Me: Bassie, when’s the last time you did math with Daddy?
Bassie: Last week, we did factions.
Me: Fractions?
Bassie: No, factions. Like when you put one thing in and get another thing out.
Me: Oh, functions. So what’s a function?
Bassie: It’s like if you but a big pile of meat into it, it comes out as connected hot dogs.
Me: But what does that mean for math? Like, if the function is y=2x, then any x you put in will get multiplied by 2. Like 20 becomes…
Bassie: 40.
Me: And 125 becomes…
Pause.
Pause.
Why is this taking her so long, I think.
Bassie: 62 1/2.
Me: (thinking for a second first) Wait, you changed the function to y= 1/2x.
Bassie: Oh, yeah.
Me: Hey, how’d you do that in your head?
Bassie: I just wrote the problem down in my mind. 125 minus whatever half of it is.
Me: no, that doesn’t make sense because if you could write that, you’d already know the answer.
Bassie: Oh, right. So I did 100/2 is 50; and 20/2 is 10; and 5 doesn’t divide in half unless you use a fraction, so 2 1/2. So…62 1/2. She smiles.
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