Mathspig Solves Simultaneous Equations or Get the Hamster

Advanced Algee baa II

Zombie Maths 4: Simultaneous Equations

We know the Zombie walking speed = 0.6 m/sec or 2.3 kph, rounding off.

We know Zombie hand speed = 5 m/sec  or 18 kph

Kid walking speed is about 5 kph

That is 5000 m

in 60 x 60 = 3600 sec

or , rounding off, 1.4 m/sec

.

……………………….y = k t

.

……………………….y = distance  km

.

……………………….k = speed kph

.

……………………….t = time hr

Will a Zombie catch you?  

Will a Zombie Arm catch you?

Look at the speeds. A Zombie cannot catch you … no problem.

BUT

The Zombie Hand is faster than you.  If it started 5km away from you, how long would it take to catch you?

We will write two equations.

Zombie hand Equation :

y = 18 t – 5  ………… Eqn 1 

NB:  The Zombie Hand starts 5 km away from you.

The kid equation:

y = 5 t  ………………. Eqn  2

How far did you walk?

y = 5 t

y = 5 x 0.38

y = 1.9 km

ZOMBIE GOT ME!!! 

ARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

More cool zombie stuff @

The Laughing Mathematician.

12 minute Maths Guru

Meet Salman Khan. He has put free maths on-line.

This article on Salman appeared in The Sunday Times, UK, 12 JUN 2011.

Salman, 28, started putting tutes online for his 12-year-old niece, Nadia, and things grew. So far the Kahn Academy’s claim to fame are:

* Over 2,400 videos including hundreds and hundreds of 12-minute maths tutes

* Over 63,000,000 lessons delivered.

* Bill Gates kids use the site.

* A staff of 1 with funding from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

* Tutes on Biology, Chemistry and Physics too.

You can look up the maths tutes by topic @ The Khan Academy.

Or search topics on Youtube eg. Introduction to Conics Khan

Why Does Mathspig like The Kahn Academy? Because it’s:

1. Free.

2. Quick

3. Clear

4. Low-key

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Salman gives digital chalk-and-talk tutes like a teacher. He hand draws the equations and graphs. He uses a calculator from time to time, but he tends not to use whizz bang spreadsheet graphs or perfectly presented textbook equations. It’s a bit wobbly and it’s all coming from Salman’s head.

And students like this approach. It makes maths look do-able.

Go, Salman.

Mathspig thinks you are just GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!

 Australia’s Year 7 – 12 Maths Curriculum is already on-line and free, funded by McDonald’s. See What are maths teachers for, sir?

The tutes on Maths Online are produced by Aussie Maths teachers and they are very good. Mathspig, of course, imagined the quadratic function tutes might look something like this:

5. You can jump out of an airplane that is about to crash and catch the baddie who took the last parachute.

 The names Bond, James Bond. In Moonraker  with Roger Moore (1979) 007 jumps out of a plane without a parachute to avoid an assassination attempt. He catches up with, Jaws, arch-baddie, in mid-air and takes his parachute. Jaws survives his fall by landing on a big top circus tent.

In Point Break with FBI agent Johnny Utah, Keanu Reeves, leaps from a skydiving plane after Patrick Swayzes’ characer, Bohdi, who has taken the last parachute. Utah catches Bohdi in mid-air, and after a tense confrontation with a gun, both survive using Bodhi’s chute.

There are more movie and real life stories at Free Fall Website:

http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/fiction.html

What’s the deal? Can Utah really catch Bohdi?

Here are some stats from the  Free Fall Maths link:

http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/math.html

Note: We’ll assume Bhodi and Utah have equal horizontal velocities (plane exit velocity plus wind) so the following calculations only involve the vertical or falling velocity. The terminal velocities used for Bhodi and Utah are realistic estimates. We do not need the sky divers weight for these calculations but it can impact on terminal velocity so I have included this data and chute open data for general interest.

10 You can out run a lava flow

Every volcano disaster movie from Volcano (1997) with Tommy Lee Jones to Dante’s Peak (1997) with Pierce Brosnan someone somewhere tries to out run a lava flow. Is this possible?

The answer is maybe. You will find everything you want to know about lava flows @ http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/

 On January 10,1977, at Nyiragongo lava sprang from the sides of the volcano moving at speeds up to 40 miles per hour (60 km/hr). About 70 people were killed.

 Measuring the temperature of lava. Photograph by R.L. Christiansen, U.S. Geological Survey, January 9, 1973.
The fastest Lava flows recorded were in Hawaiiin 1950 when Mauna Loa erupted. The lava traveled at 6 miles (10 kilometers) per hour through thick forest. But once the lava flows became established and good channels developed, the lava in the channels was flowing at up to 60 km/hour (97 kph).

Speed of average sprinter = 19 – 24 kph

Can you out run lava?

Work it out mathspigs. You are 300m ahead of the lava flow and you need to get up a hill to escape, which is 1000m away. The lava is flowing at 30 kph and you are running at 18 kph.

Will you make it??????