My Husband Is Driving Me NUTS... Again!

[sheianna]

This term, hubby has Algebra. Hubby hates Algebra. Hubby doesn't "get" Algebra. It's "too abstract"! (Mind you this is the same person who is fascinated by Quantum Physics... of course he doesn't have to do the math there to get the concepts!)

I had to come upstairs to get away from him while he works on one of the quizes because he's so frustrated that it's stressing me out. I would love to help him with it. I used to be very good at algebra... but I don't remember the terminology anymore so to help him I'd need to read over the text for the class. Nope, he won't hear of it! (Mind you, I have no intention of actually doing his work for him... not my job... just trying to help explain it so he can solve the problems for himself.) The reason this is so stressful for me is that if he fails the class, he could (and probably would) lose his funding. This would be a very bad thing!

Part of why this is so frustrating for both of us is that I honestly don't see why he can't get it! I looked at one of the problems and, after playing around with it for a few minutes, I think I had it solved and tried to show him how it could be solved but his reply (after I'd explained several different ways, how to work it out ) when I asked him if he saw what I was getting at was "Yeah, whatever..." meaning No, he did not get it. It wasn't that hard a problem!!! (assuming I understood it properly)

e = m + r over 2 (sorry, don't have the right math program to express it correctly) Solve for m.  

Not really that difficult but even substituting actual numbers for m and r, I still couldn't explain it clearly enough for him to understand it. Assuming I'm getting it right  (which given how out of practice I am, is NOT a given!) it should be m = e2 - r  Just a matter of reversing the whole process, mulitplying where you'd divided and subtracting where you added. At least when I substitute real numbers for m & r it works out... If I'm getting it wrong, I really need to brush up on my algebra but I doubt he's going to listen to me anyway.*sigh*