Skill: Geometry, scale, ratio, conic sections, ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas and more.
Level: Senior School
Senior maths students are busy, mathspiggies. But insipration energises.
Mathspig was amaaaaaazed by these cardboard models were made by Martin Schilling because he made them in 1901. This was long before computers made the job easier. More info here.This is what a car looked like in 1901.
If Martin Schilling could make these Conic Sections, so can any senior student. You will find Conic Section diagrams and equations here.
Who has been to a rock concert recently? Studies show that adolescents often suffer temporary (sometimes permanent) hearing loss after going to a 3 hr rock concert in rows up to 18 away from the stage.
Specifically, 53.6 percent of the teens said they were not hearing as well as they did before the concert, and 25 percent reported tinnitus, which is ringing in the ears.
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Danger Zone Maths Exercise
For the Out door Rock Stadium (below) calculate the sound intensity (S) in dB for distance of 2, 10, 15, 20 and 100m (The last one is in the car park) if the sound intensity (S) is 120dB at 1m.
Just to remind maths teachers to smile once in a while and in a NICE way, here are 12 pictures* : half are seriel killlers and the other half maths teachers.
But which are which?
What’s the probability of getting ALL answers correct?
Yes! 50%
Weird Maths Activity
Mass Murderer or Maths Teacher?
You choose!!!
Subject A
Subject B
Subject C
Subject D
Subject E
Subject F
Subject G
Subject H
Subject I
Subject J
Subject K
Subject L
This is a maths teacher, However, you might understand why students suspect he falls in the other category!!!!!!
ANSWERS:
A. Teacher, B. Teacher, C. Jeffery Dahmer, D. Teacher, EDr Harold Shipman, F. Charles Manson, G. Albert Fish, H. Joseph Harwell, I. Teacher, J. Teacher, K. Teacher.
*All the teacher photos come from education archives but will be removed on request.
Kyle Gerrity is Co-Founder of Slader, an Aussie-American and Director of Performing Arts. He lives in NY. His hair is Australian.
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Slader is an academic community for students, by students. It is the first crowd-sourced approach to education online. Slader is a collaborative website that provides answers for American School Text Books. All the answers. Students can use the forum to work on problems with other students and/or access up to 75 answers a day. Woo Hoo! (Then a small, but affordable, fee applies.) Slader was developed to help ALL students with math, but especially their math homework.
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An Interview with Kyle
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Q1: What math topic was your favourite at school?
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Algebraic equations of all sorts. Specifically, simplifying polynomial expressions appealed to my inner need for cleanliness!
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Q2: What math topic drove you insane?
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Trigonometric identities. They. Drove. Me. Nuts! (And still do.)
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Q3: Did you ever do anything really exciting in math at school like go on an excursion to some weird math convention?
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Tragically not. Although I did babysit my Algebra II teacher’s children for extra credit. Seriously.
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Q4: What math error in the media annoys you the most?
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When Fox News shows bar graphs and distort the scales of their X- or Y- axes to convey a specific political point.
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Q5: Give me 3 reasons why you think students should do math.
1. Because if you love math, then it’s fun.
2. Because if you don’t love math but you’re good at it, you’ll likely be able to make good coin doing something tangential to the subject in adulthood.
3. Because if you are neither in love with math nor good at it, then learning a difficult subject can have far more rewards in the long term than just immediate frustration.
Q6: What is wrong with the way math is taught in American schools?
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Homework is treated like a take-home test. Instead, homework should be the time were students can wrestle around with issues and not be afraid to toy around with concepts, ask questions, and get help without the risk of a lower grade.
(Mathspig: How weird is that? Aussie kids correct their own math homework because the answers are in the back of the book. It would be sooooo easy to write a MATH TEXT BOOK if you don’t have to work out the answers!!!!)
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Q7: What can teachers do right now to get kids more interested in math?
High school students have a short feedback loop. My business partner, Scott Kolb, and I were fortunate to have a high school teacher who was clued into this fact. He constantly engaged us students in positive feedback. In the same manner in which a student can quickly become lost and disengaged through negative feedback (ie. getting lost on homework, receiving a bad grade on an exam, or simply saying the wrong answer aloud in class that’s met with negativity), that same student can be captured through positive responses.
