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Excursion 7: Reading and Talking Math One of the greatest things we can learn in math, is how to translate words into math. For example. A man is ten years older than his wife. Well, we can let the man's age be "m". Now suppose if we're told that if you add the two ages together, you get a number that is 5 times their difference. Let's take it bit by bit (the only way to read and do math). If we add the two ages together, that's m + w in math terms. Their "difference" is what we get if we subtract them. Five times their difference is 5 x (m-w). And in math, "is" is written "=". So if we put it together we get: m = w + 10 and Your excursion this week is in two parts: 1). Use any means you like to figure out the man's age, and his wife's age. 2). Find four other situations or sentences from other places and translate them into math. P.S. What we just did... it's called algebra, using letters and symbols to help us solve problems. Welcome to mathematics. Pretty, isn't it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Answer to excursion # 6: Last week you were asked to take six round objects, make a chart, and record the circumference (length around the edge) of each, the diameter (length straight through the center) of each, and the number you get when you divide the circumference by the diameter. The number you get in each case may have been close to 3.14, or 3 1/7. These numbers, of course, are approximations of Pi, one of the most important numbers in mathematics. It shows up a lot in the mathematics relating to circles and "round" things. We'll do lots with Pi in the coming weeks. Take me to more weekly challenges. Take me to the classroom challenge. Take me to SAT/ACT Tip #3, which shows more about translating words into math. |
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Great Math
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