religious studies I am far from being a vicar :D
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Colwyn on March 09, 2012, 18:16:34 PM: quote:
Originally posted by Scunner

Latin hasn't come in too useful in my extensive travels either. I haven't even found Latinia.
But I expect you put up with it - not wanting to upset the status quo (not without an alibi anyway), or set a new agenda, (you wouldn't want rebelliousness like that on your curriculum vitae), et cetera.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 09, 2012, 18:20:04 PM: Ad nauseam
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Colwyn on March 09, 2012, 18:27:32 PM: I learned how to fill up inkwells and change a pen nib. Still waiting for an opportunity to make use of that.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: KKOB on March 09, 2012, 18:28:19 PM: Bilious.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 09, 2012, 18:34:38 PM: I wonder how much Quink is sold these days
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: KKOB on March 09, 2012, 18:46:15 PM: Well, according to Quinkipedia ;) Quink is still the world's biggest selling pen ink in this millennium. According to fountain pen enthusiasts, Parker Quink is generally considered to be so-called "safe fountain pen ink".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quink
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 09, 2012, 18:49:34 PM: Yes, interesting I grant you, but that doesn't answer my question does it :D

They might sell 5cl a year and be the biggest ink seller
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Colwyn on March 09, 2012, 18:58:36 PM: Quink? Luxury! We dreamed of having Quink. We had India Ink which came in gallon cans (5cl? What's a 5cl?). It clotted after two minutes of use and if you spilled it on your fingers, which you always did, it took 3 days of scrubbing with wirewool to start to take away the stain.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 09, 2012, 19:03:22 PM: Now I recall a different problem. Being left handed, this caused the hand to follow the pen, and with fountain pens this caused smudging the ink and giving me a blue hand from little finger tip to wrist. Nobody cared.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Diverbaz 1 on March 10, 2012, 07:05:57 AM: Algebra, still don't know what x is equal to!!!
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: anna-marie01 on March 10, 2012, 07:17:32 AM: Isn't Algebra between Morocco and Libya ?
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: tinkerman on March 10, 2012, 07:19:07 AM: pie r squared innit?
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Stan on March 10, 2012, 07:48:50 AM: pie r round usually.
I can still remember "the formula" for solving quadratic equations, now that has been really usefull !!!
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: tinkerman on March 10, 2012, 08:18:05 AM: cosigns that was another one! I knew less about them than I did about logarithms
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: steveb1 on March 10, 2012, 09:31:40 AM: Logarithms just in case you need reminding

WHEN WE ARE GIVEN the base 2, for example, and exponent 3, then we can evaluate 23.

23 = 8.

Inversely, if we are given the base 2 and its power 8 --

2? = 8

-- then what is the exponent that will produce 8?

That exponent is called a logarithm. We call the exponent 3 the logarithm of 8 with base 2. We write

3 = log28.

We write the base 2 as a subscript.

3 is the exponent to which 2 must be raised to produce 8.

A logarithm is an exponent.

Since

104 = 10,000

then

log1010,000 = 4.

"The logarithm of 10,000 with base 10 is 4."

4 is the exponent to which 10 must be raised to produce 10,000.

"104 = 10,000" is called the exponential form.

"log1010,000 = 4" is called the logarithmic form.

Here is the definition:

logbx = n means bn = x.

hope you all got that
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Stan on March 10, 2012, 09:36:39 AM: What about chemical elements and valency numbers, I think it was, totally baffled me. And could Steveb1 please write in English.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: tinkerman on March 10, 2012, 10:13:18 AM: ah yes its all coming back to me now...WHOOSHHHHHHHHH
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: mike A on March 10, 2012, 12:24:21 PM: And the periodic table, lest we forget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8dtquYDXEU

;) ;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 10, 2012, 12:30:29 PM: Sex education was at 13 for us, it seemed very amusing indeed but pretty irrelevant. I'll never forget the horror of the scene before us, our teacher, fiddling with a johnny ;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Stan on March 10, 2012, 13:17:41 PM: Did Johnny not mind ?
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Scunner on March 10, 2012, 13:21:20 PM: He was fed up of being ribbed
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: steveb1 on March 10, 2012, 13:34:17 PM: do not rub him up the wrong way
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: stoop on March 10, 2012, 13:51:21 PM: quote:
Originally posted by Scunner

Now I recall a different problem. Being left handed, this caused the hand to follow the pen, and with fountain pens this caused smudging the ink and giving me a blue hand from little finger tip to wrist. Nobody cared.

I'm a lefty as well and can remember the great difficulty in writing with fountain pens. Nibs were not meant to be pushed!

Also simple things like writing in a book and holding the left page down with your right arm/hand. No thought for us poor left handers at all!

Subjects? Well I'm yet to find any use for the dovetail joints I was forced to learn how to make.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: mike A on March 10, 2012, 14:40:03 PM: Some sinister people on this forum then.
;) ;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: KKOB on March 10, 2012, 15:16:28 PM: Well, we made allowances for you lot by driving on the left in the UK, how do you get on with driving on the right ? Or is that all wrong too? ;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Fredfox on March 10, 2012, 17:03:14 PM: You may feel all this as useless, but we had to do our maths through Gaelic, also Latin, French as well as Teagasc Criostai (Catechism). All this certainly prepared me for a bright future in Banking in the UK!. This may have had some impact on the present day Banking Problems?.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Fredfox on March 10, 2012, 17:04:33 PM: You may feel all this as useless, but we had to do our maths through Gaelic, also Latin, French as well as Teagasc Criostai (Catechism). All this certainly prepared me for a bright future in Banking in the UK!. This may have had some impact on the present day Banking Problems?.
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Fredfox on March 10, 2012, 17:06:14 PM: Sorry about the 'double' entry!!!!!
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: stoop on March 10, 2012, 18:09:00 PM: Didn't do computer studies then Fredfox?

;)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Jim Fraser on March 10, 2012, 18:24:41 PM: Every now and then the useless subjects come in handy when answering pub quiz questions
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: KKOB on March 10, 2012, 18:33:31 PM: quote:
Originally posted by Fredfox

Sorry about the 'double' entry!!!!!

Are you just showing that you did bookkeeping too?
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: tinkerman on March 10, 2012, 18:33:42 PM: I wouldn't go to one of your quizzes Jim
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: Jim Fraser on March 10, 2012, 19:10:29 PM: quote:
Originally posted by tinkerman

I wouldn't go to one of your quizzes Jim

OK I deserved that:D
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: usedbustickets on March 11, 2012, 15:39:41 PM: Religious Education (RE) or as it was then Religious Instruction (RI), apart from being a waste subject, 2 or 3 periods of it a week at secondary school as i recall. Indeed, it almost led to my expulsion from school, as Mrs Brown the RI teacher regularly sent me to the head - another god botherer - to also attempt to bully in the ideas of (christian) religion[:(!]

However, it did contribute to me becoming an atheist, and perhaps more importantly a fully paid up member of the rebel and activist class, at an early age, views which i have continued to hold to this day. So perhaps not a complete waste. :) :)
Title: Useless Subjects at School
Post by: maximumtom on March 11, 2012, 17:36:29 PM: Stop for a moment to consider if you had been taught only the subjects that were going to be of use to you. Firstly,you would have had to decide on your career at age 5. Secondly, there would not have been sufficient positions for all the soccer pundits :) . Thirdly, you would be so narrow minded that you would only be able to talk boringly to others in the same job ( have you ever been out for a pint with a bunch of accountants ? Sorry OPO ). Fortunately, you had the benefit of education rather than training.