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Q8: How does your blog/website/book help students with their math?
Slader is a student-driven site with user-generated content.
We operate under the assumption that homework should never be a take home test; learning takes place in the classroom and homework is the time to wrestle around with concepts taught in class without fear of failure. Therefore by offering moderated step-by-step solutions and written explanations, Slader ensures a student is not isolated in his/her math frustration after school; help is out there.
Another key objective of ours is that we are a student-initiated site. A student may think they are simply coming on to Slader to grab one answer that they are having a tough time with, and for many of our users that’s how their Slader experience begins. However, we consider it a success when that student ask her first question or rates his first solution. Encouraging users to interact socially with math in an out-of-school context is our goal and we’ve achieved once our users are engaging with each other online.
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Q9: Tell us one funny math story/joke.
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What is the first derivative of a cow? Prime Rib!
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Q10: If you ruled the world what would change to help kids get excited about math?
I would love to create a system of digital learning tools (textbooks, even) that churn out positive affirmation every step of the way. In a public school classroom of 30+ students, such a tool can encourage subject mastery and allow students to focus more time on concepts difficult to them, respectively. And here at Slader, we believe that providing correct answers and solutions to capture a student’s engagement just before s/he gets lost is a good way to start.
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Kyle Gerrity, for services above and beyond the call of math duty and for outstanding service in relieving the pain and suffering of math students everywhere, you are declared an Honourable Mathspig.
Geometry is a mathematical jigsaw puzzle, except that you have to figure out which pieces you need as well as how to arrange them. But there was always something powerful about combining things I knew to prove things I didn’t.
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Q2: What math topic drove you insane?
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Combinatorics drove me mad. There are a million wrong ways to think about permutation and combination problems, but there’s only one right way to think about them. Even when the required calculations only take a few seconds to complete, the thinking to come to a solution might take hours.
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(Mathspig: Combinatorics? Wha? We just call them Permutations and Combinations in Aussie Land.)
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Q3: Did you ever do anything really exciting in math at school like go on an excursion to some weird math convention?
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No. I mean, this is crazy, but I can’t think of a single reason that I should like math… at least, not based on any great experiences.
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Q4: What math error in the media annoys you the most?
Yep, Bush won, but this makes it look like it was a landslide.
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And I also hate arguments based on “man who” statistics. These are based on statements like “I know a man who…” and from that one example, great generalizations are made. More mathematically, results pulled from small samples are a huge problem, both in the media as well as in much of math education research. I can’t tell you the number of times that a researcher suggests that a particular teaching method is effective because there was a positive impact in just one or two classrooms. Oish.
(Mathspig. I think Oish is an underused word. We need a bring back the Oish Campaign.)
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Q5: Give me 3 reasons why you think students should do math.
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1) To become proficient at problem solving, but more importantly, to understand that the greatest asset in problem solving is perseverance.
2) To think logically. All the computational skills in the world won’t help if you can’t put the pieces together. (Mathspig: Yey!!!! My fav too)
3) To be facile with numbers for daily life. So that when they’re confronted with various loan options or statistics in a newspaper, they can make an informed decision.
4) Most importantly, to understand the jokes in my book. (or ve hit them vith pi.Mathspig)
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Q6: What is wrong with the way math is taught in American schools?
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Educators are too willing to sell kids a bill of goods. The curriculum contains a lot of topics that most students will never use. Honestly, when’s the last time you factored a trinomial? Part of the problem is the standards. Take the Common Core standards, for instance—they contain eight “practices” that artfully describe what a mathematically proficient student should be able to do, but then the practices are followed by a thousand standards that require nothing more than rote skills. Honestly, why are students asked to “derive the formula for the sum of a finite geometric series” to “calculate mortgage payments,” yet they’re never asked to consider the pros and cons of taking an adjustable rate mortgage?
But I’d also blame a lack of passion. The exceptional teachers I’ve met, the ones who are able to get their students excited about learning math, love numbers and shapes. They don’t have to convince their students that math is useful or interesting; their passion makes it obvious.
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Q7: What can teachers do right now to get kids more interested in math?
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I think there are two things they can do. First, be interested in math themselves. Second, keep their eyes open for examples of the usefulness of math in everyday life. (But, please, no more examples about measuring and cooking!)
