This year in math 10 I was given some greats opportunities to learn new things and these are the top 5 things I learned in class as well as about myself.
1. New Working Habits
In math 10 this year due to the quarter system everything was sped up and done at a higher intensity and due to this it was important for me to learn some new working habits in order to cope with the changes. One of the new work habits I learned this year was that time management was even more important than normal and so I always profited from the given work time during class so that I would not have a lot of homework at home.
2. Exponent Laws
A concept that I found very important to learn and expand on this year were the exponent laws. We focused on the multiplication law of exponents, the division law of exponents, the power of a power law and the zero exponent law. These laws may not seem very important, however they reappear in a variety of other units so knowing them is very crucial.
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Multiplication Law |
When the bases are the same, the exponents can be added together. Ex. x^4+x^3=x^7 |
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Division Law |
When the bases are the same, the exponents can be subtracted together. Ex. x^13÷ x^7=x^6 |
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Power of a Power Law |
When an exponent/base are inside of a bracket and another exponent is on the left side of the bracket simply multiply the exponents together. Ex. (x^4)^5=x^20 |
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Zero Law |
When the exponent is 0, the base becomes 1. Ex. x^0=1 |
3. Trigonometry
A new unit we worked on this year was trigonometry and how to find the missing angles and side lengths using SOH CAH TOA. I believe this was one of the top 5 things I learned this year in math because I quite enjoyed being able to find all the different missing angles and side lengths for a triangle by using simple equations.
In order to find the missing angle of a right angled triangle first you must label the sides of a triangle (which is the opposite ,adjacent and the hypotenuse.) Once all the sides are labeled you need to determine which trig formula you will use based on what side lengths you already know. Once the ratios have been put into the equation to solve for x the tangent will be inversed so that the answer will be the angle instead of the side length.
4. Slope Y-Intercept Form
As a part of our final unit on equations of linear relations one of the three equations we learned was slope y-intercept form. This was one of the top 5 things I learned this year because it is a very important equation to know as I start to do more advanced math, but also because it was my personal favorite equation as it immediately tells you what the slope is and the y-intercept.
5. Enjoyment of Math
I have always enjoyed doing math, but this Math 10 course has given me more confidence in my abilities to push myself and go further in math. I believe my enjoyment in math is one of the top 5 things I learned this year in this course because it has opened new opportunities for me, such as looking into jobs for the future such as engineering. This course has taught me that math is not going to always be easy, but if certain things confuse me it is a great idea to try different ways and concepts to solve problems.