Week #9 Factoring Out GCF in Trinomials

The first thing you want to do when removing the GCF in a trinomial is find all the factors of each number. Each number that has similar factors you can begin to remove, you want to place the factor you chose and move it outside of the brackets as well as dividing that number out of the trinomial, the number you get from dividing the factor goes inside the brackets. This makes factoring much easier. I chose simple examples which in my first example my numbers were 5, 15, and 10 and the factor I removed and divided by was 5x because in the trinomial each number had (X) in it. In my second example I had numbers 6, 9, and 18 and I removed 3 and divided each number by 3.

 

Week #6 Surface Area and Volume

In our seventh lesson of measurement we learned how to find the surface area and volume of a rectangular based pyramid. its a long process and you have to make sure that your formulas and steps are correct in order to receive the correct answer. I like to write out everything i do. I like to draw the shape of the face that I am trying to calculate the area of. This helps to keep track of everything i do and makes it easier to visually see as well as keeping it neat and tidy.

Surface Area:

  1. First you have to find the two slant heights of the pyramid. A rectangular based pyramid has two slant heights because the base side lengths are not the same. You find the slant heights by using pythagorean theorem on each triangular face.
  2. Once you find the two slant heights, you find the area of each triangular face. Then you add those to the base area. (Make sure to put the coefficient 2 in front of each triangular face’s area. You do this because it tells you that two of the four triangular faces have the same area.)
  3. You add the each face by writing out how to get the area of each triangular face and then the area of the base. You write them all out side by side and simplify where you can. Lastly you multiply the numbers left after you have simplified.
  4. The number that is left is the surface area of the rectangular prism.

I know this sounds hard and has a lot of steps, but I hope this example will make it easier to understand.

Volume:

  1. To find volume of a rectangular based pyramid you multiply 1/3 by the area of the base by the height of the pyramid.
  2. You should already have the area of the base from finding the surface area, so we just use that to easily find the volume. (You should be able to plug in the whole equation on your calculator.)

Here is an example using the same dimensions that I used for finding the surface area above.

Week #5 Imperial and Metric System

The measurement unit for me was a little difficult as there us so many units to convert and its a long process going from a bigger unit to smaller ones or switching metric to imperial or vice-versa. I found this unit very easy to make a little mistake on. the imperial system in mainly used in the US but we still use certain measurements like when we when we use our height or weight.

 

Technology’s Epic Story

Technology’s Epic Story

After watching Kevin Kelly’s TED talk, I do agree with what Kelly is saying in this statement People achieve progress with technology through the “proactionary principle, which is: You engage with technology. You try it out…. You try to anticipate it, but after anticipating it, you constantly asses it…. And when it diverts from what you want… we fix it, but most importantly, we relocate it… and find a new job for it.” After all we use technology everyday and it’s become second nature to us and we don’t even realize it anymore, companies release information to the public about new technology coming out and people constantly do imagine and predict what the new product will be like. Once items get released and bout by the public eye we look at ways they could be better or things that would be more convenient about the product and it goes out of date and similar “more convenient” or “new and improved” products come out and replace or fix the old ones. Technology has always been a big part of our lives and is constantly being out dated, fixed, repurposed and replaced. All technology is, is information in a design for the use of human activities and our brains will constantly rely on and try to improve what we have and will always be thinking of ways we can come up with new technology for our day to day lives.  (word count 243)

-Natalie Gane