{"id":1670,"date":"2009-01-10T15:31:25","date_gmt":"2009-01-10T07:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2018-04-30T16:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T08:06:20","slug":"intmath-newsletter-radicals-integrator-and-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/letters\/intmath-newsletter-radicals-integrator-and-goals-1670","title":{"rendered":"IntMath Newsletter - Radicals, Integrator and Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 Jan 2009<\/b><\/p>\n

In this Newsletter<\/p>\n

1. Happy New Year and Information
\n2. Real life Math
\n3. Math tip - Radicals
\n4. New in IntMath - Integrator, from Mathematica
\n5. From the math blog
\n6. Final thought - Your goals for 2009<\/p>\n

\n

1. Happy New Year and Information<\/h2>\n

Happy 2009, everyone!<\/p>\n

Welcome to all the new people that have joined the IntMath Newsletter recently. <\/p>\n

There are now thousands of IntMath subscribers from over 130 different countries, including (in alphabetical order) Afghanistan, Albania, & Australia; all the way through to United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Aim:<\/b> The aim of this Newsletter is to help you with math. It includes algebra tips, introductions to different math topics, real-life applications of math and whatever interesting stuff I come across. <\/p>\n

The Newsletter also aims to encourage you to use your education — including the math you learn — to improve the world.<\/p>\n

Topics:<\/b> The readers of this Newsletter range from students of pre-algebra through to instructors of calculus. I try to write about topics that will interest everyone.<\/p>\n

I love reading your comments — keep them coming!<\/p>\n

The IntMath Newsletter has been going since October 2006. You can see all the old Newsletters here: IntMath Newsletter archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

2. Real life Math<\/h2>\n

Many of you have been asking for more examples of 'real life' math. In the next few Newsletters, I'll dig out some of the earlier short articles I wrote on this topic for you. Here's the first two:<\/p>\n

Violence in schools - real life statistics<\/a>. Textbook statistics is usually really boring for most students. Using authentic data is a good way to trigger thoughts about the human condition, and to see the relevance of math. You could survey your own class and compare to this USA national data.<\/p>\n

Gaisma - Real Life Sine Graphs<\/a> talks about how daylight graphs resemble the sine curve.<\/p>\n

\n

3. Math tip - Radicals<\/h2>\n

Several readers have asked for information about radicals<\/b>. A radical involves the square too sign √. It’s one of those topics that you wonder why you have to do it, but the skills are really useful in later mathematics because it helps to solve problems.<\/p>\n

So I thought it was a good chance to revise the chapter on Exponents and Radicals<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I added a whole lot more examples and explanations throughout the chapter. I hope you find it useful.<\/p>\n

That link again: Exponents and Radicals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

4. New in IntMath - Integrator, from Mathematica<\/h2>\n

\"Integrator\" is a no-cost widget that allows you to solve any integration problem using the Mathematica computer algebra system, online.<\/p>\n

You can find the \"Integrator\" at the bottom of any page in the Integration chapters in Interactive Mathematics, starting here: Integration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, make sure you know how to enter the expression you are trying to integrate. Go to this help page<\/a> first. <\/p>\n

[The Integrator is not the same tool as the very popular Algebra Problem Solver<\/a>, which can also do integrations.]<\/p>\n

\n

5. From the math blog<\/h2>\n

1) Where is the Dow Jones heading?<\/a>
\nHere are some possible models for the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average). This is an important \u2018real-life\u2019 application of math.<\/p>\n

2) Math for Moms and Dads<\/a>
\n\"Math for Moms and Dads\" will be a valuable book for parents who struggle to help their children with math homework.<\/p>\n

\n

6. Final thought - Your goals for 2009<\/h2>\n

Most people make New Years resolutions, but forget them by the middle of January.<\/p>\n

What math goals did you make for 2009? Will you make any changes to what you did in 2008? If you don’t, you’ll probably learn the same amount and get a similar grade. But do you want to improve? You have to make changes now, or 2009 will be just the same as 2008.<\/p>\n

My suggestion is to make a one-year plan first<\/b>. What math grade do you want to achieve by Dec 2009? (Let’s assume you want to improve by 2 letter grades). <\/p>\n

OK, now think about what you'll need to do each month<\/b> to achieve that goal (you’ll need to improve by about 2 or 3 percent each month, to achieve the yearly goal). Now, think about what will be necessary each week<\/b> to achieve that. Maybe one extra hour of math per week, compared to what you did in 2008? <\/p>\n

As the Chinese say, every journey begins with a single step<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick story, before I finish. I asked Khalid, one of my readers from Afghanistan, how it was going for him. He replied: <\/p>\n

\n

You asked about the situation in my country. In Afghanistan the situation is not so good but in these days we have snow and it looks nice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I love Khalid’s positive outlook.<\/p>\n

All the best and wishing you a very successful year. I hope 2009 is not too tough for you − and your country.<\/p>\n

See the 5 Comments<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this Newsletter<\/p>\n

1. Happy New Year and Information
\n2. Real life Math
\n3. Math tip - Radicals
\n4. New in IntMath - Integrator, from Mathematica
\n5. From the math blog
\n6. Final thought - Your goals for 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11455,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions\/11455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}