Math problems

[Irishmommy]

So dd1 had to draw four trapezoids today of a particular area. She didn't bring her math book home, just grid paper, no biggie. We had a disagreement over what a trapezoid is, so I told her to look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED agreed with me, but she wasn't happy. So the grade 4 kid I babysit was here with her math book, so I looked it up in there. Guess what? The math book and OED totally contradict each other!!!!

Dh went online to the askoxford.com site, and this is their definition:

• noun Geometry 1 Brit. a quadrilateral with no sides parallel. 2 N. Amer. a quadrilateral with one pair of sides parallel.

How the heck can it be so different? My print OED only has the first definition! No wonder we were at odds!

And we went with the math book (N. Amer) definition.

[xmysticprincessx]

the only thing i can think of is that the 1st definition is british and the 2nd is north american. it sounds odd, but maybe they have different definitions for the word. (i'm assuming that you are from ireland, so that's why your definition would be different from the textbook's.)

in general, i would go with the textbook's definition. that's what dd is learning from and what the teacher is basing tests and grades on.

btw, i also agree with the north american definition (based on all my years of schooling and working as a teacher).

[Calidris]

odd.
But you know the Americans like to do thing diferently, they drive on the wrong side of the road, they misspell things like honour and colour, why not totally change the definition of a shape

[TiredX2]

How wierd.

Look at what wikipedia has to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezoid

A trapezoid (in North America) or trapezium (in Britain and elsewhere) is a quadrilateral two of whose sides are parallel to each other. Some authors define it as a quadrilateral having exactly one pair of parallel sides, so as to exclude parallelograms.

The exactly opposite concept, a quadrilateral that has no parallel sides, is referred to as a trapezium in North America, and as a trapezoid in Britain and elsewhere.

So excited to have learned this!

[bobandjess99]

huh?
who knew?