Additional Math Pages & Resources

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Don't Count On It

This blog is more or less focused on ways that we as grown-ups can use the elementary math we learned as a kids.

Today the subject is the phrase Don't Count On It. A related phrase is Don't Count Your Chickens Until They Hatch.

What do we mean by these words? Are these math-related phrases, discussing the process of Addition? Or not? What are we trying to communicate?

I checked a variety of sources. Here's what they said:
  • Do not assume it is going to happen
  • Don't depend on it
  • Don't depend on someone or something, especially in a difficult situation
  • Wait until you see it before you believe it
  • Wait for the evidence rather than jumping to a conclusion
  • One of the 20 possible phrases given by a Mattel Magic 8 Ball
  • A book by John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group (Read an excerpt)
  • An article on the Latin American Piraha tribe who don't have numbers in their language
  • Equivalent to "Let's just be friends" when said by the other person in a wanna-be romantic relationship
  • Fat chance
  • Keep on dreaming
  • Don't hold your breath
  • Not likely!
  • Cha skrunee da pat (the Huttese phrase as spoken by Jabba the Hutt, in Star Wars)
  • A line from Please Tell Me Why by the Dave Clark Five 
  • And finally, it's a puzzle that holds money but doesn't let you get to it.

This is the most enlightening definition I found, on a site aimed at people using English as a Second Language:
  • Don't Count On It is almost a definite no, with a very slight chance things could be different. That chance is so small, that you would be better off saying probably not. When you say I wouldn't count on it it's another way to say you're betting the odds are 99% on no.
The phrase apparently means "No" without coming right out and saying it. Or in math terms, we could say it's Approximately Equal To No.

3 comments:

  1. where can I find this money puzzle box

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. The website brilliantpuzzles.com has several versions of this puzzle box.
    You can see the "Don't Count On It" puzzle box here:
    http://www.brilliantpuzzles.com/dont_count_on_it_raffia_edition_tricky_wooden_puzzle_box.html

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