Linear Relationships

KindleThe Kindle can tell you how many minutes is left in the book you’re reading based on how fast you read. It knows how quickly you turn the page, and can thus assume how many words you can read in a minute.

The average secondary school student can read 350 words per minute.

Here is the relationship on a table of values:

t (minutes)     W (words)

1                              350
2                             650
3                             950
4                             1250

The equation is W = 300t + 50

Here the graph of this equation:

IMG_5287

Per each minute spent reading, the average high school student can read 350 words. This relationship is shown in the equation (W, words read, and t, time spent in minutes) W = 300t +50.

Composition Shape

IMG_4527

Here is my composite shape. It is made up of a triangle and a semi-circle to create an ice-cream cone type shape. The calculations of area and perimeter are in the photo.

 

The Difference Between Area and Perimeter:

Perimeter is the total sum of the exterior of the shape, how much material you need to surround the shape. Area is the total sum of the interior of the shape, how much space it takes up.

Decimals vs Fractions

Decimals and fractions are, in almost all ways, interchangeable. Most of the time, you can convert a decimal into a fraction and a fraction into a decimal, but what if you had to choose between the two? What if you could only use fractions and never use a decimal ever again, or vice versa? It’s a difficult question, absolutely, but a choice must be made. For me, the choice is difficult. Fractions are easier to see and visualize, and as a visual learner, incredibly useful. However, decimals are easy to put on a basic number line and there is no need to convert decimals into fractions if fractions don’t exist. Therefore, since fractions have proved redundant, and I can just as easily visualize decimals, I will have to banish fractions from the face of the universe forever, and keep the decimals.

But hey, at least I’m only a grade nine math student and cannot erase something from history forever!

Math Autobiography

I am not a math person. I do not have a brain made to solve equations, and I have never liked numbers too much. Instead, I am more of a letter-and-word person. I love stories, and I like writing them even more.

Math has never really told me much of a story, until I started Algebra. To solve an algebraic equation, you need to tell a story or you’re going to get a big fat zero on that test you spend a week worrying about. Those little math equations with letters actually made sense for me – finally! Something that clicked! When I started this unit in my grade seven math class, I finally decided maybe, just maybe, I could like math.

Prior to this epiphany, if anybody asked me what my most hated subject was, I would automatically say Math. The numbers confused me and swam around my brain, meaningless and pounding my skull. I could bluff my way through textbooks well enough, I just never figured out why. I didn’t like math because I am a “Why” person, like one of those kids that constantly asks “why” after an answer is given until their victim becomes infuriated. Until I started delving deeper into math equations, I only wanted to know why these equations existed and why I had to do them in a specific way.

I hated math with a passion by the beginning of middle school, but not only because I wasn’t getting any valid answers – I didn’t understand it. Normally, everything I learn in school clicks in my head. It makes sense, and I can easily explain it to someone. But I never had that in math, especially long division. All the different equations I had to do and numbers I had to keep track of simply hurt my head and made me want to burn the worksheet. That is when my grades began to suffer, but soon enough, a teacher explained it to me in a way that finally made sense – with words. He explained the equations with stories and told me that’s how I learned. Since then, I have remembered this. When I struggled with integers, I made a story for each equation involving a man named Bob walking back and forwards.

Math was never a very significant part of my growing up, besides something to despise. But stories always have been, so if a math equation can have a beginning, a middle, and an end, I’ll be okay.