Today we did a the first quiz on Reducing, Add, and minus Algebraic. That is it, the end, good bye, the next scribe will be ........

J/k, I don't think that I can get out of this Homework this easy without doing some explaining huh? Eh? Ah?

So as I was saying today we did a quiz and there is some common errors that everyone makes and it is x+1 / x+2 the answer is x can’t not equal to -2 and already reduce but lots of children put the answer as ½ which is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, because this question does not have like terms so you DO not reduce it. Other then that then we’re cool.

The homework for today is exercise 47 do it all plz!
The next scribe will be parvin because he will the first one counting from the top that is not scribe yet.

Jian

Hi, everyone. Today's class was almost a repeat of yesterday's class. Nothing new was taught, but today's class was interesting.

This is what we did in today's class:

1. Find the ratio of the shaded region to the total area.



2. Simplify:

a) (3/2)/(x/1)
b) (2/x+1)/(x+2/x²-1)
c) (2x+6/x+1)/x+2/x²-1)

3. Add and Subtract:

a) (2/7) + (3/7)
b) (5/8) - (3/8)
c) (1/2) + (1/3)
d) (2/5) - (1/2)
e) (3/5) + (4/7)
f) (11/3) - (2/1)
g) (4/x) + (6/x²)
h) (4/x+3) - (5/x-2)
i) (x-3/x²+2x-15) + (x-1/x-5)

4. Simplify

a) (x/x²-4x+4) - (2/x²-4)
b) [x²+2/(x-2)²(x+2)] - [2x-4/(x+2)(x-2)²]

And tomorrow's scribe will be.... *Jan Hong*
Sorry for any confusion and inconviences.

Rational Acrostics

Kudos to Mrs. Armstrong for turning me on to the idea of acrostics in math.

Blogging Prompt
Your task is to create an acrostic "poem" that demonstrates an understanding of rational expressions related to any one of these concepts:

RATIONAL
SIMPLIFY
RESTRICTION
FRACTION
FACTOR
ASYMPTOTE

As an extra challenge (worth an additional bonus mark) try to make a Double Acrostic, that is, each line should begin and end with a letter of the word you are working with.

Remember, this is a bit of a race. Your answers have to be posted to the blog in the comments to this post. If someone has already used a word or phrase in their acrostic you cannot use the same word or phrase. i.e. It gets harder to do the longer you wait. ;-)

Here is an example of an acrostic that Mrs. Armstrong wrote:

Always in 2 dimensions
Region between the boundaries
Entire surface is calculated
Answer is in units²

Be creative and have fun with this!!

Rational Expressions- Simplifying

Hello fellow students. Some of you may have unfortunately not been able to attend today's class. Don't worry, I will tell you everything you will need to know for next class. Today we started off with stating the restriction on the variable. We learned that the denominator could never be zero. That is because when zero is the numerator it is divided and equal to the number. But does that mean that when a number is divided by zero it is what the number is? No, whenever the zero is the denominator, we say it is undefined.
(ex. 0/7= 0, 7/0= undefined)

x-4/x²-16 was one of the questions we had to state the restriction. When we simplify it, it becomes x-4/ (x-4)(x+4). We then reduce x-4 from both the numerator and the denominator. We are now left with 1/x+4. x cannot equal to 4 or -4. The reason why x cannot equal 4 or -4 is because when youfactorr them in, the denominator will equal to zero. It's okay to factor 4 in the result, that's because it won't be undefined, it'll be 1/8.
You don't have the right answer unless you state the restriction of the variable.

x-4/x²-16
=x-4/ (x-4)(x+4)
=1/x+4
x cannot equal 4 or -4

The class then moved on to simplifying rational equations 2x²+x-15/ 3x+9 was one of the questions we had simplify. When you simplify the equation you should get (2x-5)(x+3)/ 3(x+3). x+3 reduces and your left with 2x-5/ 3. x cannot equal -3, that's because when you factor it you would get 2x²+x-15/ 3(-3)+9. The denominator would be zero.

2x²+x-15/ 3x+9
=(2x-5)(x+3)/ 3(x+3)
=2x-5/ 3
x cannot equal -3

You could also factor out of a negative. It will make a little change, it will change the signs.
x²-1/ 1-x
=(x+1)(x-1)/(1-x)
=(x+1)(x-1)/-(-1+x)
=(x+1)(x-1)/-(x-1)
=x+1/-1
=-x - 1
x cannot equal 1

Mr. Kuropatwa had also refreshed us on factoring. He showed us a neat algerbraic trick to factor instead of guess and check. First you multiply the first number with the last. We then factor out the common factor by the groups we made. We then are left with the same numbers in the braket. We then take the common factors from outside and put them together.

2x²+x-15
[(2)(-15) = -30]
[-30/6=-5]
=2x²+6x-5x-15
=2x(x+3) -5(x+3)
=(x+3)(2x-5)
it's in your dictionary
*NEVER CANCEL ANYTHING, WE JUST REDUCE! A rule Mr. K is passionate about.

For homework we do excercise 43 omitting numbers 11 and 12. Well, I hope I explained this clearly for those who were lost or did not attend the class. If you have any questions, ask your fellow classmates or you teacher, Mr. Kuropatwa. I know he'll be happy that you asked. That's about it for me, the scribe for tommorrow is Thang_N. Good luck at being scribe tommorrow!

Yours Truely
SAMUS

Sunday Connected-Slide Funday!

ConSlide puzzles are a new type of sliding block puzzles invented by M. Oskar van Deventer... The pieces of a ConSlide puzzle move like regular sliding block puzzles, but some of the pieces have sections connected by bars of various heights. This means pieces can pass over and under one another as long as the bars and posts don't run into one another. The goal of each of these puzzles is to move the red block to the upper left corner. Play it here.

(Once again, thanks to Think Again!)

The Editor's Initiative

Instead of posting a pre-test reflective comment on your progress in this class you may undertake The Editors' Initiative. Here's how it works:

  Step 1: Scan through the previously posted Scribe Posts on the blog. Find one that has one or more errors.

  Step 2: Discuss the error(s) and what you think the correction(s) should be with me. If I agree with your editorial proposal go to Step 3.

  Step 3: Discuss the editorial change with the author of the post. The author will chose to proceed in one of the following two ways.

3a	3b
The Editor is briefly allowed administrative privileges on the blog. They will edit the post to make any necessary corrections. They then sign the post at the bottom: Edited by: [name] on [date]	The author will edit the post in consultation with the editor who will vet the author's changes until they are correct. The author then signs the post at the bottom: Consulted editor [editor's name] on [date]

Students may chose to make more than one edit. Each additional edit will earn them a bonus mark on the next test. Your mark on the previous test determines the maximum number of edits/bonus marks available to you.

Mark on Last Test / Max Edits Allowed
> 90 / 1

80-89 / 2 (1 bonus mark)

70-79 / 3 (2 bonus marks)

60-69 / 4 (3 bonus marks)

50-59 / 5 (4 bonus marks)

40-49 / 6 (5 bonus marks)

30-39 / 7 (6 bonus marks)

20-29 / 8 (7 bonus marks)

10-19 / 9 (8 bonus marks)

0-9 / 10 (9 bonus marks)

You may also assume the role of Content Consultant to earn marks as outlined above. Here's how it works:

  Step 1: Scan through the previously posted Scribe Posts on the blog. Find one that doesn't provide enough detail or leaves out too much information. Decide what additional content should be added.

  Step 2: Discuss the new content you think should be added with me. If I agree with your editorial proposal go to Step 3.

  Step 3: Discuss the editorial change with the author of the post. Together, you will chose to proceed in one of the following two ways.

3a	3b
The Content Consultant will add a new post to the blog inserted at the appropriate time and date. They then sign the post at the bottom: Additional Content by: [name] on [date]	The author will edit the post to include the additional content provided by the consultant. Additional content will appear under a heading "Additional Content". The author then signs the post at the bottom: Additional Content Provided by [consultant's name] on [date]

Students may chose to make several additional content contributions for bonus marks according to the table above.

