My 10 year daughter asked me to check her math homework tonight. Math was my best subject in school, but that was a long time ago. The assignment that she had was to find if several of numbers where divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 5. I started to look at it this and said that I could write a computer script to check the answers.
Flash forward, a few eye rolls and groans later, I’m now sitting in front of the family computer and punching way at the keyboard. It didn’t take long for me to have the script typed out in PowerShell and running it to show that her dad knows a thing or two.
$report = @()
$numbers = 34,68,50,258,275,432,637,726,945,1652,1974,1683,2759,5428,9472
$divided = 2,3,4,5
foreach ($number in $numbers){
$line = "" | Select Number, "2", "3", "4", "5"
$line.Number = $number
$line."2" = (($number / 2) -is [int])
$line."3" = (($number / 3) -is [int])
$line."4" = (($number / 4) -is [int])
$line."5" = (($number / 5) -is [int])
$report += $line
}
$report | Ft
So after the script ran, not even a second later we were checking the homework. I could tell that she was amazed that I was able to finish the math work in seconds. It was even a better feeling as we both read the answers, me from the computer screen and her from her homework.
Number 2 3 4 5
------ - - - -
34 True False False False
68 True False True False
50 True False False True
258 True True False False
275 False False False True
432 True True True False
637 False False False False
726 True True False False
945 False True False True
1652 True False True False
1974 True True False False
1683 False True False False
2759 False False False False
5428 True False True False
9472 True False True False
She asked me how this worked, but as I started to explain how the script worked, I noticed her eyes glazed over and she started to walk away. Now that she knows I can do awesome things with the computer, maybe I can get her help her with other math issues.
-Stuart