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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Some Counting Review

Here are some additional exercises on combinatorics. The interactive "tests" here will also give you explanations of why the correct answer is correct. Enjoy!

If you click on the [Back To {topic}] button at the bottom of each quiz you'll be able to find pages that give helpful lessons on each topic.

Monday, May 30, 2005

More Fun

Well, you folks liked the last test so much, try this one on for size (6 questions):

1. What do you put in a toaster? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: The answer is bread. If you said "toast," then give up now and go do something else. Try not to hurt yourself. If you said, "bread," go to question 2.

2. Say "silk" five times. Now spell "silk." What do cows drink? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: Cows drink water. If you said "milk" please do not attempt the next question. Your brain is obviously overstressed and may even overheat. It may be that you need to content yourself with reading something more appropriate such as "Children's World." If you said, "water" then proceed to question three.

3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a greenhouse made from? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: Greenhouses are made of glass. If you said "green bricks," what the heck are you still doing here reading these questions????? ... if you said "glass," then go on to question four.

4. It's twenty years ago, a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over Germany. If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany. Anyway, during the flight, TWO of the engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure. Unfortunately the engine fails before he has time and the plane crashes smack in the middle of "no man's land" between East Germany and West Germany. Where would you bury the survivors - East Germany or West Germany or in "no man's land"? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: You don't, of course, bury survivors. If you said anything else, you must never try to rescue anyone from a plane crash. Your efforts would not be appreciated. ...... If you said, "Don't bury the survivors" then proceed to the next question.

5. If the hour hand on a clock moves 1/60th of a degree every minute then how many degrees will the hour hand move in one hour? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: One degree. If you said "360 degrees" or anything other than "one degree," you are to be congratulated on getting this far, but you are obviously out of your league. Turn your pencil in and exit the room. Everyone else proceed to the final question.

6. Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from Downtown Brooklyn (let's say starting at Court Street) to Brighton Beach in guess where (Brooklyn). At Atlantic Avenue, 17 people get on the bus. At Prospect Park, six people get off the bus and nine people get on. At Eastern Parkway, two people get off and four get on. At Newkirk Avenue, 11 people get off and 16 people get on. At Kings Highway, three people get off and five people get on. And then in Sheepshead Bay, six people get off and three get on. And now you arrive at Brighton Beach ... Scroll down for the question.











What was the name of the bus driver? ... Think carefully and scroll down.











AND THE ANSWER IS: Just look back at the question, look at the first line; it was YOU ... "You are driving a bus from..."

Humbling isn't it? And just think, you are among the most intelligent in the population. ;-)

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Just For Fun

I found this "test" over at Teaching and Developing Online. Try it out .... just for fun. ;-)

Below are four (4) questions and a bonus question. You have to answer them instantly. You can't take your time, answer all of them immediately.

OK?

Let's find out just how clever you really are. No looking at the answers in advance.

Ready? GO!!! (scroll down)

First Question:

You are participating in a race. You overtake the second person.

What position are you in?



Answer:If you answered that you are first, then you are absolutely wrong!
If you overtake the second person and you take his place, you are second!

Try not to screw up in the next question.
To answer the second question, don't take as much time as you took for the first question.

Second Question:

If you overtake the last person, then you are...?



Answer:If you answered that you are second to last, then you are wrong again. Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?

You're not very good at this! Are you?

Third Question:

Very tricky math! Note: This must be done in your head only.

Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it.

Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000 Now add 10.

What is the total?

Scroll down for answer.



Did you get 5000?
The correct answer is actually 4100.
Don't believe it? Check with your calculator!

Today is definitely not your day.

Maybe you will get the last question right?

Fourth Question:

Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Answer:Nunu?

NO! Of course not.

Her name is Mary!

Read the question again.

Okay, now the bonus round:

There is a mute person who wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing one's teeth he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.
Now if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how should he express himself?



He just has to open his mouth and ask, so simple.



So simple it is...

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Fundamental Principle of Counting

This is a good review of the the material we covered in class today. It has step-by-step explanations and solved examples. There are even a few sample questions for you to try!

Here is another good review site from Saskatchewan. You can choose to review the lesson, get extra help and examples or try some practice questions & quizzes. Ignore the Assignment link; it's broken.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Let's Make It 100% This Time!