As we discussed in class, you cannot edit your own scribe posts. When it's your turn to be scribe try to write a post that is so excellent that no will be able to edit it. ;-)

Simplifying Rational Expressions

Why hello there, my one and only favorite pre cal class, of all you smart smart people. I am the scribe for today. I must start off with mentioning how very sorry I am for messing up the whole blog thing. I was at ChoralFest that day, and what not. I am very sorry for messing it up. I promise it shall never happen again.
Now that we got that out of the way...

Todays class started off with Mr.K being exactly three minutes late for class. *Shakes finger* tsk tsk Mr. K, you should know better. Haha, just kidding.

Mr.K tried to show us how to create a del.icio.us account. If you have any problems with it, I would suggest asking one of your classmates who has already done the task. It's quite easy once you know what you are doing. Then, he showed us how to tag a site that we think is useful. That is also rather easy, but yet again, if you have trouble, I would suggest talking to a classmate about it. You can even ask me, because I have done it before.

Then we started getting down to the really important stuff. We learned about simplifying rational expressions. Mr.K wrote the following on the board: 2+4/2 (by the way the / means division). He asked us how we would solve/simplify the problem. Most of us said we would add the 2 and the 4 first, and then divid by two, which would give us (2+4=6, 6/2=3) 3. This is the RIGHT way to solve it. Some people look at the problem and think that the twos reduce, resulting in four. Which is WRONG. As Mr. K says, "No no no no no no no no no no no no no no..." (you get the picture).

Why you ask? Well, because there are really brackets on both sides of the numerator and the denominater, even though they may not be written. Therefore, you know that you add before you divide. Remember that according to Mr.K, "Six of you are going to do this wrong!" So, "Prove me wrong!" Remember that.

So, now if we are given the same equation, but with a variable in it, for example (2+4x/2)...it DOES NOT equal 4x, because thats WRONG, but rather you factor out the 2, giving you 2(1+2x)/2 which then reduces to 1+2x.

"So why does it reduce this time, but not in the beginning? Well, because this time the 2 has been factored out, which means it no longer belongs in the bracket.

But, for example, if you are given a problem like (x+3/2), there are no common factors, so the rational expression cannot be simplified.

Making the expressions a little more complicated, we are given (x^2+3x/2x). We factor out the x in the numerator, giving us x(x+3)/2x. Becuase the x in the numerator is outside the bracket, it reduces with the x in the denominater., resulting in x+3/2, which is the same as x/2+ 3/2, which is also, y=1/2x+3/2. Look familiar? Yes. These rational expressions can also be equations of lines, and can be drawn out on a graph.

The second last question we did was x^2-5x-6/x-6. We factor this, which gives us (x-6)(x+1)/(x-6). The (x-6) and the (x-6) reduce, giving us x+1, which is the same as y=x+1.

That last question given was x^2-3x-10/x^2-4. We factor this out to get (x-5)(x+2)/(x-2)(x+2). Both the (x+2) and the (x+2) reduce, resiulting in (x-5)/(x-2).

Just remember: No denominater can equal O! Why? Because it would then be undefined, and not be a RATIONAL expression.

Homework for tonight is Exercise 42, omit #12. The next scribe is SAMUS !!!! good luck Sammy!

Thats it! Thats the whole ball of wax!

Mr. Dixon's on eBay - How Trusted is He?

Mr. Dixon is in my classroom right now and he has a question he needs your help with.

His trust rating on eBay is 99.2%. Out of 122 transactions he's had, 121 people said he treated them well and he can be trusted.

Mr. Dixon wants to know when will his "trust rating" reach 99.3% and he needs your help.

(1) Can you write an equation he can use to solve this problem?
(2) Can you solve the equation and tell Mr. Dixon how many more favourable exchanges he needs to have to raise his trust rating to 99.3%.

All of my classes are working on this. The first student in each class who solves Mr. Dixon's problem correctly gets a chocolate bar. ;-)

Jordans Blog

Another unit, another test. This will be our 5th unit and 5th test of the year. In geometry we learned about various shapes and their propeties. The main shape would be a quadrilateral. A quadrilateral is any figure with 4 sides aswell as can be cut into any two-shaped pieces which would give you two triangles. We were also shown how to find the surface area and the volume of spheres. There are many types of quadrilaterals. There are trapazoids, parallelograms, rectangles, squares and rhombus's. But each shape has it's own special qualities. Well tomorrow is career week and the unit test. I hope you all do good.

Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman

iBLOGing on Blogging.

A brand new unit has gone by in no time at all. In this unit it was pretty easy with finding the volume of a sphere until it hit the parallelogram's and ratios. At first I did not know what to do, but later on I started to understand some of it and was joyful but now it has come to the test and hopefully I will be able to figure it out. Hopefully the brain tickling questions won't be so hard but then again it always had. What I thought was cool was finding the volume of a sphere or the surface area because you can randomly pick up something and measure some of the criteria and get a pretty close to accurate answer to amaze everyone, an interesting about the ratio stuff is that if you're majoring in photography, you're using math, cause when you're resizing something it requires some logic if your doing it the hard way, but nowadays we enter it to an AI object, or entering it into some chip you are able to find it fast that is if it was convenient.

Blogging on Blogging

This chapter we've learned about quadrilaterals and how did those formulas came up it didn't just came up it had to follow some rules or pattern. But we focused mainly in quadrilaterals and spheres and their surface area and volume and also about scale factor. I hope this time I'll get a high mark I wish but i know that I need some effort for it to come true. That's it, this is my reflective post before the test.

Scribe Post

November 22, 2005

Quadrilaterals.......

We started the class by talking about the differences of different quadrilaterals and a unique feautures of each one of them.Then Mr. K gave us a question regarding a quadrilateral in a cartesian plane and how we can solve it. We can solve it by using the distance formula and also the slope of it and by that we should know the characteristics of that quadrilateral and by that characteristic we should know that quadrilateral because as I've said every quadrilateral has a unique characteristic.


November 23, 2005

Mr. K started the class by telling us what's going on on our blog and how it's important to him and to ourselves but as he said it became also important to other people not only in Canada but in the whole world because different people is starting to appreciate our blog it's becoming more likely a textbook so he suggested for us to become editors or content consulatant, this will not help others but ourselves too because it can cause us additional marks. After that we begun our pre test and after about 15 minutes he grouped us and our group should help each other and we should come up with only one answer. After that he gave us additional review material for our test tommorow.

Next Scribe is Kristin_R!

Blogging and me

Tomorrow is our 5th test of the semester. I'm making it my goal not to fail this test as I actually remembered to study for this one!

Today we're readied ourselves for the upcoming test. The pre-tests were made up of almost everything we learned during this unit. From finding volumes and surface areas of spheres, to changing dimensions to predict new areas,volumes and surface areas. Also using the linear plain to get information off parallelograms,rectangles,rhombuses and squares.

But before the pre-tests, Mr K gave us information that is possibly the best thing we heard all year. Well besides the stuff hes teaching us... Anyways, he is giving us a chance to earn more bonus marks before tests. This will take affect on the next test. Depending on our test mark on the last test will deteremine how many bonus marks we could earn.

>90 - 1
89-80 - 2
79-70 - 3
69-60 - 4
59-50 - 5
49-40 - 6
39-30 - 7
29-20 - 8
19-10 - 9
9-0 - 10

To earn these bonus marks you have to look back into the archives and pick out scribe posts that are incorrect or missing important thoughts. There is another way to earn a bonus mark by giving a point for each letter of a word Mr K has up.

I leave you with the best thing I heard today and it was from Mr K!
"I don't give a dam about your marks, I only care if your learning."