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Q8: How does your blog/website/book help students with their math?
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Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks contains 400 jokes, which I think helps to dispel the myth of humorless mathematicians. Teachers can use the jokes in class, and research has shown that humor has physical, psychological, and pedagogical value. Laughing decreases blood pressure, reduces anxiety, increases retention of information, provokes thought, hones prediction and decision-making skills, creates a more open atmosphere, and actually aids with classroom management.
On the MJ4MF blog, I post funny math stories, interesting math problems, and examples of math in the real world. I don’t know that a student would ever become proficient in math simply by reading my blog… but hopefully I can help them see that math can be both fun and useful.
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Q9: Tell us one funny math story/joke.
Just one? Surely, you jest!
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How do you know if a mathematician is an extrovert?
When he talks to you, he looks at your shoes.
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A woman goes to the doctor. The doctor tells her that she only has six weeks left to live.
“Oh, my goodness! Doctor, what should I do?” she asks.
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Then find an actuary, and marry him!”
“Will that help me live longer?” she asks.
“Well, no,” he says, “but it’ll feel longer.”
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Q10: If you ruled the world what would change to help kids get excited about math?
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Foremost, I’d make Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks be a required text for all courses.
Seriously, if I ruled the world, then I could do anything, right? I’d make teachers the highest paid professionals in the world, based entirely on merit. Teachers would get a base salary on which they could survive; and then, when their students were old enough to honestly and fairly assess their teachers, the students could provide ratings that would send huge bonuses to their previous teachers. I would never base a teacher’s pay on students’ standardized test scores. And while we’re at it, I’d throw away all standardized tests, period.
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Patrick Vennebush, for services above and beyond the call of math duty and for your outstanding contribution to the field of math humour, you are declared an Honourable Mathspig.
Mathspig toddled along to the Melbourne Comedy Festival to see Stand Up Mathematician, Matt Parker, and BBC wit, Timandra Harkness, in Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death.
It was Ha! Ha! or, as we mathspigs say, (Ha)2 Hilarious.
Almost Therapy.
This is the break through geeks of the world have been waiting for. Not just jokes about mathematicians, but jokes involving MATHS!!!!!! Here is a MATHS OF DEATH statistic for the no. of Americans killed by cows each year. You might call this the Revenge of the Rump Steak.
Matt Parker is based in the maths department at Queen Mary, University of London and, as Matt says, he is now a fixture on the illustrious Mathematics speaking circuit. He writes maths columns for The Guardian, UK. More @ Stand-upMaths. Matt is from Perth, Australia.
Timanadra Harkness spent 5 years in standup, co-wrote a film, No Future in Eternity, about a man going to Mars in his hall cupboard and appears on the BBC panel show, Mind Games. Otherwise she fills in time writing articles for Wired and The Daily Telegraph. More @ Timandraharkness
Here is an absolutely true to form hilarious skit of Matt in action not so much doing maths as very much acting like a maths teacher when his iPhone is stolen.
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Inspired by Matt and in the not very long tradition of standup maths mathspig has added some funny activities in the following posts.
Here is standupmaths comic Matt Parker doing calculations in his head including a bar code calculation.
Thanks to Matt making the barcode calculations look EASY Mathspig spent about 12 hours blowing steam out her ears and tearing up packaging trying to get the barcode maths to work.
This is THE absolute best exercise to test accuracy in simple calculations including transcribing numbers, which are so easily misread. It also shows you how BARCODES work.
The cash register pings if the BARCODE CHECK DIGIT Algorithm matches the CHECK DIGIT, which is the last digit in the barcode. This is how the cash register computer checks that the data in the barcode has been transferred correctly. All data transfers have some sort of data check algorithm.
The PING is KING!!!!!!!!
Mathspigs, you can check your maths skills by picking up the nearest product with a 13-digit barcode and calculating the CHECK DIGIT. The answer is at the end of the barcode.
The Hunger Games is about MATHS. Here are some interesting Hunger Game statistics.
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THE PLOT:
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In Suzanne Collin’s book, The Hunger Games, 12 districts in the land of Panem are suppressed and controlled by a vicious elite, who dress like neon-coloured French courtesans.
