Hi there. In this education post, I highlight the importance of spelling in mathematics. Many people view mathematics as something filled with numbers, being good with mental math, number crunching, shapes and equations. One overlooked topic in math at a young age is spelling.
In general, spelling is important. You want to make sure that what you want to communicate to others is what you mean. As one example, knowing the differences between there, their and they're is important. There means as in over there refers to a location that is somewhere else. Their is for their books as those books belong to those people. The contraction they're is the short form of they are. These three sound the same but having different meanings. Using the incorrect form from there, their and they're can be confusing to the readers. It is important to teach young ones and even older ones about spelling to avoid confusion and conflicts.
Educators in my opinion should be strict and fair when it comes to correcting students with spelling in math. You want to give the idea that mathematics is not just limited to numbers. There is writing, reasoning and logic involved. At the lower levels not too much and the higher levels of mathematics there is more writing and less numbers.
In the mathematics setting spelling is important. It may not be emphasized as much from math teachers though. I present two examples where incorrect spelling results in a different meaning.
Angle Vs Angel
An angel refers to a spirtiual being in some religons. An angle refers to a measure or how far two rays are from another.
Tens Versus Tenths
Both the words tens and tenths sound similar. They do have different meanings.
Tens is the number of tens in a large number. As an example the number 327 has 2 tens in the tens place. This 2 tens is 20.
Tenths has the ending -ths. This is number of tenths as a decimal place value. The number 1.9 has 9 tenths. You can also write 9 tenths as a fraction in the form of 9/10.
Thank you for reading.