BLOGGING BEFORE THE TEST =_=

HeLLo!
This is our 5th test coming up tomorrow. So I guess we're all used to the usual thing, blogging on blogging or solving some question. I was happy to hear about Mr. Kuropatwa's idea about getting extra bonus marks for our tests. Since I don't get great marks, this will really help me. That's if I set my mind to it. ^__^

In my opinion, this unit went by really fast! I hope everyone does good on the test! Well goodluck to all! Happy studying .__.

Geometry

This unit was fun at times, but at others, it could get pretty tedious. I've noticed that when I understand and know what to do to solve a problem, it's fun. When I don't understand something well, I hate it! But I guess having things that are challenging are good for you. Math isn't supposed to be easy, good math questions are hard. And you learn more from your mistakes.

I like finding areas, surface areas, and volumes of objects because I'm familiar with the formulas and I know how and when to use them. What I found difficult about geometry was about the properties in quadrilaterals. I usually would be lost when we talk about doubling or tripling lengths or area's. I understand it, but not very well. What I'm really concerned about is when we have to prove that a shape is a parallelogram, rectangle, square, etc... I'm not very good at showing my work in words.

Geometry was a good unit. We didn't spend a lot of time on it, I guess it's because the class picked up very fast. We also have been working on it in our previous classes. I remember working on areas and surface areas in junior high. I've learned that what we've done in the past in math, is just like a puzzle piece. We learn more and more each grade. Tomorrow we have a test on geometry. I hope all of you will do well.

Yours truly,
SAMUS

#5 - GEOMETRY

Test number 5, geometry. So many things I've learned over the past lessons. I've learned about scale factors, types of quadrilaterals and areas, surface areas and volume of spheres. I didn't had any troubles on the exercises and the quizes, so on. What worries me though is that would Mr.K give us the formulas for the surface areas and volume of spheres and cylinder. More than half the class failed their last test, excluding me =P, so i hope you all pass it this time... I'm positive I will;).

This unit was the fastest of them all. I’m not sure how well I’m going to do on this test. I got to put more effort in my homework, because its practice and it well make me understand more of the questions we get on pre test, pop quizzes, test, and group work. I had a lot of trouble on the scale stuff, like what would be the new area of a train model if something was decreased or whatever, those questions are hard....What else I’m sure I understand the volumes and surface areas of a sphere, I think its fun. But working it backwards is pretty hard.

Most of the quaderilaterals were easy to understand but the words that are used make it seem hard but it’s not really that confussing if you lay it down in short words. Okay well I need to study some more. So good luck to everyone on the test hope everyone does good.

Bloging on bloging

I don't really have anything to said about this unit because this unit is half easy half hard. The hard part about this unit is the ratio because for all my year of math, everytime the class start this "ratio" we only take like 1 , 2 class of time of doing this so I don't really know about ratio because I can't really read ratio and what is different from faction like 1:2 and 1/2.
The easy part about this unit is the paralellograms because once I know the properties of each paralellograms then I will know all the questions because they all kind of ask for the same thing but in a different way. And the part of this unit where we find surface area and the volume of a sphere was also easy because i learn this at the begainning of the school year in science.

Blogging away..

Well it's time for another test and with another test is the reflective blog. Geometry is one of the units that we've been having since we were in elementary and it's just gotten into more depth. For instance, this year we started with the area or volume and had to find out the measurements. Maybe I am just speaking for myself but I haven't learned how to do that yet. Who would've thought that we would be using the distance formula and having to find the slope in this unit. I sure didn't and when it came time to use it, it all made more sense.

For me personally this unit hasn't been to bad, except for the occasional problems and some of the ratio problems. I wish goodluck to everyone on the test and don't forget to blog..the extra mark might really help!;)

blogg before testtt =)

hi my name is wendy. i'm blogging before the test. i'm sort of nervious for the test tomorrow. i believe that this unit was sort of confusing. the problems i had on this unit was mostly word problems such as " the area of figure F is 30 cm². its dimesions are multiplied by a scale facter k to form a new figure with volume 270 cm³. what is the value of k?" this is the sort of questions that i have trouble on and is still trying to figure out how to get the answer and how to solve it. i mostly know how to get the volume of beach balls etc, because i memorize the formula and how to figure out the answer step by step. i am still haveing some difficulties on parallelograms and certain things. i know that this blog of mine is short but i'll try and make my other blog longer. i hope everyone do good on the test tomorrow... EXPECIALLY YOU!!! MR! WHO I SAID LAST COUPLE CLASSES AGO ASKING YOU WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH THING TO YOUR SELF" ... you know who im talking about =p bye bye now. and hopefully, you bring a lucky charm ... Lol =p

blog post

Hi
I totally agree that Mr.K's idea on getting bonus marks is a good thing because I could use them 'haha'. This unit was really easy at the beginning then got hard when we got to quadrilaterals because there's all these properties for them. I think that if I study hard enough I'll be able to remember them all. I think that this unit went by way to fast. Well I got to go study for the test.Good luck to everyone tomorrow.
Talk to you later =)

Blogging

Well it's our fifth test. Time goes by SO fast.

In this unit we learned about finding volumes and surface areas of spheres, the types of quadrilaterals and it's classifications, and Impact on "scale factors" on lengths, areas and volumes.

I'm still kind of confused when it comes to problems like number 7, 8 & 9 on the geometry review 1 and a lot of parts in review 2. I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later. For some reason I usally get something after we do the test. :/


I've really got to try a lot harder. I'm going to try and take advantage of all the bonus marks Mr.K is trying to give. I should've listend to mr.k at the beginning of the course when he said "listen to everything your teacher tells you." Well i'm going to start now, better late then never.

GOOD LUCK ON THE TEST CLASSMATES! I'm sure well all need it =) Time to study.

T5 WebLog

Hi, I'll just cut right into this blog. This unit, as like the others, has gone by fairly quick and as you all know, our test #5 is coming up tomorrow! I'm supremely tired from basketball try outs so please bare with me if I'm sounding like.. omg, just forgot the word I was about to say. Nonetheless, this unit was majorly on geometry as the unit title suggests. We learned about properties, ratios, proving theories etc.

The muddiest point that I have during all this immense learning is the ratio stuff, which I am starting to understand more thoroughly (hopefully by tomorrow) and proving if something is really what it seems. The problem with the proving part that I'm sure many of you might have is where to start and from there, where to go. I will be trying my hardest to get that straight because I want to do super great of this test.

Shapes, Shapes, and Shapes.. You must remember the properties. I find that, that is one of the key things to this unit. Well that's in my opinion.

I hope that you all fair well on the upcoming test #5 geo tomorrow! Think I'm going to lie down.

Blogging for the Test!

Hello!
We had just finished our fifth unit, which was Geometry! When we started the unit, we learned the volume and surface area of a sphere, which are: V: 4/3 (pi)radius ^3 and the surface area is: S.A: 4(pi)radius^2
and then we learned if the volume or the surface area increased how do we apply these rules. For example if I triple the radius of a sphere, what will happen to S.A or V?
and the answer is the volume will increase by 3 square which is 27 and the surface area will increase by 9.
We learned about scale factor and how it works.
" The impact of 'scale factor' on lengths, areas and volumes." A scale factor is a multiplier.
Areas are multiplied by the square of the scale factor. (we multiply the area by the scale factor square)
Volumes are multiplied by the cube of the scale factor. ( multiply the volume by the scale factor cube)
after this we learned a lot about Quadrilaterials.
quadrilaterial: any 4 sides figure. they come in two basic flavours ;)
Convex Quadrilaterial and Concave or Dart. (i was going to draw it but i couldn't)
And the types of quadrilaterial:
Trapezoids: Trapezoid, Right Trapezoid, Isosceles Trapezoid
/
Parallelograms:
Rectangle, Rhombus, Square
and at last we learned the special qualities and more stuff about them.
and this was our unit!
I hope everyone will get a good mark!

