Week 5 – Math 10

There was one question i found particularly challenging.

the question was convert 8 ft 3 inches to inches and then convert from inches to cm.

IMG_20160401_191742

I realized that i had to use the unit conversions that was given to convert from one unit to another.

What I determined was:

1ft = 30.48cm

1in=2.54cm

 

From here, we used these statements to create fractions with either side as the numerator or the denominator.

I have to cancel out the units by using fractions so that at the end we have the unit converted so in this case for the first part, 8ft was converted through a process of cancellation to 96in and i made sure to add on the extra 3in. And then I did the same for converting inches to cm. Through this process, it is easy to determine the equivalent unit conversion.

 

Solving Trig Questions

IMG_20160401_184533

  1. In this problem, we have to find x, which is the hypotenuse. We have a 30 degree angle and 33m for the length of the opposite side of the angle. With these references, we can use it to solve x. TO solve x, we can use sin because with sin we can use the opposite (33m) and the angle (30 degree). I have put SOH CAH TOA in the picture for reference. Therefore, i would write sin 30 = 33/x, because SOH is S=opposite/hypotenuse. I would divide 33 by sin30 and the answer is 66m. x=66m

IMG_20160401_184536

2) In this problem, we have to find x angle. We have a 22 cm opposite and a 30 cm hypotenuse. Therefore we would use Sin. We would move sin to the opposite side of the equation so its sin-1 and we multiply it with (22/30) giving us 47 degree as the answer. x= 47 degree

IMG_20160401_184540

3) To solve this problem we have to find x which is the adjacent. We have a 62 degree angle and a hypotenuse of 18 degree. Therefore we would use cos because it is adjacent/hypotenuse. Therefore cos62=x/18 which is cos62x18 = 8.45. x=8.45 cm

IP The Watch

How can one forgive after a tragedy?

Flower_Power_by_Bernie_Boston

Forgiveness is not easy. It’s a process that requires an individual or a community to let go of resentment towards someone who has done them wrong. In “The Watch” by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist is a survivor of the Holocaust who has come back to his hometown 20 years after the war to retrieve a watch he had buried before the war.  The watch that was given to him for his 15th birthday for Bar Mitzva and it “was meant to remind each boy that henceforth he would be held responsible for his acts”(pg1), symbolizing his pathway to manhood. The protagonist is very attached to the watch and has strong desires to see his watch again as he believes it represents his life as a survivor of a holocaust, “see if it is still there in the same spot, and if defying all laws of probability, it has survived–like me”(pg2). When he found it, the watch was dirty and was crawling with worms. The protagonist was about to keep the watch but to the readers surprise, he ended up reburying it back into the ground. The man was able to forgive and let go of the past, although still having the watch serves as a monument to what he had lost and also have the town recognize the atrocity of the war, “i wanted to transform my watch into an instrument of delayed vengeance”(pg5), hoping generations from now, someone would find the watch and be reminded that there used to be many Jewish kids who were robbed from their future. The protagonist forgave but forgiveness is not just about letting someone off scot-free; he wanted to remind the people how the war has affected the Jewish community and the wrongdoings of the Nazi’s should never be forgotten. Although the watch did have a lot of significance to his childhood and past, he was able to let go of this one item that meant a lot to him and forgave the past. The town of his childhood that is remained has now “become the face of the watch”(pg5) whereas if he kept it, the town would cease to be just another town.

The picture I chose is one of my favorite historical pictures of all time called “Flower Power”. In the picture, you can see a protester putting a flower in the policeman’s gun. A flower is to symbolize peace and forgiveness. Instead of fighting back with violence, the protester is showing the police with the flower, and the world, that they are not associated with anger and that they are forgiving them with their peace.

 

Testing for Acids and Bases Lab

IMG_20160304_144413224 (1)

I am adding drops of a lemon juice solution into the Bromthymol Blue indicator to see what the change of color would be

In this lab, our purpose was to discover the properties of acids and bases, to develop methods for identifying acids and bases and also to classify unknown solutions as acids or bases. Our group first had 3 plates with little holes in it where we would place our 5 different indicators into (Phenolphthalein, Bromthymol Blue, Methyl Orange, Red Litmus and Blue Litmus). Then we would put a drop of each solutions into the indicators to see what colors they change to. These colors should match up to which category of the pH scale it should classify in, Acidic, Basic or neutral. This lab helps us understand how we can classify solutions we don’t know what pH level they belong to by simply testing them with the indicators. There were 3 unknown solutions and by simply adding a drop of each of them to the indicators, we can quickly discover if they were acidic, basic or neutral. This lab is importance to the outside world because so many of these solutions like Aspirin, oven cleaner, vinegar etc. can be found in our daily lives. Acids and bases are found in nearly everything like food and the environment therefore learning about bases and bases gives us an understanding of how it plays a role in our daily lives.

Week 4 – Math 10

I didn’t know how to write an equivalent expression when there is two square roots together.  I use to just square root it separately but i learnt that there was a shortcut to find the equivalent expression.

