I used to make that point by asking my physics students for volunteers
to paint my house the next summer for the sum of 100 000, to be divided
by the entire crew. Most males and some females would raise their hands.
Usually a student would finally ask, "100 000 what?". If not, I asked
the question. I would then tell them that I meant 100 000 Italian lira
and then would state the equivalent number of dollars. (At today's
conversion rates that comes out to roughly $66.) All the hands would
drop quickly as I asked them if units were important.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
On 2013-03-29 15:53, JohnAltounji wrote:
You are right. A number should always be attached to its unit, unless it
does not have one. I had a professor who us used to say: “No units no
value, to the trash”
John Altounji
One size does not fit all.
Social promotion ruined Education.
*From:*owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] *On
Behalf Of *Team Metric Info
*Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 11:36 AM
*To:* U.S. Metric Association
*Subject:* [USMA:52574] Question about number sense- is this the correct
term?
I am writing up a case study about a triage nurse who incorrectly
recorded a toddler's weight as 25 kg, instead of 25 lbs (11.3kg). The
weight error caused the toddler to receive 225 mg of clindamycin orally
three times a day, instead of the correct dosage of 113 mg orally three
times a day. Dosage was calculated for a toddler weighing 25kg instead
of their actual weight of 11.3kg. Read the full case study at
http://webmm.ahrq.gov/case.aspx?caseID=293.
None of the other ER staff (who were different from the triage nurse)
caught the error. To me this is an example of another issue most
American’s have with SI units- a lack of number sense! At least that is
what I have been calling it. I am trying to clearly state that most
Americans even in the healthcare field do not intuitively understand
metric units. So even looking directly at the same toddler none of the
other ER staff thought no way this kid is 25kg.
A related thing happened to my son recently, during an allergy
appointment at children’s hospital here, he got on the scale and it said
10kg. My son is over 3 ft tall and weighs about 45lbs. My husband told
the nurse, there is no way he weighs 10kg. The nurse replied, “that is
what the scale said”- so he reminded her of the 2.2 conversion and she
agreed. Turns out the digital scale was broken, but my point and how
this story relates to the other story is that the nurse did not have a
“number sense” of what 10kg would look like. She was looking directly at
my son.
*Group- do you think the term “number sense” is correct in this context?
Because it is not really the number but the unit attached to it which
they do not intuitively understand. *
**
*Any thoughts would be appreciated*
