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Activities for Pi Day
Oh, I know you missed it. Really, it wasn’t your fault. Pi day fell on a Sunday, so how are you supposed to have pi-day activities in class? Don’t let it stop you. You are better than that. Do the...
View ArticleGreater is Greater
I gave the following question on my last physical science (physical science for non-science majors) test: Block A has a mass of 10 kg and volume of 100 cm3. Block B has a mass of 1 kg and a volume of 1...
View ArticleDoes everyone need math?
This is a question that comes up every now in then. But I would like to ask a few similar questions with my first order approximation answers. I would love to hear some other ideas on these questions....
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Experimental Rope Logarithms
Sue from Math Mama Writes… sent me an email about wrapping a rope around a pole. In that post, Sue thinks about rope looped around a post. When you wrap a rope around a post, the friction between the...
View ArticleWhere is the Maths Department?
I was having a discussion with my father about the budgetpocalypse for universities. I don’t know how it came up, but he asked: “What college is the department of Math in?” At Southeastern Louisiana...
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Right Hand Rule: Don’t hurt yourself
It is that part of the semester where the Right Hand Rule (RHR) comes out. Really, the best part is the students taking the tests. They make all these funny motions with their hands. That makes tests...
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Maxima can be useful
The other day I found myself faced with six equations that needed to be solved algebraically. Just so you know, I am a big fan of paper for most of these cases – but this was out of control. I was...
View Article“I hate math”
I don’t hate math, that is just the title of the post – notice that I put it in quotes. As you may know, I teach this physics course for elementary education majors (using Physics and Everyday Thinking...
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An estimation problem for math teachers
You thought I was going to talk about a problem that math teachers could use, didn’t you? Well, maybe math teachers can use this. (note: when I say “teachers” I really mean “learning facilitators”) It...
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Videos and traditional lecture
I see that Doug at Nanoscale Views has fond memories of the hit show The Mechanical Universe. If you have never seen this show, it is quite excellent (even if old). Perhaps the best thing about The...
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