P. A

Short blog before tomorrow’s test

tomorrow is our fifth unit test, and it is in very exciting day (career day)
This unit was easy unit, and I did good on the today’s quiz accept the last question. i hop that i don't screw up in the test this time.
Geometry was fun unit, accept memorizing all the formulas, and the proving questions, was kind of hard.
So got to go and do some exercise on similar questions.
Good luck every body (*_*)

test #5

wow this is our 5th test already! this unit was really short i still remember the last time we wrote a test. lol well anyways this unit was a pretty good one, I could understand it more than all the other ones :D. hopefully the test won't be that hard. the pre-test we had today was pretty good. and I think the bonus mark thing is good too.

well about this unit it was all about quaderilaterals. and changing the size of things by using ratios.we also had to find the volume and surface area of things. I had to refresh my memory a little on the vocabulary with this unit......congruent, parallelogram, quaderilateral, perpendicular etc. I also learned some new words like bisect, alternate angles, spplementary.

well thats all I had to say about this unit. and good luck to everyone on the test tomorrow!

Geometry .. it will always come back.

Hello :)
Doing all these "reflective posts" aka blog-post before test, are getting kind of boring .. so I was glad Mr. K wasn't expecting us to keep doing these for the rest of the semester and made up some new ideas on how to get our blog post, PLUS* extra bonus marks if possible ;)

Anyways! Yes .. let's see.. hmm. Geometry.. I think this unit is one that I like more better than others. I understand all those volume of spheres[4/3pir³] and surface area of spheres[4pir²] formulas, the "baseball theory"[how when you open up a baseball and it looks like 4 circles], quadrilaterals[trapezoids, //gms, etc] and whatnot.

Today I forgot how to find the radius given the volume, since I've only done that how many times?? Only once before? Bleh. Shattered my confidence lol. Stupid test review -_- Oh well, it has prepared me for my upcoming misery. hehe, jk :P

Tomorrow is the dreadful test where we must use all that we've learned, combined together to solve multiple questions. Hard, isn't it? Eh, not really. As long as you know the steps for solving the question, and how to use that step and solve that part of the question to move forward with it to find the final solution, *takes in deep breath* and so on...finally then I think you're on pretty good standing ground. Hopefully that's where I'm at. There are some questions in previous homework exercises that I did not know how to solve and I'm afraid that it will end up on the test.

I kind of like doing these reflective posts because it's makes me think of what I do know, which kind of cancels out all the things that I ungratefully don't know. T-T But yeah .... this unit has been pretty good. If you feel like your brain isn't going anywhere, drink Mountain Dew Energy ^_^ HAHA, cause I think it helped me to process things more better in one of the difficult classes we had :P Plus it made me super hyper which kind of made my day x)

Um, I can't say I'm fully satisfied with what I've learned, I just wish I had more in-depth and time to consume everything into my brain so it'll stay there .....but unfortunately our school runs under the semester system so that is most unlikely to happen with any course within the school. Oh well, just gotta give more effort into it for the next unit.

Good luck everyone! Give it your best shot.

Test Blog

Wow for some reason this unit went a lot faster then I expected. I'm really not quite sure why, as if we're already in the second term and the end of November. But anyway, this unit was so-so for me I was pretty bummed considering my first term mark wasn't up to my standards unfortunately. I understand the whole "quadrilateral" thing on the most part, actually more then I expected to, as silly as it seemed writing that table out more then once seemed to help, just like Mr.K said it would. Something I seemed to have trouble with this unit is the is the whole scale factor thing, I still need to do some more looking over of it, and get into some further understanding of what I am being asked. I did however understand the volume and surface area formulas, how to use them and backwards as well:) I'm happy about that. Like someone else mentioned in their test post I tend to learn on my own pace and in different ways then others. Which is sometimes frustrating, but anyway we'll see how tomorrows test goes, hopefully it goes WAY better then my past tests.

Good luck everyone
- Brittany

Ps. I really like Mr.K's whole idea of the bonus mark thing (good job:))

Blog Test

Last Term, my marks was not as satisfactory to my liking, but many people's mark were not to their satisfaction. It doesn't mean I or the rest of you should quit. All it means is some need to change their work ethics or *something.* Because, there was once a wise man who said "Your mark depends on the effort and time spend on your work." - Mr. K. Mr. K, I am only para-phasing. Sorry, if it is not your exact working.

For example, when we began doing trigonometry, I did not understand the sine law and cosine law. So, I when over my notes, step-by-step, at my own speed, and I learned how to use the Laws. See, your marks depends on your work ethics.

One more thing, trigonometry is used in very day life. Architects use sine and cosine laws to measure and design their building. They have to know the length and angles of every side and elevation before they building something. If you like working with things of that nature, architect is one option.

Blog Before the Test

So far, I think I'm doing good on this unit. I get the area/volume relationship, but some of the questions on the assignments I don't understand. The quadrilaterals are pretty good to work with, but proving them is the part that I don't like. Explaining stuff is not my forte, so I guess that's one of the reasons why I don't like proving stuff. This geometry unit has brought together every shape we've learned, like spheres, cones, cylinders, circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, and such. And we must remember those formulas before the test.

I need to get a good mark on this test, my previous 2 are not so good. Well, not just me, but I think everyone has to get a good mark not just on this test, but on every test to improve our marks this term. I know people are not quite happy about their first term mark here, but I think it's good to use it as a stepping stone, and we can work on improving it. Good luck to everyone on the test.

Shapes, Volumes, Surface Areas, Quadrilaterals!

This is a pretty fun unit, I must admit. I really like working with the properties of quadrilaterals for some reason. Ever since we did our Trig unit, I see triangles in everything I do, and now that I know how to do the sine and cosine laws, I find it a lot easier to figure out lengths and angles, and all that fun stuff. I find that probably my strongest skill in math is being able to explain how I did the problem. I may not always be right with my answers, but at least I can back up how I got the answer and what not. I think it is a good skill to have to be able to explain how you did the problem, then when you make a mistake it is much easier to just go back and find out where exactly you made the mistake.
I like working with quadrilaterals. I am a little worried about scale factors, because I wasn't here the day that we worked on it, so I think I'm going to be paying a lot of attention to scale factors when I study.
I thought it was really cool when I won the geometry set a few weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging, but I knew that Mr.K would come up with some sort of pattern when he chose his number, and that seemed to have paid off.

I don't have the greatest mark in Pre Cal, so I guess i need to work a lot harder, even tho I feel like I have been working REALLY hard already. I'm not really sure how much more effort I can put into it. I am super exhausted, but I am not ready to give up just yet. If you are feeling like you should give up, you shouldn't either. Remember sisyphus! I know I am probably beating his name to death, but I mean it. Don't give up.

Thats it for me now. This is a pretty lengthly post already. I am anxious, nervous, and eager for the test, all at the same time. I hope I do well *crosses fingers*.

Fridays Scribe

Hey it's me once again, I apoligize really haha:)

Well Mr.K was not in class today, Ms. Alexius our sub went over the "Quadrilateral Investigation" sheet, as well as handed out a new one that we had to copy in our dictionary's so it could help us remember all the properties better. Once we did that we got our tests back, if you hadn't recieved it already and were assigned exercise 28. We had the remaining class time to work on it.

Homework for the weekend was exercise 28 ..yes the whole thing

have fun
-britt

Thurdays Blog

Hey guys sorry this post is so late, computer problems... won't happen again:)

Well on Thursdays class we started off with writing in our dictionarys about the "impact of scale factors on lengths, areas and volumes", surface area and volume formulas, and the latest thing Quadrilaterals.

We learned that a Quadrilateral is any 4 sided figure.
They come in two basic forms
-convex quadrilateral
-concave quadrilateral

Mr.K drew up a diagram that he strongly believes will help up learn all their properties.

Trapaziods
l
V
Parralelograms
l l
V V
Rectangle Rhombus

l l
V V
Square

Each of these shapes have different properties but similar one's as well, after we talked about their different properties we were given a chart to complete on our own.

