This week in math I learned how to make sure my work in trigonometry is sensible.  Knowing if it is sensible helps because you can figure out if your answer is reasonable. So, how I do this is very simple…

…first of all, angle A corresponds with side a, angle B corresponds with side b, and angle C corresponds with side c.  We know this is a right angle triangle and that B is equal to 90 degrees.  We know this will be the largest angle because the angle A and C have to equal to 90 degrees when added together.  So since angle C is 66 degrees and it is greater than 45, we know angle A has to be less than 45.  So if A is the smallest angle, side a should also be the smallest side length.  If angle C is “neutral”, then side c will be the second biggest side length.  Finally if angle B is the largest, then side b will be the largest side length.  This is how you know your work is accurate.

In math this week I learnt a lot.  But specifically I learned about triangles.  I learned about the types of angles and what they mean.   When you have a triangle all the sides will add up to 180 degrees.  This is useful because if you have a missing degree you can use the other two angles you have to find the missing angle by simply subtracting.

Something I struggled with while working with the textbook questions, was the word problems.  I struggled at first because I didn’t know what they meant by when they said find the depression angle, or the elevation angle.  I then used the sources I had to define what they were.  The depression angle is as if you are looking down, which is concurrent to the elevation angle.

This week in math I learned  when converting measurement you might have to go through imperial measurements to get the answer in metric or vice versa.  The answer is not always going to be in front of your eyes and sometimes its going to take more steps to get to the final answer.  This is something I struggled with at first but then quickly understood why you have to do it this way using certain steps.

This week in math I learned that when you have a power with a negative fraction as a exponent, you still have to make the power into a fraction.  First you have to change it into the reciprocal and then next you have to put it into a entire radical but make sure its still over one.  Finally solve the radical which will then make it into a positive exponent over one.

This week I learned how to evaluate numbers with negative exponents.  At first thought it would be impossible but then quickly learned how simple it is.  To make it easier on yourself you convert the powers into fractions. When this happens the power with the negative exponent turns into the denominator, while going down the negative gets pulled off of the exponent.

This week at first I didn’t fully understand lesson 1.5 until we learned 1.6. I didn’t understand how to put it into a form of an answer after the prime factorization step. I also had a lot of trouble with understanding the fractions.

After learning the next lesson it quickly became clear to me and started to become extremely easy, I even started to do the math in my head and was able to get the answer without writing it down in steps. Now all it is, is repetition.