Sorry Nicholas, I hit reply instead of reply all, and didn't see that it wasn't getting back to the edu-sig list until I had hit send. On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 18:28:07 -0500, Nicholas Wheeler <dragoncow2@gmail.com> wrote:

Isn't a math function the same as a computer-science function? You give the math function an x, and it returns a y. ie: f(x) = 2*(4x)^x -or- def f(x): print 2*((4*x)**x). Most people should be able to grasp that, if they've been through highschool algebra.

I work, part-time at a local private school.. The school uses principle based education processes, and they have a placement test to determine where the entry students should be studying, which is repeated every 90 days. The school has found that over 80% of the transfer students from public or similar education have problems with basic integer math operations.. This is your basic 1+1=2 type of thing. Just because a student has physically attended an algebra class, (and even passed said class) does not mean that they have learned the concept of function while doing so.