Constantly learning…
Teaching here really does keep my brain young and functioning!
For example:
One day last week we were working out areas of shapes, and we came to one that involved a half circle.
Easy right? Pie x Radius squared, divided by 2.
No prob! Who has a calculator?
Ummm… clearly no one…
At this point I adamantly decided that it was then impossible to solve the problem. My students disagreed, arguing that I just had to do 22/7 x the radius squared.
Sorry what?!?!
When I got home I plugged 22/7 into my calculator, and what do you know? 22/7 = pie.
In the age of the calculator, I suppose there was never a use for this little bit of trivia to come into my maths schooling!
The result of this of course is that I must now brush up on my fraction skills, as I am now calculating areas of circles with pen and paper… blech! Hehe
Like I said, keeping my brain young and fresh… :S
Teaching here really does keep my brain young and functioning!
For example:
One day last week we were working out areas of shapes, and we came to one that involved a half circle.
Easy right? Pie x Radius squared, divided by 2.
No prob! Who has a calculator?
Ummm… clearly no one…
At this point I adamantly decided that it was then impossible to solve the problem. My students disagreed, arguing that I just had to do 22/7 x the radius squared.
Sorry what?!?!
When I got home I plugged 22/7 into my calculator, and what do you know? 22/7 = pie.
In the age of the calculator, I suppose there was never a use for this little bit of trivia to come into my maths schooling!
The result of this of course is that I must now brush up on my fraction skills, as I am now calculating areas of circles with pen and paper… blech! Hehe
Like I said, keeping my brain young and fresh… :S
As a nerdy clarification, Pi is a real but irrational number, which never repeats and never stops. This means that there is an indefinate amount of numbers after the decimal point!! They are up to several hundred thousand i tihnk. However, if you only care about the first few, 22/7 will sort it out fine. But its not ACTUALLY the same.
ReplyDeleteI would sign this but i think we all know who this is.