Well our homework for Thursday night was exercise 27, yes the whole thing as well as the "quadrilaterals investigation" sheet/chart.

Byez

-Britt

Who Knew We'd Need Shapes Again?

I'll be honest when I say that I never thought I'd ever have to think about the different shapes again, after learning shapes in elementary. However shapes, now called geometry, is obviously very different than it was in the second or third grade. One of the major things we learned was about the surface area and volume of a sphere, which meant recognizing and being able to use more formulas. Since learning about spheres, we've learned more about convex quadrilaterals and how all the different shapes relate.

I've enjoyed this unit, because so far I think I understand it well. The different properties of convex quadrilaterals is probably what we have to work on memorizing the most, but once we learn it, we'll all be able to identify them just like we're able to identify a cylinder from a triangle!

When you first learn something, it always seems a little tedious because you're trying to "convert it to long term memory," as Mr. K. put it, but once it's there, it always seems easy.
Good luck to you all in the upcoming test (planned for Thursday.) I sincerely hope we all do well, but more than doing well, I hope we all understand it because really, that's what's important.

Scribe for Monday’s class.

Today in class we mostly reviewed some of the types of Quadrilaterals. The majority of the time in class we worked on the two questions on the board.
The first question evolved finding the sides, and angles of a parallelogram. We first started out with only one angle, a side of the parallelogram, and also a diagonal that has been bisected. It was pretty easy to find out the other sides and angles when we got to use our properties chart.
The second question evolved a small graph to find out if the shape was a rectangle, rhombus, or a square. It was pretty easy to find which one it was by using the distance formula. Most of us knew it was a rhombus but at first I thought it was a square… -_- Yeah I know I forgot there wasn’t a 90’ angle.
Well that’s mostly all we did today. Our homework for tonight is Exercise 31 # 1-20. And the scribe for Tuesday is…Ian.

Fourth Powers

- I hear you have extraordinary powers!

- Not true! What I said to the press was that I have fourth powers at home.

- What do you mean?

- 1, 16, 81, .... That kind of stuff.

- But these are square numbers!?

- Yes, but they are more than that. They are square numbers squared.

- I see. And you have these at home?

- Some of them. Not all of them.

- And what do you do with them?

- Play with them, of course, what else?

- What kind of games?

- This morning I added them.

- That must have been great fun!

- That's what I said to the press, but they didn't believe me.

- How did the game go?

- Not very well. I tried to pick less than nineteen of them, one several times if
neccessary, to get any number in the universe.

- How did you get 20?

- 20 was easy. 1 + 1 + 1 + 16 = 20. I only had to use five of them.

- Which number gave you problems?

- I found a number less than 500 that required nineteen fourth powers.

- So you lost the game?

- Yes, and I can't even remember which number it was.

Late Post!

This was my post for the Radical test, but my computer didn't work in that time; so when i fixed it which was a week after, i thought it was late so i just keeped it.
Anyway, Mr. K told me to post it now! here is my post:

Well, this unit was OK, for me. In the radical part of it, (which was all , except the Number Sets), Mixed radicals are kind of difficult for me to change it to the Entire radicals. and this is the part that i'm stick in, and i hope i can get it. The number sets is confusing to figure out which kind of number it is. but i'm sure if i try some and practice it will be fine.Our assignments are due tomorrow and that is my post for the....before the test?! good luck guys

Well, I know it's late.... ._.

Gas Stations and Math. Math is everywhere!

Well, apparently math and gas stations are related.

I know that normally we aren't supposed to blog unless we are the scribe or a test is coming up, but I thought I would share something with the class.

You're probably are wondering how I can relate gas stations to math eh? Well, I shall explain.

Last night, I was driving around with my mom, taking pictures of places in my community, for a Geography project. We drove by a Domo Gas station. On the sign where it normally says what the price for gas per litre is, I noticed something strange. Instead of the sign reading, "90.4" it read "90^4". Now normally, I wouldn't think too much about that, but because of this pre cal class, it got me thinking about math suprisingly. I started thinking about what the actual price per litre of gas would be, and believe me, I would rather be paying 90.4 cents per litre than 90^4 cents per litre!
Now I know what my other math teachers were saying : "Math is everywhere!"

Scribe

On Wednesdays class we talked about different geometric figures. We had reviewed some rectangular prisms and how to find the surface area and volume. We also reviewed about Spheres and how to find the volume and surface area. Mr K than put some questions on the board and we took up our answers on the board as a class. He showed us something new about a sphere. Say the radius was duobled or tripled than the old or new area would be multiplied by the old area to the new radius squared. If it were volumes it would be cubed. The scribe for todays class was brittany.

Scribe for Today...

Hmmm....where should I start with today's class. Well since you can see how outside looks not many people showed up. So then we just went over last nights homework. Mr. K answered any of the questions we had. There wasn't enough people to learn something new. After we answered all the questions we went downstairs to the MPR and watched a movie. That was all for today's class=).

There is NO homework..let's all jump for joy! And the scribe for tomorrow is...drum roll please...Kristin_R.

Spheres

Check your homework using this online calculator for finding the surface area and volume of a sphere. Just type in the radius and click the [enter] button!

Two Quizzes on Spheres:

Surface Area

Volume

You can also try this bottomless quiz (just keep refreshing the page) for finding the volume and surface area of a sphere. Do as many exercises as you feel you need to until you understand the material well.

Intro to Geometry - Nov. 14, 2005

Hello everyone! This is the first scribe post for our new unit on Geometry!

Today's class was spent reviewing some things about geometry we've already learned (like how to find the volume of a retangular prism) and then learning some new things (like the formulas for the surface area and volume of a sphere.)

At the beginning of the class, Mr. K put up eight questions for us to solve.
The first of these questions involved "plugging in" number values for variables (ex. a = 2, b = 3, c = 5 so... abc + 2ab = 42.)
The next questions required us to find out the value of variable (ex. x^2 + x^2 = 72 so.... x equals 6.)
The last of the questions were about solving the volumes and surface areas for a rectangular prism and a cylinder.


Next, Mr. K. explained the "baseball theorem" to us. This theory explained why the surface area formula of a baseball (also known as a sphere) is 4(pi)(r^2).
Lastly, he explained the volume formula for spheres, which is: 4/3 (pi)(r^3).

Our homework for tonight is Exercise 23...yes, the whole thing.
The scribe for tomorrow will be.....
nee-cole !!

The View From Sunday

This week's puzzle comes from Think Again! again. ;-)

The Other View


With nine pieces as the one shown above, a 3x3x3 cube was made. Below you can see the cube viewed from South, East, and North. What does it look like seen from the West?

del.icio.us Guide

You can download a pdf guide to del.icio.us right here.

It is 12 pages long. Flip to the section where you feel you most need help. If you like to work off a hard copy you can print it up. If you don't have a printer at home you can print it up at school. If enough of you want to have the hard copy let me know in class and I'll have a bunch of them copied for you. ;-)

RADICALS

To me this unit was like any other, easy at th begining and hard at the end. I thought this unit was easy till we got to dividing radicals and solving problems with radicals.
We started off learning about the number sets.
After that day The sub. asked us to write down square roots and memorize them. I thought that was kinda difficult, I have a bad memory.
We learned how to subtract, add, multiply and divide radicals.
I think dividing radicals we hard! :/

Overall I think this unit was okay, but hard.

