Nicky's Journal Entry

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Negative Exponent Law Scribe Post for January 11, 2010

Hello everyone! Nicky here yet again to tell you about our Math class today. First of all, we went over our homework with Mr. B. Then, (once all questions were answered) Mr. B "informed" us that we would be starting chapter 3.4. He also taught us about another of the Exponent Laws. This one is entitled, the "Negative Exponent Law".

Now, just what is the Negative Exponent Law? Defined scientifically (or mathematically I suppose) it is: a nonzero base raised to a negative exponent is equal to the reciprocal of the base to the positive exponent.

Quite a mouthful, eh? Well, don't you worry, never fear, Robin Hood will soon be here... Ahem... Until he does I'll just continue on with the class, shall I?

Hm... Now where was I... Ah yes! Mr B's demonstration of this law... Well, first, I think I'll give a simpler definition considering the one above can be quite confusing... Relatively speaking, the Negative Exponent Law states that when you have a base that isn't zero and you're raising it to a negative exponent, it is equal to the reciprocal of the fraction that you get. (Here's a picture to make it much simpler).Alright. This concludes the lesson on Grade 10/11 stuff... Yeah... We're learning advanced stuff because we're "The Class"... Or, Mr B just wants us to... I amen't sure... Anyway, Robin Hood should be coming right about now to deliver his- Ah! Here he is (took him long enough)!Thank you, "Robin" for your very...er....informative definition of the Negative Exponent Law. I was kind of hoping you'd say something more along the lines of it dealing with patterns and fractions as I demonstrated above but, oh well. Beggars can't be choosers, until Robin Hood gives them money! Harhar... I made a funny (and a rhyme)!

*drumroll* And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, HOMEWORK! *trumpet fanfare*

(The following is due on Wednesday)

Textbook Pgs. 118-119 (All questions)

Workbook Chapter 3.4

Mathlink Chapter 3.4 (Separate Sheet, not in Textbook)

Extra Practice Chapter 3.4

This now concludes our broadcast day. It will resume tomorrow evening with your new "anchor" Mark.

Scribe Post for November 30, 2009

Hello everyone! Nicky again to talk to you about homework. You see, homework is a good thing, because (believe it or not) it actually helps you learn. Yes, it does. So, you shouldn't mind one bit that today's class was mainly homework, right? Ahem... Despite the numerous stares that I'm sure I'm receiving from you all, I will still tell you the homework.

Homework

Workbook 2.3

Extra Practice 2.3

Seems like a lot, doesn't it? However, we get two days to do it! BUT! Don't wait until tomorrow at 10 o'clock to do them... Believe me, everyone (except me because I'm a good little boy) has done that. Still, I trust that "The Class" won't let me down.

So, still waiting for epicness? Well, say hello to my little friend. His name is Ned the Integoolie. Some of you may recall him from my integer story from last year.

So, you may be asking why Ned is here, aren't you? Well Ned is here for two things. The first is to tell you that you "should" have lots of stuff in your foldable (you can still be working on it) and the second is to recite a poem about dividing decimals. Yes, I am serious... Just listen...

The other day in math class,

I was pondering my math,

Dividing decimals,

Why must we take a long, hard path?

Is it that our math teachers,

Who appear so kind and nice,

Are really mean and nasty,

Waiting to watch us squirm like mice?

Or is it the curriculum?

With it's "required" things?

Is it really that necessary,

Does it help us earn our wings?

The answer is quite simple,

I tell you this is true,

It is to prepare us all,

Including me and you.

It'll prepare us for math much later,

When we are in high school,

So when we see hard questions,

We understand which is quite cool.

Sure, now we can use calculators,

But that won't help us much,

When the numbers turn to variables,

And such,

We must simply understand it,

So that when it's time to fly,

We can do it really easily,

And that my friends is why.

Bravo Ned, your poems are always great. However, to all of you rhymically challenged, or those to lazy to read it, here's a summary. Mr B told us today that we needn't do long division all the time and that we must simply know how to do it. So, for now, it's perfectly fine to be using your calculator.

So, here's a bit of a recap for you. You must complete 2.3 Extra Practice and in your Workbook and begin filling in your foldable. Also, you can expect a math test on either Monday or Tuesday.

And to that, I bid you all a good night and happy homework. Fare thee well until the morrow!

Question 18

Hello everyone! Nicky again to talk to you about icebergs. Well, a specific iceberg, known as the iceberg #18 of Textbookomathea. That's right, question 18 from the math textbook. Now, here's the question in it's full form for all you folks out there.

One ninth of the height of an iceberg was above the surface of the water. The iceberg extended to a depth of 75.8 m below the surface. What was the height of the iceberg above the surface? Express your answer to the nearest tenth of a metre.

Quite a mouthful, huh? Well, the question is far simpler than it seems. First, let's use a picture to help us visualize this iceberg.

Nice iceberg, isn't it? Well, now that we can see it, let's see what we know about it. We know that the height of the iceberg below the water was 75.8 m. We also know that one ninth of the iceberg is above the water. This means that the other eight ninths of it are below the water. And, as I said before, the height of that is 75.8 m.

Now, how exactly do we find the height of the iceberg that is above the water? Well, we need to simply divide 75.8 m by 8. Why you may ask? The answer is that 8 ninths divided by 8 is 1 ninth, also known as the height of the iceberg above the water.

So, plug that into your calculator and you get a height of 9.48 m. However, we must round up to the nearest tenth, which gives us 9.5 m. Finally, since this is a word problem afterall, we have to answer the question in a sentence.

The height of the iceberg above the surface is 9.5 m.

