Today in my math class my professor explained the difference between straight math problems and application problems, and why the answers for these different problems needed to be different.

"You see, in math if you put 'The square root of 28' we would understand what that is, so the answer is appropriate. But if you were to go to a gas station and ask for 'The square root of 28 gallons of gas' they would punch your lights out! Even if you simplified it to 2 times the square root of 7 they would get angry. For them to understand you have to put it in decimal form, they like it that way, it makes them happy."

I feel as though my professor, at one point in his life, got beaten up at a gas station for being a smart ass.