I wonder if that clever maths teacher could explain how to calculate the root of a number, using, for example, 60025. When I was 14 or 15 we were taught this at school in darkest Africa. Mind you, I have never being advantaged in my subsequent 60+ years because I remembered the method. I was once asked by a computer programmer if I knew how to calculate root numbers, and although I did, I told him that for most purposes there was an iterative method that suited computer programming, and it was called Newton's something or other. He telephoned the mathematics department of Sydney University, and learned how to solve the problem via Newton's method of approximation.
As this is a humour forum, I better throw in a joke.
A forestry ranger advertised for an assistant, and there was a stand-out applicant, so the applicant was called in for an interview.
The applicant presented himself, but because he was an Aborigine, the forest ranger did not want to hire him, but he needed an excuse to do that. The two men walked through the forest, and the ranger asked the applicant to name various trees, which he did with ease, giving the common English name, the name in a number of Aboriginal languages, and the scientific name.
The ranger realised he would have to trick the applicant into not being able to give an answer, so he walked up to a tall tree and asked where the front of the tree was. The applicant frowned, walked around the tree, and stated emphatically that the front was where the ranger stood. On being asked to justify that conclusion, the applicant said that he noticed a large human turd on the other side of the tree, and people always crapped behind trees, so that established where the front of the tree was.
