by Annette
3. May 2007
OK. I’m embarrassed. Last night I had a brain freeze while helping with algebra homework. Solve for x: 49x4 – 25x2 = 0. I tried factoring it like a quadratic. No luck. I was in a rush so I decided to turn to tutor.com just to get unstuck. This is an on-line chat for homework help.
After about a five minute wait, I probably should have turned it off, but I have faith in 'chat' and the power of the on-line community and I wanted to make it work. My tutor came on and asked me for my question. I typed in my equation. The response came back, ‘You’re in the right direction’. I hadn’t given any direction yet. I wrote in how I had factored it unsuccessfully. ‘Good try’. Later another cheerleading response. Maybe she was penalizing me because she could figure out I wasn't a kid? But finally, I realized this tutor may not know what to do either or it would take weeks to get there. So I deftly ended that session and called my brother-in-law at work. I think I could hear him rolling his eyes. He quickly snorted, ‘Annette, first factor out the x2 !’. Oh, yea.
I’ve been writing an article for a business magazine in Asia on the intersection between human and web intelligence. I guess I had stumbled into this busy intersection on tutor.com. Sometimes there is nothing faster, better, cheaper, more fulfilling than the old-fashioned act of accessing the brain of someone who loves you.
Oh. The answer to the equation is x = ± 5/7
