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School Beacons
Signals from the Deep
Like many North Americans, I’ve been literally on the farm while school is out, riding a tractor, pulling a reel line across the field. That’s why they have such a long summer recess in this country, so we farmers can do our business. Then in winter: the three Rs (readin’ writin’ ‘rithmetic).
Although there’s some truth in the above picture (I have been literally on the farm on a tractor), I’m a city rat by and large, although most would say the city I live in is not “big” (as in Big City) but “mid” as in midsized. We’re talking Portland, in case you’re curious, Oregon.
And it’s also true that I’m a sometime teacher, of young children through fully grown adults. When I say “young children” I mean like 3rd grader and above, so not really that young, and I’d say my aggregate audience bell curve peaks around young adult, with tapering to both sides (what a bell curve does). The two years teaching high school calculus full time, still count for a lot, in terms of where to put my average.
What I’m thinking about today is Modulo Arithmetic and how most computer languages include the modulo operator. Don’t they all? Calculators have it too in…
