Vet Bill ---- holy..!

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by monster

well I'm doubting myself here, but I remember in maths way back when..... they taught us to imagine it as a crocodile's jaw, and the croc is greedy and always eats the larger thing. So 34<57 and 900>5. Right? Someone tell me I'm not going nuts here.....

Now THAT'S the sort of maths teaching that I can remember.

I had a lovely maths teacher to start with - Mr Burr. He helped me with algebra/ equations by drawing it out as bags of sand and treating it like a mystery that needed to be solved. I was 14. Then again, he was involved in all the school plays and I always got on well with the teachers who were too.

Then I failed my Maths O Level (not Mr Burr's fault!) and was passed to Mr Woodsmith. He hated me. He was my Head of Year in the 3rd year and suggested I would be better off at another school. Luckily, all the arts-based teachers disagreed with him (inc the Senior Master and Mistress who I was in A Midsummer Night's Dream with and the Head, who knew I was the school's best chance at 1500m in District sports).

Old Woody Woodsmith wasn't about shortcuts, aide memoires or even generally being helpful. He was there to lick the slackers into shape, to maintain the school's maths pass record. Lord alone knows how I managed. All I can suggest is that given it was the new system (GCSE) the education boards were advised to give us the benefit of the doubt. I didn't even make it to the last page of the exam paper.

Anyway.
All that aside.
Crocodile eats the largest number.
Wait.
What if there is only one number?
How do I remember which way the crocodile is facing when there is no other number? Surely he's always be facing < to eat it up? I am not being facetious - I am genuinely looking for a way to remember something that makes no sense to me.