Pythagorean Relation

Today we learned to calculate the distance of the hypotenuse on a right triangle. I understand how to calculate the length of the hypotenuse a^2 + b^2 = c^2. but I don't understand the formulas.

Graphing Stuff...

I finished most of my work today. A helpful site is http://www.apples4theteacher.com/prime-factors.html It saves time, because you do not have to write down factors of numbers on paper. I used it a few times allready today. Homework is exercise 4 but it looks ok. I'm also the scribe today, so i'll have to review the notes a few times. Good thing this graphing stuff is not too hard.

More Factoring

Mental math went pretty well, as I got 4/5. There's always a trick question, though. A perfect square trinomial is a rectangle. I treid the homework last night but did not get too far. Notes today were on Difference of Squares Factoring. This stuff I understand because the middle term is 0x. We got alga-tiles to play with, ut it is confusing and still does not seem practical. Here is a link to an algebra tile website that I found: http://my.hrw.com/math06_07/nsmedia/tools/Algebra_Tiles/Algebra_Tiles.html
... and then we throw fractions into the mix. I'm gonna have to take this slow.

New Ways To Factor

Today, we learned new ways to factor polynomials. I remember most of it from last year, but there are still some things that are new to me. It gets confusing after you write out the factors of one of the numbers. It would help if I could use those alga-tiles, but that is just not practical. Overall, I feel that it will come back fairly quickly when I do some questions on my own.

Two posts - In One!

First post today, how exciting! Yesterday was supposed to be the first one, but forgive me, i was in biotech. I was really happy in class today, because I got everything. I feel pretty good about the test. I really liked the bonus question! It took me a while to get it but then it was really obvious. Tonight I will probably try to finish the accelerated math that was handed out yesterday.