Example: √√ x^5

Instead of doing it separately, I could change make two \frac{5}{2} exponents like this ((x^\frac{5}{2})^\frac{5}{2}) because x^\frac{5}{2} = √ x^5

Now i know that since i have two exponents, i can use the power law and multiply it with each other. \frac{5}{2}\frac{5}{2}=x^\frac {5}{4}

the answer is x^\frac{5}{4}

Week 3 – Math 10

I learnt that there shouldn’t be a negative exponent and in order to make it positive, i have to recipricate it. Which means i have to flip it from the numerator to a denominator or vice versa, depending on where the negative exponent is located.

Ex. x^-6

As we can see here, ^-6 has to be changed to a positive exponent. in order to do this, we must flip the variable with the exponent.

Therefore, x^-6\frac{1}{x^6}

Now that my exponent is positive, I can work from there

If the negative exponent is in a fraction, we must only flip the variable with that exponent to the bottom or top. i use to get confused and flip the whole fraction but i now know i only flip the variable with the exponent unless if theres a bracket.

Ex. \frac{2a^-5}{4b^6}

Instead of flipping the whole fraction, we only need to bring down a^-5 to the denominator because we only need to change that exponent, not the others.

Therefore, it will become \frac{2}{4b^6a^-5}

Inquiry #1 Harrison Bergeron

Why would over implementing equality not work in the human society?

 

In this story, the society is able to achieve physical and mental equality but does not achieve equality in power. It is highly difficult to imagine equal distribution of power in the human society as there are just some aspects that can not be controlled about the human nature. In this story Harrison Bergeron as the example, where he rebels against the system. The government, the people in power,  goes to extreme lengths to make sure that everyone is equal, such as forcing more physically advantaged people to carry weights to weaken them, wearing a transmitter that sends noises every 20 seconds that would interrupt intelligent thoughts. The people were brainwashed to believe that this system is what’s best for the society just like Hazel and George were in the story. Not just that, they were also threatened by the consequences of the laws. For example, George demonstrated his fear of disobeying the law  when he refused to take out his lead balls because he does not want a $2000 fine on every ball taken out and a 2 year imprisonment sentence.  This shows that by trying to over implement equality in the society, the people become mindless sheep and are not able to think for themselves – thus resulting with no freedom or a sense of individuality. Vonnegut is trying to reveal the flaw in this ideology of a world with equality. The ideological belief of having a society in which everyone are completely equal backfires because it ends up creating a society in which they are “handicapped” and restrained from their own individuality.

I picked this picture of a visual representation of an independent individual attempting to escape from the conformist society that enforces “sameness” on everyone (as you can see from the similar uniforms and dull backdrops contrasting with the picture on the right, which speaks of endless possibilities). This strongly reminds me of my internal struggle of conforming to modern society’s expectations of a young woman. I constantly doubt my own uniqueness and wonder if my identity has been molded into the same form as everyone else. I think very few people can claim to be the unique person in the picture- most people are represented by the people on the left without knowing it (such as in the case of Hazel and George)

 

 

Science 10 – Walk on the Wild side

IMG_20160205_141249967This was a project where we were studying motion and graphing the displacement for ever 5 seconds for 30 seconds. Our group decided to do a toe to heel movement and we would put a tape on the heel every 5 seconds to measure the distance between the initial position and the final position. It was very interesting because i found out that there were different changes in displacement in each interval of our trials because it all really depend on the person who is doing the toe to heel. They could have been faster or slower between each interval which would change the displacement. We learnt that the graph that we drew after we recorded everything, tells us about the different movements because when you look at the slope, the displacements are not in uniform motion so we knew that there were different motions and not a similar motion between each interval. It was really interesting graphing our data and results and seeing the difference of motion.

Week 2 – Math 10

Converting to entire radicals to mixed radicals & Converting mixed radicals to entire radicals was what i had the most difficulty this whole unit. It was very confusing for me to convert as i would keep using the method for converting for one of them for the other one. I learnt that to convert entire radicals to mixed radicals, i’d have to multiply inside the radicand. It is a little confusing to explain in words so here is an example.

If i want to convert √108 to a mixed radical, 

108 = √36 x 3               — I would find a number which can multiply into 108 that is square root

= √36 x √3            — I will separate it but it is still the same as √36 x 3

= 6 x √3                  — i will find the square root of 36 which is 6 and multiply it by √3

= 6√3                       — The answer is 6√3

To know if its the simplest form you have to make sure that the perfect square is the lowest perfect square it can be because or else it would not be the simplest form.

If i want to convert mixed radicals to entire radicals, i would need to bring the coefficient inside the radical number.

Ex. If i want to convert 3√14 to an entire radical,

3√14 = √3² x √14         — I would bring in 3 (coefficient) into the radical and square it

= √ 9 x 14            — therefore 3² = 9 so now we can multiply 9 x 14

= √126                  — the entire radical of 3√14 is √126

I still think i need to improve in this area but i now understand how to do it and i think i have really improved since i first started