I was not taught algebra at primary school. I first met algebra at the age of 11 in the first year of secondary school. If i remember correctly, a problem like that was typical of what was learned in the first year.

I remember that we were taught algebra, in a mathematics class, by a quite young teacher who was notionally one of the three chemistry teachers. Yet as a graduate with a BSc in Chemistry, teaching mathematics at that and quite possibly much higher levels would have been well within his capabilities.

I remember how he started teaching algebra.

He said something like, "Think of a number, let's have 3, double it and then subtract 1, giving 5.

Then he gradually went on to having an unknown number to start and said that if we double it and subtract 1, suppose we got 9, what was the number with which we started?

Then he introduced the concept of representing the number with which one started as x, and thus explained the idea of having an equation in x and how to solve it.

So, in fact, at the age of 10 I would not have been able to solve that problem using an equation involving x as at that age it was preparing to the the 11+ examination, for which I think that the most advanced part of what I possibly did not know at the time was called mathematics, possibly just known as arithmetic, was long division.

I know we had to do what were called Reading for Meaning exercises where there was text and then questions to be answered where some of them required deducing things, so it is quite possible that a problem like the problem in the web article was encountered, but not presented as arithmetic. But mostly we had the class teacher for most topics, so although arithmetic, spelling, composition were done in separate chunks, it was mostly all in the same room with the same teacher, so pupils not having a timetable for different lessons, the teacher just said that now we are going to do, for example, history.

Alas I have seen it referred to as the culture of "the badge of honour of not being any good at maths" in which some media personalities seem to revel.

It concerns me that that attitude is being presented to young people, because it then can have the effect of people who like maths and are good at maths being ridiculed as being stupid for liking maths. (I know that deeming someone as being stupid because they like maths is illogical - I did not say I think that myself, quite the opposite).

There was all the cultural emphasis on sport.

On that sort of topic I remember an episode of The West Wing where CJ went back to her home town for a 25 years since finishing high school party and lots of people there were very successful, in particular CJ herself. One man worked at an ordinary sort of job, he had not been to college and not had a graduate career. If I remember correctly CJ did not recognise him as (in the fictional backstory) he had become almost bald. He had been the star quarterback in the school football team back then. "I peaked at 17" he said somewhat mournfully.

William

That is an interesting way to solve the problem, working out on a rolling basis what he still has got, then forming an equation by having that what he has still got is equal to half of what he had at the start.

Rather than my approach of adding up what he has given away and spent.

William

Yes.

As an entertainer for the troops, so that she could not be deemed a spy if captured, she was an American Army officer and wore uniform.

I read somewhere once the following.

Either very late in the war, or just after, in Germany, she was seeking information about her sister.

Apparently at where she enquired, an assistant went into an office to say to someone in authority that there was an American officer wanting to see him.

"Send him in", was the reply!

William

I think that that is for the geosynchronous satellites that are in Clarke orbit.

If I remember correctly a lot of satellites and the early manned space flights are much nearer the surface of the earth.

I know that Telstar was much lower. I remember seeing the first Telstar broadcast live from the USA one evening.

Later that evening, when the 20 minute window became available again, which was on the next orbit, a programme from England was broadcast to the USA, but I did not see that as it was on late, after I had gone to bed.

The satellite had to be tracked as it travelled across the radio-observable window.

William

When one compares that with the distance from England to the USA by ocean liner, or the distance from Chicago to Los Angeles by Route 66, hmm!

William

The interesting thing is that the computer is running Windows 10S.

But if it is a scam then it got through, though maybe it just displays the same picture for everybody and does not actually do a scan, so not stopped from doing it.

William

Thank you for your reply.

I had forgotten about this, so as I have recently installed the three Affinity programs, version 1 of each, on a new computer, it would be a good project for me to start to use the software on the new computer. Thank you for reminding me.

Yes, I think that the project could be done using Affinity Publisher.

I don't know about the new version 2 programs, but in version 1, for some reason unknown to me, that whereas Affinity Publisher allows setting of the author field in the PDF document, Affinity Designer does not. So if one is producing a PDF document that needs one or more of the facilities that are in Affinity Designer yet are not in Affinity Publisher, and one wants to add one's name in the author field of the PDF document, one needs to use the two programs.

William

Thank you for your post.

Your post has helped me solve the problem.

I found Notepad++ on the web, found it was not a Microsoft program, so, as this computer is running Windows 10S I realized I would need to get it via Microsoft Store, if it were there.

Upon searching in Microsoft Store I could not find it, but it did then occur to me to search for

word count

in Microsoft store, and I found a word counter.

I got it, it is free, and it works well.

Thank you.

William