Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 07, 2020

Here’s hoping Calvin’s parents check his homework.

The Pythagorean Theorem should come in handy here.

9

Cue Tom Lehrer’s “New Math”.

Ah yes, I totally remember all of this from school. Lol, no I don’t. I swept everything under the rug after graduation.

I would say 9. But my school memories are too far away and something may have changed since then.

The is the same Calvin who has no trouble graphing his farther’s performance. BTW, the diagonal would be more like 6.7, but it’s still the wrong answer.

Y=approx. 6.7

Calvin, don’t listen to Hobbes! You have to draw both diagonals, add them together, and then divide by ten.

The answer is a square number. If you grab opposite corners of the square at the ends of the dotted line and stretch it out until it’s flat, you’ll get the correct answer.

Everyone knows the answer is 63

In “New Math” they estimate the answer, so the answer is 10.

Why would they change math? Math is math.

Hobbes declared what I’ve been calling for ages. Let the unknown quantity be called Y from now on, and let’s give X some rest from being hounded by everybody.

That’s pretty much the technique I used in Algebra class. Never could get the hang of it.

If they are going to make this a pathagorean calculation; the answer is Sq Rt of 45

Use your fingers, Calvin.

Well, Hobbes is right about one thing. If y=6+3, then y actually IS a square.

Well, if you can get to the right answer in the end…

I am good in the new math, so I can try explaining it better. Basically that line Y makes a triangle, so this is a geometry problem. First discovered by Pythagoras. He discovered that the square of the sides gives you the answer. So 6 squared plus 3 squared equals 45. Now the next step, 4 plus 5 equals 9, and there is your answer.

Higher Math, all right. This is the kind of mathematics you can dream up when you’re “high”…

I love the fact that BW actually shows us the “working”.

Think about it, there must be higher math,

Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above

Hobbes’s math is certainly more imaginative than Calvin’s. He proves at the end of this 3-week story arc that he is actually better at Math than Calvin as well. He’s better at most things than Calvin is, of course.

So THIS is how Common Core got started. Nobody could figure it out then, either.

That diagonal would have to measure as the square root of 45 (a2 + b2 = 36+9, so c2 = 45, in this case), or approximately 6.7, but Hobbes didn’t draw it right, since a right triangle with legs of 6 and 3 units is half of a rectangle, not a square. ;)

Pythagoras just called in and said that no way is the diagonal equal to two In fact it’s three times the square root of five. Both Calvin and Hobbes give up.

Hobbes invented Common Core math. Who woulda thunk it?

I had a flashback to my dad trying to teach me maths at age 9!

This higher math is like the Chinese philosopher… very Confucius.

1 is approximately equal to 2, especially for large values of 1.

A real world example of fuzzy logic.

My grandson had math like that. It is called common core.

This is the same math used by governments to work out their budgets.

Guess you have to do this in 3 steps or phases “why” I don’t know. A “delta” connected transformer winding is connected between phases of a three-phase system. A (Y) “wye” transformer connects each winding from a phase wire to a common neutral point. A single three-phase transformer can be used, or three single-phase transformers.

42

I don’t get why y’all are having so much trouble with this one. It makes perfect sense when compared with “new math”.

“god invented the integers. the rest is the work of man.” (Kronecker)

You mean, that’s not the right answer??

Yo Pythagoras! How could the diagonal be under 2 in any universe? It’s 6.7.

Ah yes. New math. I hear all who want to be executives on Wall Street have to take intense classes to learn it.

Just count fingers and toes.

Pi are round, cake are square!

Hobbes represents Calvin’s imaginary friend. Considering the complexities of Hobbes’s interactions, he may actually be representing Calvin’s underlying schizophrenic tendencies. Of course, we all treat Calvin as a real child. He ain’t; and that’s a good thing. He’s entertaining; and that’s a great thing.

When I was in grade school, every kid 1-8 was given a Numberaid abacus. I was in first grade. Second grade they took them away and started some rubbish called New Math New Math, as Harvard mathematician Tom Leher declared, “was so simple, so very simple that only a child could do it.” Watterson rediscovered it thirty five years ago. I was so glad for the advent of the pocket calculator to replace my long lamented abacus. My check book ledger always reconciles with my bank statement.https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1761888

No, the Diagonal of 6 & 3 is approximately 6.7Hobbes does need to draw a bigger square.

Looks like common core math

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.

Work it out with cans of tuna.

When I was younger, I tried this. I used a ruler and measured out 6 inches on one side and 3 on the other. The diagonal measured 6.75. Next, I tried dividing both numbers by 2 (since the opposite side would make the full number.) So I measured out 3 inches on one side and 1.5 on the other. The diagonal measured 3.7 – which is actually close to 6 MINUS 3!

√45 ?

I remember how difficult I found “higher math” to be in high school and college. At least when going for my current degree I worked harder and kept on practicing and studying, and I got a B+ in my college algebra class. (When going for said degree I got all As and Bs, including all As for a couple semesters.) And yes, I know math well enough to know Hobbes’s explanation is a bunch of baloney.

Why would they need to when you have an actual tiger giving you the answer!

He should ask Lou Costello to explain it:

https://youtu.be/xkbQDEXJy2k

Purple, because aliens don’t wear hats.

At least Calvin remembers something from the class!

Calvin does polls and graphs, writes great poems, has an amazing vocabulary for his age. . . but can’t do 6 + 3?

Finally, math made simple.

Common Core techniques being employed here…..

Believe it or not, I had students who used stranger “reasoning” than that.

with a lot of fudging you can almost make man-made climate change seem a wee bit possible…

Hobbes into higher order pythagoras theorem. This feline is way ahead of Calvin’s academics.

I don’t exactly know why, but this stupid homework solution really made me laugh this morning. Damn right, if you’re going to try and deal with higher numbers, you’d better use that higher math. Right on, Hobbes.

New math works this way, doesn’t it?

Reminds me of my days struggling with Integral Calculus.

Nein!

The square root of 45 is between 6 and 7. Calvin can’t measure either. :-)

Hey Hobbes, call the guys who wrote the US Tax Code and explain to them what they meant but did not write.

This is how “A Beautiful Mind” should have started.

There came a point, sometime over 50 years ago, when I learned that if I did my homework, all the Bla-bla-bla of the teacher in class made sense. If I was called on, I could answer correctly. It was an epiphany. I wish somebody had told me that a little sooner.

I was always taught that unknown variables are at the end of the alphabet, like w,x,y,z; known variables at the beginning, such as a,b,c,d, and invariant constants in the middle, like k.

wait is hobbes imaginary or is he real? just a question…

It’s that d@*^ed common core math!!!

Once upon a time sine and cosine were about math. Later on they alluded to new car loans. Now they bring to mind releases to do medical procedures.

The really funny thing – at least to me – is that in fact 9 is a perfect square. :-)

Mathematics is made of formulas, proofs, and in Calvin’s and Hobbs’s case 90 percent imagination

Hobbes is right, the answer IS a square number.

Every answer is the correct answer if we agree to disagree

This is me learning algebra. I’m in math right now actually. So boring.