Each year the cruel rulers select one teen of each sex between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district to become tributes, who must fight to the death in a televised, sponsor-supported media event called The Hunger Games, set in a staged wilderness.
Only one tribute can survive. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from the poor coal-mining District 12 are the local tributes for that year and must play at being star-crossed lovers to gain sponsor support and survive.
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THE MATHS:
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……………………………………………….……..The Reaping…..
Tributes are selected in a process called The Reaping. The names of the, approximately, 2,000 young people in each district are placed in separate barrels for males and females and the names are drawn out of these barrels BUT…
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12 year olds …….. 1 slip
13 year olds …….. 2 slips
14 year olds …….. 3 slips
15 year olds …….. 4 slips
16 year olds …….. 5 slips
17 year olds …….. 6 slips
18 year olds …….. 7 slips
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BUT you can gain extra ‘food’ if you accept for more name slips.
Gale Hawthorne (pictured above), Katnis’ friend from District 12, has 42 slips in the barrel. What are his chances?
We will assume that there are 1,000 teens of each sex in each district and an equal distribution – rounded off – for each age group to 1000/7 = 143
Unlike Kill Bill where Tarantino used, literally, hundreds of litres of fake blood (See Mathspig Post: Don’t Bleed Your Fake Blood on Me), The Hunger Games shows very little blood.
Nevertheless 11 tributes are killed violently in the first few minutes of the game and Peeta is wounded later in the movie(pic with Katniss above).
To calculate how long you would last in The Hunger Games if bleeding we must know your volume of blood and the rate of bleeding.
1. How much blood do you have?
According to the BJA, the British Journal of Anaesthesia, blood volume is 7% of body weight in adults and 8 – 9 % of body weight in children. Doctors are not confusing weight and volume. Blood is very close to the density of water and so 1 litre of blood weighs 1 kg.
(NB: Future Engineers: Blood does not flow like water as the blood platelets affect the viscosity.)
Using blood volume (in litres) as 8% of body weight (in kg) then typical blood volumes for teenagers would be:
When Fox News shows bar graphs and distort the scales of their X- or Y- axes to convey a specific political point.
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High school students have a short feedback loop. My business partner, Scott Kolb, and I were fortunate to have a high school teacher who was clued into this fact. He constantly engaged us students in positive feedback. In the same manner in which a student can quickly become lost and disengaged through negative feedback (ie. getting lost on homework, receiving a bad grade on an exam, or simply saying the wrong answer aloud in class that’s met with negativity), that same student can be captured through positive responses.
…………………………………………………………………
I would love to create a system of digital learning tools (textbooks, even) that churn out positive affirmation every step of the way. In a public school classroom of 30+ students, such a tool can encourage subject mastery and allow students to focus more time on concepts difficult to them, respectively. And here at Slader, we believe that providing correct answers and solutions to capture a student’s engagement just before s/he gets lost is a good way to start. 
Kyle Gerrity, for services above and beyond the call of math duty and for outstanding service in relieving the pain and suffering of math students everywhere, you are declared an Honourable Mathspig.
1) To become proficient at problem solving, but more importantly, to understand that the greatest asset in problem solving is perseverance.
Educators are too willing to sell kids a bill of goods. The curriculum contains a lot of topics that most students will never use. Honestly, when’s the last time you factored a trinomial? Part of the problem is the standards. Take the Common Core standards, for instance—they contain eight “practices” that artfully describe what a mathematically proficient student should be able to do, but then the practices are followed by a thousand standards that require nothing more than rote skills. Honestly, why are students asked to “derive the formula for the sum of a finite geometric series” to “calculate mortgage payments,” yet they’re never asked to consider the pros and cons of taking an adjustable rate mortgage?
Seriously, if I ruled the world, then I could do anything, right? I’d make teachers the highest paid professionals in the world, based entirely on merit. Teachers would get a base salary on which they could survive; and then, when their students were old enough to honestly and fairly assess their teachers, the students could provide ratings that would send huge bonuses to their previous teachers. I would never base a teacher’s pay on students’ standardized test scores. And while we’re at it, I’d throw away all standardized tests, period.
Patrick Vennebush, for services above and beyond the call of math duty and for your outstanding contribution to the field of math humour, you are declared an Honourable Mathspig.
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……………………………………………….……..The Reaping…..
