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The following maths is suitable for Year 9+
but can be presented to lower grades just to show
maths is cool!
Posts Tagged ‘trigonometry’
Toilet Paper FUN FACTS Maths
June 1, 2021
Mathspig is in Melbourne, Australia. We’re in Lockdown. AGAIN!
And toilet paper has disappeared off the supermarket shelves. AGAIN.
So today we are doing maths based entirely on toilet paper using information from the Toilet Paper Fun Facts website. Yes! It exists here.
Toilet Paper Fun Facts Website
Protractor Wind Speed Calculator
POP UP ANS Q 1 & 2 Yr 7&8 Toilet Paper fun facts
Pythagoras Equation Diagram here
Here is the Sine Rule (Watch 1.5 mins)
Check sine curve here:
Listen to sine curve here:
Outdoor Math Adventures___________ Middle School
September 9, 2019As the weather improves – Spring in Melbourne, my city & Autumn in USA & UK – it is an ideal time to take math outdoors. Here are some fab exercises for Middle School Math.
Lego Man soccer fields will vary in size depending on the height of each player picked by each student. This does your head in. It is really challenging maths!
McGill Uni link here.
Don’t forget to throw in Mathspig’s lame protractor jokes.
You’ll find full calculations at the Maths is Fun blog.
You’ll find more fab outdoor junior and middle school maths activities at the terrific Maths and Movement blog.
Some students will discover their co-ordinate point is not on the grid. Students should then work out that they will need a different scale for the y-axis. You can get more inspiration at the Stand Again blog.
COOL FOOTY MATHS: THE LONGEST KICK
May 25, 2019
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The following maths is suitable for Year 9+
but can be presented to lower grades just to show
maths is cool!
Sharp Shooter Maths …. METRIC
May 10, 2019
Mathspig grew up on a police station in the small Australian country town of Kyneton, Victoria in the 1960s. Australia has a very strict gun laws today. But such laws didn’t exist in the sixties. My Dad’s .22 rifle rested against our fridge. He pocketed the magazine.
A .22 means a bullet calibre of .22 inches.
My Dad the Sharp Shooter stopped a stolen car with one bullet. This was considered legendary by his fellow cops. He didn’t shoot the tyres. He managed, by accident and possibly even though he was aiming at the tyres, to hit the electrical lead into the car’s distributor cap. Phht! Car go no more. More on my childhood here.
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Sharp Shooter Maths
One measure of the accuracy of rifles, riflescopes but also the sharpshooter is the MOA or Minute of Angle. The MOA can also be used to define the target zone (circle).
I cannot show you a triangle with an angle of 1′ because it would have to be 100m long on one side and only 3cm tall.
Needless to say, drawings are NOT to scale.
A sharpshooter can put 5 out of 6 bullets in a target zone drawn at 1′ angle around centre of target at any distance.
As the distance away from the target increases the target zone circle area increases.
A sharp shooter would be considered very skilled if they can shoot within a target zone (circle) of 10.5 inch radius at 1000 yds. Hitting a bull’s eye at this distance is down to luck.
Sharp Shooter Math …. USA units
May 8, 2019
Mathspig grew up on a police station in the small Australian country town of Kyneton, Victoria in the 1960s. Australia has a very strict gun laws today. But such laws didn’t exist in the sixties. My Dad’s .22 rifle rested against our fridge. He pocketed the magazine.
A .22 means a bullet calibre of .22 inches.
My Dad the Sharp Shooter stopped a stolen car with one bullet. This was considered legendary by his fellow cops. He didn’t shoot the tyres. He managed, by accident and possibly even though he was aiming at the tyres, to hit the electrical lead into the car’s distributor cap. Phht! Car go no more. More on my childhood here.
cc
cc
Sharp Shooter Maths
One measure of the accuracy of rifles, riflescopes but also the sharpshooter is the MOA or Minute of Angle. TheMOA can also be used to define the target zone (circle).
I cannot show you a triangle with an angle of 1′ because it would have to be 100 yds long on one side and only 1 inch tall.
Needless to say, drawings are NOT to scale.
A sharpshooter can put 5 out of 6 bullets in a target zone drawn at 1′ angle around centre of target at any distance.
As the distance away from the target increases the target zone circle area increases.
A sharp shooter would be considered very skilled if they can shoot within a target zone (circle) of 10.5 inch radius at 1000 yds. Hitting a bull’s eye at this distance is down to luck.
3. Movie Stunt MATH: The Motorbike Jump
October 23, 2018Star Stuntman
Star Stuntman Monte Perin (pictured) has involved many films, including “Spider-Man,” “Star Trek, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and portraying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stunt double in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”
Perhaps his most difficult stunt was landing his Harley in an open boxcar of a moving train for Disney’s 2008 Adam Sandler movie “Bedtime Stories”. In a career of over 25 years Perin has broken “almost everything” including both his arms, legs, knees, feet, ankles, several ribs, his back and his pelvis. See Confessions of a stuntman
Veteran stuntman Evel Knievel (1938 – 2007) was the pioneer of many stunt jumps. Here he is jumping 10 cars and 3 vans in 1973.
His injuries are legendary:
More Evel Knievel
Ramp Design
The angle of the kicker in ramp design can vary from 100 – 700 (See below)
Moto-X Ramp Jump Maths
The Problem?
If the ramp angle is too high, the stunt jumper also goes high, but doesn’t travel very far.
If the ramp angle is too low, the stunt jumper doesn’t stay in the air for very long and therefore doesn’t travel far. (see below0
The stunt jumper wants the OPTIMUM RAMP ANGLE.
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METHOD 1: TRIGONOMETRY (cos we can)
As any bike nut knows increasing speed at ake off will increase jump distance.
Here is a graph from final gear for speed vs angle to jump 90m.
OPTIMISING RAMP ANGLE
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METHOD 2: MORE TRIGONOMETRY
METHOD 1 is approximate (See STEP 1 & STEP 2 above), but as METHOD 2 produces the same ans (See above), it is very useful.
You will find a thoroughly detailed calc for STUNT JUMP MATHS here:
And everything you ever wanted to know about PHYSICS OF STUNT JUMPS here.
FOOTBALL MATHS: THE LONGEST KICK
June 3, 2016
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The following maths is suitable for Year 9+
but can be presented to lower grades just to show
maths is cool!
MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig …………………………………………………. with Kerry Cue
May 21, 2015
Hellooooo My Little Hairy Creatures,
This week we have hairy maths coming out our ears, my friends. Not only will you find some interesting hairy facts and figures below, you will find plenty of hairy math activities for hair crazy middle school students:
Hair Maths 1: The curly problem with curly hair
Hair Maths 2: Why CGI needs maths
Hair Maths 3: How OLD is your hair?
Hair Maths 4: The Great SHAMPOO rip off
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GROW IT! MOW IT! BRAVE IT! SHAVE IT!
Mathspig Blog 