There were many good Y words like Youth, Years, Yellow, Yogurt, Yardstick, Yarn, and Yipee to write about, but every time I tried to think about a way to develop a post on one of them, the song, Yes! We Have No Bananas, was the only thing that popped into my head. Are you familiar with that song?
The song first became a hit in 1923 and has been recorded many times. (The Wiki Page needed more references, so I'm not going into any more of its history.) I first heard it in third grade, and I had to think twice about the meaning. The song was saying yes but meant no. I thought it was very clever.
Flash forward a few years to when I was learning about negative numbers, and I just couldn't understand how you could multiply two negative numbers and get a positive result. But Aunt Martha had the perfect words to describe it to me. She said, "I don't have no pencil. Do I have a pencil or not?" With those few words, it all made sense. I did have a pencil. That example reminded me of the banana song and the clever use of yes and no, and it seemed to be a good example for negative numbers, too. If you have a yes (positive number) combined with a no (negative number), the result is negative. There you have it. Simple math explained in a complicated way. :)
And now I have two posts in a row with a math theme (remember yesterday and using X as a math variable). Although granted, it's a weak theme, I may use it to finish up. So, can you guess what tomorrow's post will be about?
Is it tomorrow about z axis of graphs..the x y and z axis?? Very genius example ur aunt gave there...for - - +....i never thought like that
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Dropping by from a to z "The Pensive"
I hadn't thought about the Z axis in a long time. Interesting possibilities there.
DeleteI also thought that you might feature the X and Y axis.
DeleteI do know that song! My parents listened to a wide variety of music styles and I have an impressive but fairly useless library of songs in my memory. I sometimes sang this to my kids when we ate bananas when they were little. Or I sang the Chiquita Banana brand theme song. I always threatened to do that in front of their friends if they misbehaved. It was a great disciplinary option. ;)
Well, I had to go listen to the Chiquita Banana song since I couldn't remember more than the first line. I'm sure that was quite effective as a disciplinary measure. :)
DeleteNow I am sitting here trying to remember why two negatives equal a positive.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem right, does it?
DeleteNot familiar with the song but love love love that example of two negatives. I will definitely use it to explain the concept to my kid when she grows up!
ReplyDeleteDropping by via A-Z challenge from momandideas.com
Aunt Martha always seemed to have a way of explaining things that made sense to me. Too bad she didn't become a teacher.
DeleteI heard that song in an old movie and thought it was a fun song so I memorized it. Crazy what we remember. And so on to the last day.
ReplyDeleteY- Yevhen
And so on to the last day! As usual, I struggle and wonder why I keep signing up to do the A-Z Challenge.
DeleteYes, I've heard that song, before! In fact, I often sing the first couple of lines to my daughter when we are out of bananas! :D
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like fun. I think I'll start singing it to my husband when we're out of bananas. :)
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