There you have it everyone. A simple answer for a question that is simple, but doesn't seem that way at first. Thank you, and have a good night (or day...or afternoon...or evening)

Question 25

Hello there everyone! Nicky here to answer question 25 from the math textbook. Here's the question in case you don't remember it:

Create a word problem that involves operations with rational numbers in decimal form. Make sure you can solve your problem. Then, have a classmate solve your problem.

Do my eyes deceive me or do I get to make a math problem? Yay! I've always wanted to make one of these... Hm... Lets see... What should it be about... Ah! I know, a little boy... His name is Billy Jenkins... Here's the question in full:

Part A) Billy Jenkins is a little boy. Being a little boy, Billy Jenkins likes to play with toy cars. Everyday he plays with his red car for 3.8 hours and then plays with his blue car for 125 minutes. How many hours (expressed in decimal form) does Billy play with his cars each day?

Part B) Billy's friend Bobby also likes to play with toy cars. However, Bobby makes loud noises when he plays with Billy, distracting him. On average, Bobby annoys Billy for half an hour each day. Knowing this, how much time does Billy actually get to play with his toy cars?

Part C) Now Billy is a mathematician, who thinks all smarticle. One day, he remembered that when he was young he liked to play with his toy cars. He remembers playing with them for 2 years under the same pattern. How many hours did Billy play with his toy cars during those 2 years?

Now isn't that a mouthful? However, it can be solved quite easily as you will soon see. We will start with Part A.

So, we know that Billy plays with his red car for 3.8 hours and that he plays with his blue car for 125 minutes each day. So, we must first convert both of the values into hours. So, how many hours are in 125 minutes? Well, there are 60 minutes in an hour so there are at least 2 hours in 125 minutes (60+60=120) but what about those 5 minutes? Well, we need to figure out what fraction of 60 minutes 5 minutes is. So, we can always use a ratio table like the one below...

So, now that we have our two numbers (3.8 hours and 2.083) we just have to add them together which gives us a sum of 5.883 (repeating). Now, on to Part B.

So, we know that Bobby annoys Billy for half an hour each day and that Billy plays for 5.883 hours each day. So, we must first convert those minutes into hours. That would translate to 30 minutes or 0.5 hours. Now, all we have to do is subtract 0.5 from 5.883 which would give us a difference of 5.383. We're almost there! To Part C we go!

Okay... So now Billy is a mathematician and he (because he's a mathematician) thinks about math all day long. And one day (for whatever reason) he remembered that he used to play with cars as a little boy. And then he remembered he played in that same pattern for 2 whole years... So, we must now get to solving this problem...

Now, Billy said he played for 5.383 hours each day for 2 years. So, we must first figure out how many days are in 1 year, which is 365 days. Which means 2 years have 730 days. Now it is a simple matter of multiplying 5.383 by 730 which gives us a product of 3929.59.

There you go everyone, my rational numbers word problem. Feel free to comment and suggest improvements for both my post itself and maybe even my questions.

Scribe Post for October 28, 2009

Hello everyone! Nicky here to tell you about math today. The first thing Mr. B said today was that I stole textbook #11.... Yeah.... But I most certainly did not! He had it the whole time! Ahem, where was I? Oh yes, math class. Well, in math today we played a card game. Now, just in case if you want to play it at home, Data will now recite the rules in his anroidic manner.

Thank you Data, your help is always appreciated. So, we played that game for a good portion of the class and this Mr. B made us get out those great study guides, foldables! Sadly, he made us add things to it...and he wasn't very specific... But, that's where your brain comes in. For homework our job is to fill out the 1st square in our foldables (which should say Rational Numbers, hint hint). Now, by the 1st square I mean the square that is on the top left (for all you chess players it'd be A4...). So, just make sure you write it under the 1st square.

However, that isn't all. In our definitions foldable we have to write some more stuff (yes I know...how fun). So, just what do we have to write? What numbers belong to each group. Eg. Under Natural Numbers you would write Integers. BUT, that is not all. Mr. B also gave us some very "smarticle" things to write as well. These are as follows. Oh DATA!!!

Thank you Data for telling the nice people the smarticle things. Ahem, now...hm...what else did we do? Ah, yes. Mr B. gave us some equations. All we have to do is say whether the answer is positive or negative and then we have to explain how we know. Here are the equations.

Well, that's about it. I will now list the homework in BOLD BRIGHT COLORS, for those who don't want to read my entire scribe.

Homework

Blue+White Foldable (Rational space, put "stuff" inside)
Definitions Foldable (Middle Column)

Questions (Explain why negative or positive)

Go to E-Book (Complete Show You Know Chapter 2.2)

There you have it! Our math class in a nutshell. Please do your homework (*cough* THE CLASS *cough*). The next scribe will be *drum roll* VIKRAM!!! *trumpet fanfare*

Remember, only you can prevent forest fires!

Why not 100?

Hello everyone! Nicky here to tell you about a special little number. This number is 360. You might recognize it as the number of degrees in a circle. But I bet you've always wondered: Why 360 and not something easy, like 100? Well, the answer lies within the story of the Babylonians...

You see, the Sumerians (and later the Babylonians) used a Sexagesimal system when it came to numbers... No this isn't some sort of foul language, it just means their number system was based on the number 60. Now, 60 goes into 360 right? But that still doesn't answer why the 60. However, the following will. If you take a look at our calendar (of 365 days) you'll see that it's really close to 360, now isn't it? That's how the Babylonians told time. They noticed that the Sun moved about 1 degree everyday, and around 360 every year. They also realized that every year the sun goes around a complete circle. So, when the made circles, they made them with 360 degrees.

So, what are the mathematical "pluses" of 360? Well, 360 has 24 factors whereas 100 only has 9. This makes for a good number. So, there you go. Now you know why there's 360 degrees in a circle. The simple answer being that the Babylonians said so... The true answer being that it just works.