Pig Plus Goat
You can't add pigs and goats!4 total reviews
Comment from robyn corum
TE,
I have often said (obviously as I have grown older and gotten a bit of age and wisdom on me) that when we actually stop and take the time to get to know people it's often surprising and even shocking at the amazing life stories they have - and just keep to themselves -- until someone TAKES THE TIME TO CARE and INQUIRE.
Thanks a bunch!
reply by the author on 02-Mar-2021
  |
TE,
I have often said (obviously as I have grown older and gotten a bit of age and wisdom on me) that when we actually stop and take the time to get to know people it's often surprising and even shocking at the amazing life stories they have - and just keep to themselves -- until someone TAKES THE TIME TO CARE and INQUIRE.
Thanks a bunch!
Comment Written 02-Mar-2021
reply by the author on 02-Mar-2021
-
Absolutely agree, Robyn. I'm figuring these things out as I grow older as well. At this rate, I should be pretty smart by the time I'm 227. Thank you for reading my little story.
-
hahaha I like that optimistic view. Good luck!
Comment from Susan Newell
Okay. Now what did the kids say to their geometry teacher when he taught them the Pythagorean theorem? a squared + b squared = c squared. You certainly can't add multiple pigs and goats! This is a cute story, but not one of your best. I found the tiny script very difficult to read.
reply by the author on 02-Mar-2021
|
Okay. Now what did the kids say to their geometry teacher when he taught them the Pythagorean theorem? a squared + b squared = c squared. You certainly can't add multiple pigs and goats! This is a cute story, but not one of your best. I found the tiny script very difficult to read.
Comment Written 02-Mar-2021
reply by the author on 02-Mar-2021
-
Hi Susan. Thank you for slogging through this.
I'm finding flash fiction, like poetry, puts greater demands on the reader. Every word is loaded, and tries to create only the essence of an image or idea, much like Knobby's equation. The reader is required to fill in the details on their own. Words like knobby, troll, we blinked, establish basic images. Longer works of fiction could fill in much of the detail that flash fiction doesn't allow. I'd love to hear what the difficult parts to read were.
The kids would say to their geometry teacher, "So, we're talking triangles here. And you're saying that the shortest side of the triangle is a side of our square pig pen, and that the second shortest side of the triangle is a side of our square goat pen. That means if we add up the areas, they'll ALWAYS equal the area of the square pen we'll need to build to hold our pig pen AND our goat pen." It's exactly what Knobby was saying with his equation. The question mark in Knobby's equation was undefined. It doesn't matter what you put in place of the question mark: it will ALWAYS be pigs and goats and NEVER anything else. You can't add pigs and goats.
The question mark of a person is always equivalent to the sum of his/her's entire life.
-
Well, my old eyes don't do well with small print, and the script offered here is barely legible, even when it's larger. Once I deciphered the words, I had no trouble understanding. I like your answer to my question, but I learned both algebra and geometry with different prompts, not worth expounding upon.
-
Ah, Susan, thank you. You're saying that it's the font style I used? I did a quick Google for easy to read Internet fonts, and it looks like a basic sans serif font is best. I think I picked the Fan Story editor's Cursive font. Sorry about that.
I would make a terrible web designer! This is very helpful. Thanks for pointing it out.
-
You are welcome. I disagree with the sans serif part. 60 years+ ago, studies were done concerning reading comprehension. The serif fonts are better at creating a word shape, thus quicker recognition and comprehension. That's why almost all print media use Times or something similar. Times is narrower and takes less space than something like Garamond. I doubt if a glass screen makes much difference. I think sans serif has a lot more to do with being "cool." If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say it is encouraged in oder to make reading harder and less comprehensible. JMHO
-
Forgot to mention, cursive is also known as script, and is meant to mimic handwriting.
Comment from Jay Squires
Even if your word-count proves to be wrong, you still wrote one helluva story. I had to read it twice before I realized the "old troll" was an algebra teacher. I could have used him. I never got the hang of algebra. (By the way, I pasted your story onto word and came up with 100 words.)
reply by the author on 01-Mar-2021
|
Even if your word-count proves to be wrong, you still wrote one helluva story. I had to read it twice before I realized the "old troll" was an algebra teacher. I could have used him. I never got the hang of algebra. (By the way, I pasted your story onto word and came up with 100 words.)
Comment Written 01-Mar-2021
reply by the author on 01-Mar-2021
-
Thank you, Jay, for checking the word count. Am I crazy to admit I counted the words by hand? Some word processors read em dashes and hyphenated words differently, and I wasn't sure about the equation either.
This story came to me after hearing someone say "comparing apples to oranges." It just reminded me of how lost I was those first few days of algebra, and how It would have made things so much clearer to use real-world examples. Anyway, thanks again for this nice review.
Tom
Comment from equestrik
i think this is quite clever and so was your old algebra teacher. I enjoyed th picture which helped to illustrate your well written story. All the best to you in the 100 word flash fiction.
reply by the author on 01-Mar-2021
|
i think this is quite clever and so was your old algebra teacher. I enjoyed th picture which helped to illustrate your well written story. All the best to you in the 100 word flash fiction.
Comment Written 01-Mar-2021
reply by the author on 01-Mar-2021
-
Hello, equestrik. Thank you for reading my little fiction. I'm not the speaker here, only the math-challenged guy behind the keyboard. I was surprised I could find a pig plus goat picture too, so that worked out at least.
Tom