Radical BLogG

In this unit we learned about radicals. We learned what an actuall radical was. We also learned about The Element of Reals. Mr. Kuropatwa than explained how squaring a number is very similar to rooting a number. For example if u take the square root of 16 it equals 4. Now if take the number 4 and square it, your answer will be 16. We than learned how to add and subtract radicals. Adding and Subtracting radicals are pretty strait forward and similar to adding and subtracting binomial. If we had an equation like 3x - 2x = x or x + 4y = x + 4y notice that u could only add or subtract a binomial if you have the same variables. The same goes for radicals. If we had 2 root 3 plus 5 root 3 the answer would be 7 root 3. If we had 3 root 2 - 2 root 5 the answer would not change because root 2 and root 5 are not the same. They could be portrayed as x and y. We than learned how about simplifing radicals, and writing radicals as an entire number with fractional exponents. If we had root 63 we could simplify it out to root 9 times root 7, which can than be completely solved as 3 because root 9 equals 3. When u simplify radicals the first multiple has to be a square root. If we had the cube root of 24, it could be written as the 24 to the power 1/3. If there is no number with the number inside the radical it counts as one if there is no number outside the root sign to tell if you are cubing or taking the forth root it counts as squaring or the number two. The number on the outside goes to the numerator and the number with the number goes with in the denominator. The test is today and I hope everyone does well now I got to get ready for school.

Who am I, iam blogerman

Out of all the units that we did, this unit is the most easy and helpful for me because for a long time now that I didn't do much division and multiplication, this unit refresh my memory about those. At first this unit is kind of hard, I have no idea even how to do 3√20 because the teacher is doing it kind of too fast for me and I ' am a slow learner but now I know how to do it because I got a lot of help from the teachers and friends. Here, i even show you that i know how to do it the answer to 3√20 is = to 6√5 ( I hope is right).
I would have to say that there is one thing Mr. K is wrong about this unit and that is
"Teachers love this because there are many ways to write one number."
"Students hate this because there are many ways to write one number."

The correct thing about this that sentence is "some students hate this because there are many ways to write one number"

Because I love that I can write the same number more then one way because for example 81 = 9^2 = 3^4. now I can trick people using this cool way which I already did and they go "What? how?" and have that look in there face.

Radicals...

Well I am here to do my blogging before the test. Let me see.. I have to talk about radicals..where to start. Well I guess I could start off by saying that I don't like them. The only type of radicals are the simple ones, I don't like it when we start having word problems and all that funny stuff. When it comes to adding and multiplying and simplifying then I'm not too bad, but when you want me to solve a word problem with radicals then that's when I start to have trouble. When we first started learning about radicals everyone was okay with it..including me but then we started to do all this funny stuff. I don't know if it's just me but I could do without it. I am pretty worried about the test tomorrow and I hope that I do decently. I just know that the word problems are going to mess me up. Well I wish everyone goodluck on the test and remember NO CALCULATORS! haha goodluck!

Blogg*+*

hello,

its the time where we have to make a blog before the test. so tomorrow is the test. is anyone excited!? me? im not even sure. i hope its not to hard as i thought it might be. = . well i hope everyone does good on their project and also on the test.

so far in the unit on radicals. i enjoyed it. at times i was fustrating but i managed through. i came at lunch to ask mr K. for help and i understood the problems that i had trouble in. finally. i understand most of the things such as how to simplify √640 etc.

the most difficult questions that i had trouble in and is still having a little trouble in is questions that are simular to
³√27. the reason why i don't understand this sort of question is because some times it might be a √2 instead of a big number and i wouldn't be able to figure it out because i would need to use fractions which i don't understand the whole process with the fractions and radicals and rationals.

anyways i think this is all i need to talk about. (?) but good luck to everyone on the test.

STUDY PEOPLE....

Scribe/Review pour le test à demain

Today was a review day complete with a pre-test, which, I think, provided a sneak preview for tomorrow's test. After the pre-test, we solved three problems involving radicals with our group, one of it was we were asked to find out which value was bigger:

4/cube.rt (2)
or
2 cube rt.(4)

Solving the equation, we find out that:

So, all in all, both of them are just the same numbers, just written differently. Mr. K says that teachers love to teach this lesson because there are so many ways to write a number, while students hate it, because there are so many ways to write a number. =)

Since we're having a test tomorrow, I decided to put a bit of review here.

The number set composes of natural numbers, whole numbers, integers, rational numbers (A.K.A fractions), irrational numbers, and imaginary numbers. Imaginary numbers we don't have to learn until next semester, in which I think almost everyone of us are taking Pre-Cal 30S. Natural numbers are counting numbers e.g (1,2,3,...)and uses the symbol N with a slash before it. Whole numbers are (0,1,2,3,...) and uses the symbol W with a slash before it too. Integers are negative and positive numbers (...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...) and use the symbol I. Rational numbers are basically numbers that can be written as fraction a/b where b≠0, and a and b are integers. Symbol is I. Lastly, irrational numbers are numbers that are non-terminating, non-repeating numbers e.g √2, √3, pi.

Exponent Laws

Product law: x^a.x^b=x^a+b

Quotient law: x^a/x^b=x^a-b

Power law: (x^a)^b=x^ab

Inverse law: x^-a= 1/x^a

Properties of Radicals

√ab = √a.√b

√a/b = √a/√b

As Mr. K would say, it is often easier to work with powers than radicals to simplify expressions like the ones below.

Ex. sq.rt(6√6)=(6√6)^1/2

=(6.6^1/2)^1/2

=(6^3/2)^1/2

=6^3/4

=⁴√6³

Radicals and Mixed Radicals

Entire radicals: √12, √75

Mixed radicals: 2√3, 5√3 *Mixed radicals are all simplified mixed radicals of the radicals above.

Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying and Dividing Radicals

*ALWAYS simplify radicals before adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing them.

Adding: 2√3 + 4√3 = 6√3

unlike terms: 2√3 + 4√3 + 3√2 = 6√3 + 3√2 = 3(2√3 + √2) note: Leave the unlike radical alone, applies to both adding and subtracting.

Subtracting: 2√3 - 4√3 = -2√3

unlike terms: 2√3 - 4√3 -3√2 = -2√3 - 3√2

Multiplying: √x(√a+√b) = √xa + √xb

Dividing: 1) √x/√a = √x/√a . √a/√a = √xa/a

2) √x/b+√a = √x/b+√a . b-√a / b-√a = xb-x√a/b²-a

I think that pretty much sums up the unit, I'm sorry for the length of the post. Next day's scribe is kimc, and don't forget that the Trigonometry Assignment is due tomorrow, and we have a test.

Bonne chance!

this unit was ok

When it comes to radicals I understand everything until I get to dividing then i get a bit shakee.But overall this unit was fun I'm going to study really hard for the test tomorrow and hopefully get a better mark then I got on the last test. I'm crossing my fingers on this one.I hope that there isn't that many dividing questions on the test. Well that's all that I have to say about radicals.Good luck to everyone tomorrow.

Radical or Radical?

Hello ._.

The only radicals I like are: √9 = 3 or √16 = 4. Why couldn't it just be those kind of radicals? Overall I am still a bit confused on dividing radicals. I can start the questions then have problems ending it. >_< I dislike this unit.

Goodluck to everyone on the test tomorrow!

This unit was pretty fun. Most of the time I understand what Mr. K was talking about, but sometimes I got a little lost. The most easy thing in this unit were Adding and subtracting the radicals. Multiplying was kind of hard. Dividing radicals is also fun, but sometimes I end up with the wrong answers.

Radicals are confusing for me sometimes, but I figure out my mistakes. Well I’m going to keep this post sort because I have a lot more to do on the TRIGANOMETRY ASSIGNMENT!!. I’m really going to study hard for the test, so I hope I do well. Also, good luck to everyone on the test.

rad unit

The radical unit is quite easy. I didn't find it difficult like the other units so far. At first I thought that it's going to be hard since I haven't done this before. When Mr K. told us that sq.rt.16, 2^2 and 16^1/2 is all the same number, the number 4, but you won't know it until you solve it.

I learned lots of things in this unit. Adding and subtracting and multiplying and dividing and simplying radicals. Like Mr. K. say "Math is the study of patterns." Radical is similar to polynomials and factoring unit. Some similarities are:

• When adding/subtracting radicals you must put it in lowest term then solve.
• Use the distribution law when multiplying.

I'm sure there are more. I enjoyed this unit. Good luck to everyone on the test!

