Log was absolutely a part of my American high school math curriculum, and while it may not make its way to everyone, many if not most Americans were exposed to it in school. But people have terrible memories when it comes to what they leaned in school, doubly so regarding math, quadruply so regarding higher-level math. Regardless of their level of educational exposure to math concepts, I certainly don’t expect the average American adult to be able to reliably do any math they learned outside of elementary school, myself included, because after a few decades of not practicing, not even thinking about those concepts, that knowledge is almost certainly gone or at least covered in a very heavy mat of mental cobwebs.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
I’ve recently learned Americans don’t do log tables in high school.
Log is the opposite of exponent, so log2 is the opposite of squared, log 3 the opposite of cubed. log4 opposite of x^4 etc
instead of making things relatively bigger, you’re going the other way and making things smaller.
Kayday@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Not sure what Americans? It was absolutely part of our curriculum.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
ah apologies. I take it back, then. Someone told me wrongly, obviously.
fireweed@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Log was absolutely a part of my American high school math curriculum, and while it may not make its way to everyone, many if not most Americans were exposed to it in school. But people have terrible memories when it comes to what they leaned in school, doubly so regarding math, quadruply so regarding higher-level math. Regardless of their level of educational exposure to math concepts, I certainly don’t expect the average American adult to be able to reliably do any math they learned outside of elementary school, myself included, because after a few decades of not practicing, not even thinking about those concepts, that knowledge is almost certainly gone or at least covered in a very heavy mat of mental cobwebs.