FP mumbled something about some maths lessons she was in once. I got the impression things hadn't gone well for her at the time and briefly supposed that this is one of the reasons she forgets to halve or quarter at least one ingredient whenever she modifies a recipe...
Anyhoo, it got me thinking about the times I use maths. Being a collie of course I am naturally given to the counting of sheep (and roughly pointing out to shepherds the general direction all x number of them were heading in when I last saw them). Now, did you see how I introduced the concept of 'x' just then?
'X' is going to help me explain some of the more frequent calculations I do in a normal day:
Scenario: a squirrel is over there *points*, beneath a tree looking for its nuts. There are x trees within x metres of the squirrel. There are x friendly squirrels already up x of the trees but twice as many unfriendly squirrels up half of these trees. You are a collie weighing x, capable of attaining x speed in x seconds (on a good day) and there is a slope of x degrees between you and the target squirrel which will slow you down by a third.
Question: Will you catch it?
So you see, my daily walk in the park is not a walk in the park, as the saying goes (I've watched Top Gun). Rather, it is a huge maths problem and I think it's worth remembering that *starts licking paw*
