Math 9 *Optional* Blog Post

5 “ah ha” moments for me through out my grade 9 year in Ms. Burton’s math class.

1. Learning about exponents, how they are lazy. This means that if we have two numbers before the exponent (in any form of multiplication or division) that it would go to the nearest number, meaning multiply itself by the amount of the exponent; however, there’s a possible cure for this laziness. If those two numbers are in parenthesis then the exponent has nothing else to do but multiply the two numbers.
2. Understanding fractions, I always had a tough time with negative fractions. This would happen because I wasn’t aware that when you multiply a negative it will become even smaller than it was before. This only would accrue when a negative fraction got multiplied by a positive integer. For example, -1/5 x 2 = -1/10, becoming even smaller than it was before. It’s like dividing something among 10 people instead of 5, you receive less!
3. Finally understanding similar triangle, when you have three-sided triangle but only have two sides, how do you get the third. Over the year I finally understood that there’s one special side of a triangle, the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is always the side across the degree of the triangle. It’s what comes after the equal sign. Basically, the two other sides with the numbers, not the hypotenuse, they get added together to then achieve the measurement of the hypotenuse. In any other possible situation, the formula would change.
4. A very big “ah ha” moment for me was, when we had the math 9 initials task and I finally understood how to make the restriction for a line to start somewhere and end at a certain point. You can do this on desmos, it’s a great computer exercise. Anyway, to make restrictions for a line you must use a certain formula to create a certain expression. This formula is the following, y=a<x<y=b, a more detailed example, y=3<x<y=5.
5. A huge “ah ha” moment was, multiplying and divided exponent. It so simple and easy, multiplying means adding  the exponents. Dividing exponents is subtracting exponents. It’s as easy as that!