$¢®ißê

In today's class we basically review for the RADICAL UNIT TEST that's happening on thursday. Mr Kuropatwa gave us a review sheets and he went over the exercises from the other days; exercises 33, 37 & 38. Thats pretty much the whole class.


REMINDERS:

1. RADICALS UNIT TEST ON THURSDAY
2. THE TRIGANOMETRY ASSIGNMENT IS DUE ON THURSDAY
3. SCRIBE TOMMOROW IS JOHN D. -#12

radicals

well, well, well, I'm here blogging for the test because the blogging prompt was too hard!

I'm going to get straight to the point here radicals for me was easier than slopes. even though everyone says that slopes was so easy...not for me. hopefully on the test I get a better mark than any other test I've done.


sometimes radicals can confuse me but thats all apart of the process. so yeah. and I can look at my work and figure out what I did, sometimes its the simplist mistake like writing a number wrong or even a sign. ummm.......i don't know what else to say about radicals. so I'll leave it to this. hope i do good on the test *crosses fingers*. and good luck to everyone on the test!

Scribe

Hello!
Today in class we started to review the 2 questions from the previous day.

√3^2 + 4^2 + 12^2
and
√7+√4

Mr. K told us about BEDMAS, BEMDAS, PEDMAS, and PEMDAS. <- Means the same thing. He told us to race to the blog to do something simliar to make simliar questions to the ones he gave us. We learned that the conjugate of a sum is a difference.And vice versa, the conjugate of a difference is a sum. Mr. K wrote six questions on the board which we had to rationalize the denominator. Mr. K reviewed us on mulitiplying radicals and we answered 4 questions. We had to notice a pattern, which was the pattern of differences of squares. We learned that contrugate of a sum is the difference. For homework tonight is: EXERCISE 38. OMIT 11, 14, and 16! The scribe for tomorrow is: RUS-L! MUWAHAHAHHA! *evil laugh* (this is what you get for picking me as scribe the first time!)

A Radical Prompt

Blogging Prompt
Here's the Blogging Prompt we discussed in class today:

Without using a calculator find the value of:

sq.rt.(32 + 42 + 122)

sq.rt.(7 + sq.rt.(4))

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create two radical problems of your own similar to those above. This challenge is open to all takers! However, once a solution is posted you CANNOT use the same solution as your own -- you've got to come up with a new one. In other words, the longer you wait to tackle this, the harder it's going to get.

Write your answers in the comments to this post. You can also use cube roots (cube rt.), fourth roots (4th.rt.) and higher if you wish. Feel free to mix them up too! (i.e. square roots and cube roots, or square roots and fourth roots, etc.) A successful reply to this prompt includes TWO answers; one similar to each of the problems posted. If you have a successful reply you do not need to write a reflective pre-test blog post.

Have Fun!

A del.icio.us Idea

I recently received this email from a student in this class:

Hey Mr. K.

This is one of the websites I was looking at that had simplifying radicals..

http://regentsprep.org/Regents/math/radicals/pracRad.htm

I found a few that I thought were good just by typing "radicals" in google, they really helped me out.

See you Monday,
************

Students often find more, and better, sites than I do. You're better websurfers than I am. ;-) That got me thinking .....

I spend a lot of time looking for good websites that help us learn in this class. But what if we all spent a little time doing that? What if there was an easy way for us to both save our bookmarks (without cluttering up our favourites list) and share them with the whole class with the click of a single button? And what if we could access those bookmarks not just from home, but from any computer in the world? Hmmm .....

Well, there is an easy way to do that! Instead of saving bookmarks on your home computer sign up for a free account at a site called del.icio.us. You can then access them from any computer in the world. You can easily install a little button/bookmark that allows you to save any webpage you're looking at without interupting your surfing. Tag it using this tag:

pc20s

Now we can all get each others bookmarks with the click of a single button in our del.icio.us accounts.

I'll go one better than that. If you all jump in on this idea, I'll write a post on our blog (with a permanent link in the sidebar) that will load the 10 most recently saved links automatically as you find them. I'll also include a link to the archive that you can browse at your leisure.

If this interests you (and I can't imagine how it doesn't) read this tutorial on how to get started with del.icio.us. You might also be interested in watching this screencast that illustrates just how powerful this web tool is.

When you've signed up for a del.icio.us account (register here) leave a comment on this post telling me so. When I see some action here I'll blog that self-updating post. ;-)

Test Is Coming Up!

Hi everyone!

Another weekend has come through again, and school starts again tomorrow. AND we have a test coming up this week, I don't know when, but I guess there's nothing wrong in preparing, eh? Oh, and I just remembered to blog before the test, so I decided to blog now before I forget.

Anyway, this new unit, about radicals, was quite enjoyable. It was quite hard to understand it at first, I mixed up on some parts like when we broke down radicals like √12 breaks down to √4 times √3, and simplifying that, we have a mixed radical, which is 2√3. And oh, mixed radicals are radicals which are composed of a whole number and a radical. Example: refer to the simplified answer of √12. Another thing we learned in radicals is how to write a radical to an exponential form, and vice versa. √12 converted to exponential form is 12^1/2. 8^1/2 written in radical form is √8.

Another thing is we learned how to add, subtract, multiply and divide radicals. One time, we encountered a problem like this: 2√2 + 4√2 + 6√2 is similar the problem 2x + 4x +6x. So, combining those terms, you get 12√2. Like I said, it is similar to the problem 2x + 4x + 6x. But what if we don't have similar terms, like 2√2 + 4√2 - 6√3? Well then, it similar to the equation 2x + 4x -6y. We don't combine unlike terms, and such. What about the problem √8 + √32 + √72? The first step when we encounter this problem is to simplify the radicals first. So √8 simplifies to 2√2, √32 to 4√2, and √72 to 6√2. 12√2 is the answer. Did I just write the answer somewhere here?

In multiplying, we just simply distribute the radical to each term e.g √2(√9+√2) = 9√2 + 2. Division of radicals is also just the same as 3x^2/3x e.g. 6√2/3√2, simplifies to 2.

Well, I guess that summarizes what we learned in radicals. I've exhausted all my knowledge in this blog.. and I wish good luck to everyone in the test.

Another test coming up! Gotta blogola!

Well, another test has come upon us. We have been rush-rush-rushing to learn-learn-learn! I feel like a train chugging along. Sometimes, I hit a cow tied to tracks, but I still somehow find a way to come back to the tracks, and stay on course. I don't know how I've done it so far, but I'm happy that I've stuck with it. I have seen a bit of an improvement in my marks lately, like, a ten percent difference, so I am quite proud of that. I know that some people are having a hard time with the work, and are failing a test here and there, and I know that I'm sure some of you are getting discouraged. I just wanted to mention to you all to remember sisyphus! Yeah, sometimes you just want to give up, but don't. I think that every single person in our class has so much potential, and should stick to this course, because I know we all can do it! Yay!
I really enjoyed this unit, and I really seem to be understanding radicals, basically. Theres always a question here or there that I get stuck with. As long as I remember that, "Math is the science of patterns", I always seem to find a way to figure it out when looking at a previous problem that I figured out. Thanks Mr.K, I think that is probably one of the most important things I learned in this course. I mean, I learned a lot, but this is one I will take with me to future math courses.
So, I guess this post should come to a close. I feel like I should leave some words of wisdom here. Hmm, well, always remember that "90% of the time it works everytime!". Mr.K seemed to like that one.Good luck studying everyone! And don't forget to blog so you can get the first question right on the test! Cheers.

Radicaal... s.

Hello fellow classmates and strandlers who happen to trip onto this site:)
I, Janet, am making my pre-test post now just incase my computer/internet fails me, and/or my brother uses the computer for hours leaving me no time to make a post, and/or because I can't log into blogger at school, and/or Mr. K will have a sub on the day of our test and we won't be able to log into his computer in his classroom therefore leaving no post before the test lol.