Test day tomorrow. Get your Blogging mark here!

If you haven't finished the Conics Review on our Companion Review site you should do it now.

I've collected a number of great links to help you learn and study. When you click on each link below you will be able to select:

  • A review lesson on the topic.
  • A selection of problems to review that have been solved step-by-step.
  • An online quiz with immediate feedback.
  • An "assignment" with some more solved practice problems

So here are the things you need to know about for the test with links to the resources described above:

If you like, you can also try this humourous conics quiz. Try it out; you'll learn something!

By the way, what do you think our chances are of hitting 100% blogging participation this time around? ;-) Let's go for it and translate that effort into 100% scores on this test!

Monday, May 16, 2005

Hyperbola Help

Get help with your hyperbola homework if you need it. The site I've linked to has some exercises you can do tied to a java applet. It will show you what changing the values of "a" and "b" in the standard form of the hyperbola's equation will do to the graph. Play with it for a while .... it'll help you get a feel for the geometry behind the algebra. ;-)

Thursday, May 12, 2005

The Muddiest Point

Most of you seem to have a good grasp of the ellipse! Fantastic! If you need any help with your ellipse homework you can find it here.

By far the muddiest point in our class seems to be the parabola. Here you can play with the parabola as it's defined from the locus definition (which is what we're studying). Play with the java applets, there are two of them, to get a sense of the role "p" plays in the geometry of the parabola.

IMPORTANT: "p" is half the distance between the focus and the directrix when they are perfectly aligned vertically. By dragging the point "B" along the directrix you will sketch out a parabola. Look for when the point "P" is on top of the point "A".

The second applet will show you what happens when you move the focus around. We will discuss these things in class tomorrow, so even if this doesn't entirely make sense to you right now play with the applets so that you will understand what we're talking about in class. ;-)

There were a couple of other questions that came up in our Muddiest Point exercise:

  • about circles
  • arithmetic series
  • changing from general to standard form and back again

We'll be talking lots more about that last point. Please speak to me one-on-one about the first two -- there were only about 3 of you that were feeling muddy about them. ;-)

Monday, May 09, 2005

Parabolic Dishes and The Ellipse Game

Today we discussed parabolas as conic sections in depth. In particular I emphasized how important it is to keep in mind the geometry of the parabola as you work with its equation.

Watch this! Tomorrow I'm going to ask you why parabolas are important in connection with satelite dishes, television and radio signals. ;-)

Tomorrow we will also review circles and begin our discussion of ellipses. Find out more about what an ellipse is and then you'll be ready to play The Ellipse Game:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a focus. You will be given an ellipse of random dimensions and you will have to try to click on one of the foci. Should you fail in this mission at first, you will be given some clues. We will deny any responsibility for holes or other damage caused should you decide stick pins into a drawing board or any other item of household equipment.

Ready? Let's play!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Geometric Review

As promised, here is a list of reviews for you ....

You can also find a fairly detailed review here with step-by-step solved examples and 8 practice questions with answers.

Don't forget to bring your ruler with you to class tomorrow. You'll need it to play .... ;-)

Monday, May 02, 2005

Geometric Prompting

The unit test is on Wednesday and the deadline is getting close to get your blogging done. In an effort to make your lives easier ;-) by giving you things to blog about consider this problem:

A student strained her knee in an intramural volleyball game, and her doctor prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug to reduce the swelling. She is to take two 220-milligram tablets every 8 hours for 10 days. Her kidneys eliminate 60% of this drug from her body every 8 hours.

Blogging Prompt
  1. How much of the drug will remain in her body after 10 days, just after she takes her last dose of medicine? If she continued to take the drug for a year, how much of it would be in her system just after she took her last dose?
  2. If the initial dose is halved, what will happen to the stabilization level of the medicine in the body?
  3. If the recurring dose is halved, what will happen to the stabilization level of the medicine?
  4. If the elimination rate is halved, what will happen to the stabilization level of the medicine?

A successful response to this blogging prompt will answer #1 above and at least one of #2 - #4. It will also show all work done to get the answers. If you want to check your work you can use this interactive applet. Instructions on how to use the interactive applet are here.

Have Fun and Happy Blogging!!