The Human Calculator

I have chosen option two for this post, and have decided to write about Scott Flansburg who absolutely deserves the title of "Human Calculator". Scott was born on December 28, 1963 and has grown up to be one of the quickest people at mental math of all time. Scott Flansburg now holds the Guinness World Record for fastest time recorded when adding. He is now one of the quickest mathematicians around, and frequently does performances to show his great talent to multiply, add, subtract, divide and much more.

Many of Scott's ideas tie into what we talk about in math class. One example of this was a topic of one of our previous blogs pertaining to the use of technology. He believes that things such as calculators, and possibly computers, should not be used so widely and that if we try we won't need to be so dependent on them. Because of these opinions and extraordinary talents he rightfully deserves the nickname of the human calculator which helps everyone to recognize him for his intelligence and talent.

Sources: http://scottflansburg.com/
             http://www.yesiknowthat.com/scott-flansburg-the-human-calculator/

Geometry is beautiful

I thought that Tom Zhang's interview about his proof of the "Twin Primes" was very humbling, as well as interesting. This very intelligent man does math for the pure reason of, it's what he enjoys doing. From this interview we can see that Mr. Zhang believes that as long as you are dedicated and persistent, you can achieve anything. Throughout his answers he displays the idea of committing yourself to something that makes you happy. He didn't let anything get in his way of solving this problem and is a great example of a person who has found what makes him happy and has put it to good use. Tom Zhang is an excellent example of how much of an impact a single person can have on the world. The Twin Primes problem had been unsolved for hundreds of years, but after committing himself to it with an immense interest, he succeeded in what many others could not. This view on life inspires me to try my best in what I enjoy doing and to try to make a difference in the world.

I use the math that I have learned over the years a lot in my day to day life. Though, the knowledge that I posses after so many years of math class has particularly helped in one specific field, shopping. Whenever I go to any sort of store I always think back to learning about the percentages of different numbers. This helps me to figure out what the actual price is that I will be paying for a certain item. Most of the time I keep my quick math a secret, though sometimes I do it openly and help out my family and friends when they are trying to figure out a price. When things are on sale at strange percentiles, I find that it is helpful to be able to do the math in my head, this is greatly needed with my limited budget. Overall being able to relate math into my everyday life has been very useful., and the extra practice that I get from doing this mental math has greatly helped me sharpen my math skills for further use.

The Slope

Ms. Mariners post about the 9% grade in slopes relates very closely to the practice of trigonometry. The slope can be compared to the hypotenuse of a triangle, and with this information you can easily find the angles of the triangle or the theta and thus find the slope. Trigonometry also exists in the wheelchair ramps. The triangle created by this is much more obvious and in turn is much easier to visualize. We can also use the method of Tangent= opposite/ adjacent to find either the measures or the angles of the triangle. If you pay attention to your surroundings then trigonometry is everywhere.
A grade can also relate to many things. A grade on a test, the grade of eggs, or the grade of a slope. The grade of a slope is just another way to say the level of tilt or incline that a particular hill has. These slopes can also be found by another method which is known as rise/ run. Using all of these different techniques can be very helpful when trying to figure out the slope, and all of them have something to do with trigonometry.

Mathematical discrepancies

Having grown up surrounded by all of these mathematical discrepancies I can truthfully say that I as a student have never really associated any of these examples to my work inside of math class. For me personally outside the realm of math when someone says to give 120% it would just seem like a figure of speech which is referring to going above and beyond what is expected of you. While doing my math homework though I wouldn't have ever thought that 120% was the actual amount of which it is possible for anything to give. 

As a child I always thought of a cube, square and in many cases rectangle as one in the same. This does frustrate me, because after being taught these things it took me an amazing amount of time to set myself straight about the many separate definitions. I had an especially hard time with this not only because of the ice "cube" but because at the time a square on paper looked as far as i was concerned exactly the same as a cube. I think that people can be somewhat illiterate in math just because of how lazy other people are in not explaining the full definitions of difficult to comprehend things. Lacking the patience to wait until the concept is fully understood is also an issue thus leaving a gap in the students understanding which leads to being even more illiterate . 

At the beginning of this post Ms. Mariner was unsure of her gardening skills just as many students are worried about how they will do at the start of a new year. She shows that if you accept the guidance from your peers and teachers and apply yourself that you can succeed in new things, just like in math class. Even though in the beginning she did not think anything she did would matter and that her plants would end up dead anyway she gave her neighbors advice a chance and learned that if you put effort into something and try your best that you would end up better off. The bushels of peaches that she received from her friends are much like the help that everyone tries to give but if you don't do something with it then it is useless just like rotted peaches, but if you accept the help and advice then you are canning it for long term use.

In math you have to learn to be versatile because the first time you try a problem it might not work out, so just as Ms. Mariner adjusted her way of trimming the roses, sometimes you have to adjust you way of doing math problems.
I like doing math problems but doing them doesn't come very naturally to me. I find math hard but I also think that it is a very important part to a good education so I always try my best. I love the feeling of understanding a concept and after I do I find it fun to do the work and improve my skills further. I think that this is going to be a good year and I am looking forward to it a lot.