Because most of those reasons just listed above happened to me last time!! >:( ..ergh. and that ONE mark could've possibly pushed my percentage into the 70's ...bleh. I did try making a post during that lunch hour though!! lol man... should've seen me running about >.> *thinks about the sore legs I got after that ...-shudder-*
D`ahh well. Continuing ...

Today I felt so relieved about this radical unit because I'm pretty sure I understand it now. I was going over the exercises and found myself miraculously looking at a question and finishing it without any troubles! :D Although there are some that I quite don't get just yet, WHICH I WILL BE ASKING MR.K ABOUT ... or another classmate... lol either way, it just feels so good to understand it. Ah, can't express it enough.

I'm feeling pretty satisfied with the progress of mine in this course. Although it could be better, I am trying my best and that's the most anyone could expect from themselves. :) Don't be afraid to ask questions! This unit I've been asking more questions and I wonder why the heck I didn't before. So, don't be afraid! Cause um.. you shouldn't be, plus there's always someone else who's unsure, too. x)

To end my post I'll leave you guys an old proverb I read off one of my brother's textbooks;
"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."
Erm... At least I think that's what it said lol. Okay ..well.. uh... hmm....... cya :D

It's Sunday Again

In the game of Kayles a number of pins (or coins) are arranged in separate rows. A legal move consists of knocking down either one pin or two adjacent pins from the same row. This may break up the row into two smaller rows. Whichever player knocks down the last pin wins. What's the winning strategy for the game of Kayles?

Play here. Discuss your winning strategies in the comments to this post .... and have fun doing it!

iBLOG

iBlOG!

Atlast, my computer is operational just in time for the upcoming test next week. Radicals was sort of new to me, many ways just to right one number. In the beginning of this unit I was struggling with some of the concepts, but after I applied some time to figuring out I got some of them figured out. The class where we first started to learn radicals it was easy, until it got more technical, I've got lost. Our class learned that there are many various ways to write a number which I thought was cool! Expressing the number 5 had numerous possibilities, like √25 = 5 and 25/5 = 5!

THURSDAY ScRIBE (Late)

I know im a day late, my internet wasn't working so i had no other alternative then to wait for the next day. Not to waste anymore time lets get started.

On thursday we learned how to add, subtract and multiply "like" radicals.

To add like radicals you simply add the outside values.
To subtract like radicals you simply subtract the outside values.
To multiply like radicals you simply multiply the outsde values.

(since i dont know how to make the radical sign ill just make it / )

such as: 3/2 + 4/2 = 7/2 ------ 8/4 - 6/4= 2/4------2/4 ( 5/4) = 10/4 --------3/4 + 8/4 = 11/4 -------12/7 - 8/7= 4/7 --------4/5 (2/5) = 8/5

We learned that and then Mr. K-Pat gave us an assignment on it in class where we had to solve two basic questions and then make our own radical problems and solve them.

For homework we got two sheets, pg 34 and 37 both due on monday. The scribe for monday is Wendy_V..haha okay bye.

Radical Dude!!!

Next week we're having our radicals test and thus I must blog!
Well at first, I was sort of lost...the concept of radicals was brand-spankin' new to me and as Mr. K said, students hate learning it because of all the different manipulations you can have with the numbers. I really related to Mr. K's story about his son who thought his teacher was crazy because 5 can be represented as 1 + 4 or 2+3 or a bunch of other ways (like the square root of 25 for example..) ...not that I think Mr. K is crazy.
I really believe that in math, it's not about memorizing the mechanical function, it's really about knowing why something is a certain way...and that's yet another thing Mr K said!

After our first quiz, I was pretty discouraged because I didn't really notice any patterns that made me feel "the clouds part, or the fog lift from my mind" but then I noticed that just like addition is the inverse function of subtration and multiplication is to division, square roots are the opposite function of powers...in a way...and thinking about it that way really helped me out.
It's always great at the end of a unit when you can really feel comfortable with what you've been learning:)

Scribe.com

Hello! =_=

Today in class I found out I was the scribe. Timathy picked me by the way. Well today in class we came in as usual and Mr. Kuropatwa put questions on the board for us. A question he gave us was:
2√3 + 4√3 - 5√3
He told us to look at it closely. Some students got it and others were still searching into it. Mr. Kuropatwa said:

2√3 + 4√3 - 5√3
is like
2x + 4x - 5x

Moral of the problem is the patterns we can look at. The answer is √3, because 2+4=6. 6-5=1. The root 3 is a like radical and cannot be simplified anymore, so we leave it.

We were given another question similiar to it.
2√3 + 3√3 - 5√2
As students we all had different ideas on how to solve it. It's just like, like terms. The two root 3's are like the same as the first question. So we add 2√3 + 3√3 = 5√3. Since √3 and √2 are unlike radicals we leave them.
5√3 - 5√2
We all know Mr. Kuropatwa likes to get more detailed, so he showed us that we could find a common factor. Which in this case, is 5. We can end our answer off as: 5(√3 - √2)

√12 + √48 - √75
Mr. Kuropatwa gave us this and told us to solve it. I don't want to mention any names but Jordan helped me with this one. He's very smart, lol. He told me to solve each root, so I did. Magically I got:
2√3 + 4√3 - 5√3
= √3
There is so many ways to write 1 number. ^__^ It'd be easy just one number, that way everyones happy! ;D Later on Mr. Kuropatwa showed us how to find the square root of any number. For me it's still complicated. So it would be very difficult for me to type it out and try to explain how.

Tonights homework is EXERCISE 33. Questions 1-20. OMIT 12 & 17! WELL WELL WELL, THE PART EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR... BWAHHAHAHAHAHA! ._. By the way Timathy, I know your fourth period class! Well the scribe for tomorrow is.. *drum roll* ... "STEVENF" HAHAHA HOW DO YOU LIKE DEM APPLES! ^___^

pc20s scribe

Wow, wow, and wow! I almost forgot that I was scribe T.T; at least I didn't :D. Well I'll start right away.

Today, we had an early dismissal at 3:00 p.m. so our two last classes of the day were cut short, one of which was our math class sooo.. Guess what? We jumped right into our surprise quiz... ... ... Well anyways, the quiz in my opinion had to be the easiest out of all the quizzes we had so far. The quiz was on conversion of entire radicals to mixed radicals, entire radicals to mixed radicals, simplification of radicals.. uhh my memory is getting short so lets just put it that way.. RADICALS :D and of course rational exponents.

Well, lets see what else I can remember.. Oh yes! THE ALMIGHTY.. ASSIGNMENT OF THE MATH CLASS hehe made it sound better :P. Well if you haven't read it yet, it's about a scout looking in a forest seeing an owl on one tree and a possum on the other and of course you should know what's going to happen to that poor fella (the circle of life)

For this assignment, you will need to sign the sheet and so must your parent/guardian because if they don't and you hand it in, the outcome is a big fat 0. You are not aloud to talk about this problem with anyone else except maybe.. I mean not maybe.. YOU CAN ASK FOR HELP FROM MR. D KUROPATWA who will happily help you with the mathematical equations and such.. (I'm sure you'll be happy right Mr. K?) For this assignment, Mr. K says that If you want to get full marks, you have simply follow the criteria outline which is stated on the sheet that we all received. One thing I'd like to point out is the creativity/presentation part. "IF" you want to get full marks on that.. Boy, you need to make Mr. K's jaw drop :P. I can't wait to see the desperate people's awesome creations.. I can see it now.. Wait I can't need new glasses.. :P (not funny? ahwell)

Well that's pretty much all that I can remember from today's class. Was there homework other than that assignment? (by the way, you have 7 days to work on that assignment) If there is any other homework I cannot remember and I apologize for that. I hope you guys don't get too sick from all that candy from trick or treating.. I didn't go. The tomorrows scribe will be.. Wait got to open a new window to check.. (5 minutes later) okay back.. It will be the "T-SA" because she picked me last time :P GOODLUCK

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You've made an impact. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!