IntMath Newsletter: Reflecting graphs, data and efficient lawn mowing
By Murray Bourne, 25 Jul 2011
26 July 2011
In this Newsletter:
1. How to reflect a graph through the x-axis, y-axis or Origin?
2. Visual.ly data visualization
3. Resource: Thinkfinity
4. Friday math movie: Time to re-design medical data
5. Mow your lawn efficiently - use math!
6. Puzzles
7. Final thought: Greatness
Please note: During the northern summer break (while most math students and educators are at the beach, summer camp, working or mowing lawns), the IntMath Newsletter is published once per month.
1. How to reflect a graph through the x-axis, y-axis or Origin?
Suitable for: Everyone
A reader asks how to graph f(-x) and -f(x), and what does it mean? How to reflect a graph through the x-axis, y-axis or Origin? |
2. Visual.ly data visualization
Suitable for: Everyone
Visual.ly is a neat new data visualization tool. Worth a look, but it's still new. This could be a great tool for class projects in math. |
3. Resource: Thinkfinity
It appears this one has disappeared.
The resources I've been sharing in this space over the last several IntMath Newsletters was based on "Ten great sites with free teacher resources" from e-School News.
4. Friday math movie: Time to re-design medical data
Suitable for: Everyone
Here are 2 videos that talk about how personalized patient data in visual form has immense implications for human health. |
5. Mow your lawn efficiently - use math!
Suitable for: Everyone
This is a fun article from Australia's The Age newspaper. It describes how you can use geometry to optimize your effort. A Victa-ry for mathematics [no longer available] |
6. Puzzles
Last mail I posed the question "Can you use five 5s to make 100?".
Here's one possible solution:
(5 - 5/5) × 5 × 5 = 100
Did you get any other answers?
Here's a new one:
"My husband's age," remarked a lady the other day, "is represented by the figures of my own age reversed. He is my senior, and the difference between our ages is one-eleventh of their sum." How old are they?
7. Final Thought: Greatness
The world's best discoveries were made along a road littered with wrong turns, insufficient knowledge and many outright failures. Don't worry if you feel like that in math class sometimes!
If at first you don't succeed, you're like everyone else who went on to greatness. [Patrick Combs]
Until next time, enjoy whatever you learn.
See the 8 Comments below.