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# The IntMath Newsletter - Mar 2007

By Murray Bourne, 15 Mar 2007

You are receiving the IntMath Newsletter either because you signed up, asked a question, wrote a comment or complimented
Interactive Mathematics.

======================
1. This month’s math tips
2. Pi Day
3. What’s new
4. From the math blog
======================

## THIS MONTH’S MATH TIP

One of my favourite quotes about learning is:

’Experience is a harsh teacher - she gives the test first and the lesson comes after.’

In most math classes, things are done the wrong way round. We see lots of formulas and equations, but we don’t know where they are coming from or how it will be used. So our confusion grows.

So my tip is this - BEFORE your teacher does each math topic in class, read over the topic test (usually at the end of each
chapter in your textbook) and then read over last year’s exam questions. Of course you won’t understand it all, but you will
have an idea of what is important, what to look out for and what to concentrate on.

Also, you will be more focused on what the teacher is talking about and your mind will be more active.

In other words, give yourself a test first - and then the lessons that come after will be much more meaningful. You may
even enjoy yourself! 🙂

## 3/14 - Pi Day

March 14th is celebrated by math nerds as ’Pi Day’ (3.14 - get it?).

It also happens to be Einstein’s birthday (he would have been 128 years old this year).

I have added a new page on Pi Day in Interactive Mathematics.

Happy Pi Day tomorrow!

## LATEST REVISIONS

Recent updates to the IntMath site have included these chapters:
Numbers
Basic Algebra
Differential Equations

Let me know if you have any further suggestions for improvement.

## LATEST FROM THE MATH BLOG:

1) LEONARDO: THE MATH OF ART
Universal Leonardo is a virtual museum of da Vinci’s contribution.

2) PROOF THAT NOTHING IS EVERYTHING
Can you prove that 0 = infinity?

3) SHAVING CREAM POLYNOMIALS
How mathematics education should be - concrete, applied - and fun. This is a nice story from USA today about a mathematics
teacher who appears to be doing it right.

4) THE MATH OF 100,000 DELL COMPUTERS - PER DAY
A video about Dell’s finely tuned manufacturing system shows how a few seconds shaved off the time to make a computer can be worth millions to the company.

5) WALL OF CALCULUS, FROM BLINKX
Blinkx searches through the audio track of videos to give you a more relevant result.

Here is a wall of calculus. Enjoy.

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### Comment Preview

HTML: You can use simple tags like <b>, <a href="...">, etc.

To enter math, you can can either:

1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)
(See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with $$ and $$.
$$\int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}}$$
(This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

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