{"id":1479,"date":"2020-02-29T08:07:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josmfs.net\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2021-06-12T11:55:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T15:55:35","slug":"the-zairajah-and-mathematics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/2020\/02\/29\/the-zairajah-and-mathematics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Za\u2019irajah and Mathematics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2204\" src=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Zairajah-and-Math-Fig2a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Zairajah-and-Math-Fig2a.jpg 501w, https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Zairajah-and-Math-Fig2a-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/>The subtext of this essay might be \u201cword problems,\u201d since the stream of thoughts that led to the <em>za\u2019irajah<\/em> (<em>zairja<\/em>) began with a paper I read, while searching for potential problems for this website, on the history of word problems in high school texts in algebra in the 20th and 21st centuries. The following statement by Lorenat caught my attention:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe newer characteristics of how word problems are treated in Long\u2019s text [2016] \u2026 include adding sympathetic commentary about fear of word problems. \u2018And of course, there are those dreaded \u201cWord Problems,\u201d but I\u2019ve solved them all for you, so they\u2019re painless.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>[Lorenat continues,] A more extreme example of this is exhibited in the word problem commentary of Michael W. Kelley\u2019s <em>The Idiot\u2019s Complete Guide to Algebra: Second Edition<\/em> from 2007, in which he describes word problems as \u2018a necessary evil of algebra, jammed in there to show you that you can use algebra in \u201creal life.\u201d\u2019 However, Kelley makes no attempt to write \u2018real life\u2019 word problems, and criticizes the uselessness of the word problems he does include.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This essay is an attempt to rebut such negative views of solving word problems by placing the activity in a more favorable historical context.<\/p>\n<p>See the <a href=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Zairajah-and-Mathematics-200216.pdf\">Za\u2019irajah and Mathematics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The subtext of this essay might be \u201cword problems,\u201d since the stream of thoughts that led to the za\u2019irajah (zairja) began with a paper I read, while searching for potential problems for this website, on the history of word problems in high school texts in algebra in the 20th and 21st centuries. The following statement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[186,7,184,185],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-math-commentary","tag-keith-devlin","tag-math-history","tag-ramon-lull","tag-zairajah-zairja"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2205,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}