January 8th, 2009

Today we started out with Mental Math, and then went on to learn about more Circle Properties and we used the program Euklid again.

Circle Property #2 - If an inscribed angle in a circle inetercepts semi-circle, then the angle is a right angle.

Circle Property #3 - If in a circle, an inscribed angle and a central angle both intercept the same arc, then the central angle measure is double the inscribed angle measure.

Book Report: T.V.M. Solver

Thanks to the internet, this book report will tell you on how to access the T.V.M. on your calculator and give you some examples.

T.V.M stands for Time Value of Money. TVM is based on the idea that money received earlier is worth more than the same amount of money received later.

To get to the T.V.M. solver on your calculator, you press APPS, ENTER, ENTER, and you will get to a screen which shows these following variables:

N= total number of payments
I%= nominal interest rate, expressed as a percent (use 5, for 5%, NOT 0.05)
PV= present value or principal
PMT= amount of each payment (for mortgages and annuities)
FV= future value
P/Y= payments per year
C/Y= compounding periods per year

Here are examples to represent both algebraic and TVM Solver solutions:

1.Solving for Future value: If you deposit $2500 in an account earning 12% interest compounded weekly, how much is it worth in 4 years?
N= 4
I%= 12
PV= 2500
PMT= 0
FV=
P/Y= 1
C/Y= 52

After you have filled in all the numbers, move your curser to FV= and press ALPHA SOLVE (enter) and the number 4037.95 should show up where the FV= is. That’s the final answer for this question.

2.SSolving for present value: How much money must you deposit now, if you need $10000 in 4 years, and can earn 5.5% interest compounded monthly?

Now, we bring up the TVM Solver, set..
N = 4,
I% = 5.5,
PV =
PMT = 0,
FV = 10000,
P/Y = 1,
C/Y = 12.

Move to the present value line and press ALPHA SOLVE (enter). The answer is -8029.22 (the answer is negative, because you have to deposit that amount).

How long does it take $5000 at 8% interest compounded daily to reach a value of $7500?
N =
I% = 8
PV = 5000
PMT = 0
FV = 7500
P/Y = 1
C/Y = 365

Move the cursor to the line for N and press ALPHA SOLVE (enter) to get the answer.

December 2nd

Today we started off with mental math, and then Mr. Max showed us this one game...here's the link: http://math.com/students/puzzles/fiver/fiver.html\

We then worked on the excel spreadsheet for the "Monthy Budget for the Smith Family".

Mr. Max gave us this Exercise 1:Budgeting assignment and we worked on it together and calculated the expenses for weekly, monthly and annually.

He is putting the spreadsheet on the coursework drive under our math folder.

Selection Reflection on Non-Linear Functions

In this new unit, Non- Linear Functions, we learned about three main things...
1. Quadratics
2. Cubics
3. Exponentials

We learned different terms such as vertex, axis of symmetry, parabola, maximum value, minimum value, and zero.

I understood quadratics and cubics, but exponentails was the one i did not get. After going to tutoring and the help from Mr. Max i started to understand it.

Exponentials had the formula y=a*b^x

Cubics had the formula y=_x^3

For the exam, I will have to go over exponentials and how to solve them using excel and other devices.

Nov. 5

Today was a test day, so we just wrote the test and hopefully you all did good!

November 4th Blog

Today we didn't do mental math. We just went over some RRSP problems and questions that we had. The Test is tomorrow!! So study up and good luck! :)

October 14 Scribe

These are the notes we did today. We did #9 on Exercise 1. Exercise 1 is due tomorrow.

This shows doing this problem the Pre- Calc way.

He showed us how to do the problem on excel.

These are the equations he put in excel to get the answer we were looking for.

This is one way where you can find out what the equation is.

This is the equation we got and we put it into our calculator.

October 10th

Today, we started off with mental math. We then got the class time to work on our accelerated math, exerice #1 sheet, and joke sheets. Mr. Max said that if we were done all of the Joke Sheets he would give us marks for it. The exercise #1 will be due on Wednesday.

Selection Reflection

So we started off with learning what a system is. A system is two or more equations(or inequalities) being considered simultaneously.
ex. y=2x+5
y=-3x-1 those two equations is a system.

We started on the Substitution Method. This method is where we have to substitute numbers in equations. I found this to be pretty easy and i enjoyed learning about it. I love solving equations and i found it to be interesting.

We then learned a different Method. The Addition/Subtraction Method. This is where you line up the variables and either subtract or add. I found this method to be very easy as well. I got it right away and i was happy that i didn't have any frustrating times with it.

Mr. Max explained both of these methods very well, and his notes helped me a lot. I also liked how we can chose what kind of method we liked best and not have to only learn one.

Mr. Max also taught us about System Types/Names.
Consistent System: One, unique ordered pair solution
Inconsistent System: No solutions
Dependent System: Infinitely many solutions in ordered pairs

After learning this we moved on to something that i don't even want to mention. I hated this part so much. I did not find this easy as i did with the methods that we learned first. This was called Word Problems. I did not get anything about this. I tried to get it when Mr. Max was teaching us, but it just didn't seem to go through my brain. He told us to look on the course work drive for some sample word problems that he did in the past. After i looked through those (quite a few times), i seemed to understand it a little bit more than i did before.
Here are the rules:
Define two variables(linked somehow)
Create two equations using the two variables

We also used graphmatica to figure out some problems and to check our answers.
We can either use our calculators or graphmatica to check our answers when we are finished a problem to make sure we got the right answer.

So for the exam, i will have to get a good understanding of Word Problems. I think if i look more on the course work drive and practice questions more i will be able to eventually get it! :).

September 19th Blog Post

Today, we started off the class with Mental Math. Mr. Max told us to hand it in today for him to mark. He gave us a choice to either include our practice mental math in with the rest of it or leave it out.
He told us that today would be a work period to work on Accelerated Math.




Since we didn't do any notes today, i thought i would add an example of the Substitution Method.

Practice Post

This is my first practice post. Good tv show.