Friday, April 17, 2009
Sorry this is being neglected
I have something in the works though that is taking a little effort. Nothing spectacular. It is a "game" for kids to practice converting metric units.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
One of my favorite math jokes.
Sit down because it is a long one!
A tribe of Native Americans generally referred to their woman by the animal hide with which they made their blanket. Thus, one woman might be known as Squaw of Buffalo Hide, while another might be known as Squaw of Deer Hide. This tribe had a particularly large and strong woman, with a very unique (for North America anyway) animal hide for her blanket. This woman was known as Squaw of Hippopotamus hide, and she was as large and powerful as the animal from which her blanket was made.
Year after year, this woman entered the tribal wrestling tournament, and easily defeated all challengers; male or female. As the men of the tribe admired her strength and power, this made many of the other woman of the tribe extremely jealous. One year, two of the squaws petitioned the Chief to allow them to enter their sons together as a wrestling tandem in order to wrestle Squaw of the Hippopotamus hide as a team. In this way, they hoped to see that she would no longer be champion wrestler of the tribe.
As the luck of the draw would have it, the two sons who were wrestling as a tandem met the squaw in the final and championship round of the wrestling contest. As the match began, it became clear that the squaw had finally met an opponent that was her equal. The two sons wrestled and struggled vigorously and were clearly on an equal footing with the powerful squaw. Their match lasted for hours without a clear victor. Finally the chief intervened and declared that, in the interests of the health and safety of the wrestlers, the match was to be terminated and that he would declare a winner.
The chief retired to his teepee and contemplated the great struggle he had witnessed, and found it extremely difficult to decide a winner. While the two young men had clearly outmatched the squaw, he found it difficult to force the squaw to relinquish her tribal championship. After all, it had taken two young men to finally provide her with a decent match. Finally, after much deliberation, the chief came out from his teepee, and announced his decision. He said...Y
"The Squaw of the Hippopotamus hide is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides"
A tribe of Native Americans generally referred to their woman by the animal hide with which they made their blanket. Thus, one woman might be known as Squaw of Buffalo Hide, while another might be known as Squaw of Deer Hide. This tribe had a particularly large and strong woman, with a very unique (for North America anyway) animal hide for her blanket. This woman was known as Squaw of Hippopotamus hide, and she was as large and powerful as the animal from which her blanket was made.
Year after year, this woman entered the tribal wrestling tournament, and easily defeated all challengers; male or female. As the men of the tribe admired her strength and power, this made many of the other woman of the tribe extremely jealous. One year, two of the squaws petitioned the Chief to allow them to enter their sons together as a wrestling tandem in order to wrestle Squaw of the Hippopotamus hide as a team. In this way, they hoped to see that she would no longer be champion wrestler of the tribe.
As the luck of the draw would have it, the two sons who were wrestling as a tandem met the squaw in the final and championship round of the wrestling contest. As the match began, it became clear that the squaw had finally met an opponent that was her equal. The two sons wrestled and struggled vigorously and were clearly on an equal footing with the powerful squaw. Their match lasted for hours without a clear victor. Finally the chief intervened and declared that, in the interests of the health and safety of the wrestlers, the match was to be terminated and that he would declare a winner.
The chief retired to his teepee and contemplated the great struggle he had witnessed, and found it extremely difficult to decide a winner. While the two young men had clearly outmatched the squaw, he found it difficult to force the squaw to relinquish her tribal championship. After all, it had taken two young men to finally provide her with a decent match. Finally, after much deliberation, the chief came out from his teepee, and announced his decision. He said...Y
"The Squaw of the Hippopotamus hide is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides"
Triangle Calculator
If you know three pieces of information about your triangle, this will give you the others.
Monday, March 16, 2009
This is a great site for playing with conic sections
You know what conic sections are: circles, parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas.
Draw them here and get a feel for what all those numbers really mean.
Draw them here and get a feel for what all those numbers really mean.
Tips and trick for teaching money
Before you even begin teaching money, teach the little ones to count by 5's and 10's.
Practice starting at random places. Start at 30 the next is 40 and then 50. Or start at 45 the next is 50. Don't forget to learn to count by 25 too!
Then when you introduce the coins, they know just how to add things up in their heads.
Practice starting at random places. Start at 30 the next is 40 and then 50. Or start at 45 the next is 50. Don't forget to learn to count by 25 too!
Then when you introduce the coins, they know just how to add things up in their heads.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Exponents
What is an exponent?
An exponent is the lazy way of saying, "multiply something against itself a bunch of times."
a*a*a*a*a = a^5 (there were 5 a's so the exponent is 5)
See isn't that shorter?
But along with writing something shorter, you have to learn to use the notation.
Let's learn how you deal with
a^3 * a^4
In long hand that is:
a*a*a * a*a*a*a = a^7
So in other words
a^3 * a^4 = a^(3+4)
Generically that is:
a^x * a^y = a^(x + y)
Multiplying a terms with similar variables, means you need to ADD exponents.
Now let's look at negative exponents.
1/a * 1/a * 1/a = = 1/(a*a*a) = 1/(a^3)
If we look at this example
(a^5)/(a^3) it looks like this in long form:
(a*a*a*a*a)/(a*a*a) = a*a = a^2
So in other words:
a^5/a^3 = a^(5 - 3) = a^2
Dividing terms with similar exponents, is the same as SUBTRACTING the exponents.
Generally speaking:
a^x/a^y = a^(x-y)
Now for the fun part!
If x is smaller than y, the exponent would be NEGATIVE!
a^3/a^5 = a^-2 = 1/a^2
So what does it mean if the exponent is zero????
Let's look at this example.
a^x/a^x = 1
a^(x - x) = 1
a^0 = 1
And that is true for ANY a!
An exponent is the lazy way of saying, "multiply something against itself a bunch of times."
a*a*a*a*a = a^5 (there were 5 a's so the exponent is 5)
See isn't that shorter?
But along with writing something shorter, you have to learn to use the notation.
Let's learn how you deal with
a^3 * a^4
In long hand that is:
a*a*a * a*a*a*a = a^7
So in other words
a^3 * a^4 = a^(3+4)
Generically that is:
a^x * a^y = a^(x + y)
Multiplying a terms with similar variables, means you need to ADD exponents.
Now let's look at negative exponents.
1/a * 1/a * 1/a = = 1/(a*a*a) = 1/(a^3)
If we look at this example
(a^5)/(a^3) it looks like this in long form:
(a*a*a*a*a)/(a*a*a) = a*a = a^2
So in other words:
a^5/a^3 = a^(5 - 3) = a^2
Dividing terms with similar exponents, is the same as SUBTRACTING the exponents.
Generally speaking:
a^x/a^y = a^(x-y)
Now for the fun part!
If x is smaller than y, the exponent would be NEGATIVE!
a^3/a^5 = a^-2 = 1/a^2
So what does it mean if the exponent is zero????
Let's look at this example.
a^x/a^x = 1
a^(x - x) = 1
a^0 = 1
And that is true for ANY a!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Math fun
This website had mathcaching which is like geocaches but with math. What fun!
http://mathbits.com/Caching/BasicOpenCache1.html
http://mathbits.com/Caching/BasicOpenCache1.html
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