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Category Archives: Math Musings
Inversion Problem Update
I recently posted this interesting inversion problem: The question is this: in mod n, how many functions f(x)= ax +b are their own inverses? For example, the function f(x) = 5x + 2, applied twice in mod 12, is equal … Continue reading
Posted in lesson, Math Musings
Tagged conjectures, inversions, involutions, mod n, mods, modulo, Paul Lockhart, paul salomon
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A curious inversion problem
I’ve been exploring a new problem with a couple of students recently that I find incredibly compelling, and I thought I’d mention it here. The main idea is looking at the behavior of functions of the form f(x) = ax … Continue reading
Posted in lesson, Math Musings
Tagged affine functions, math, mod, modular arithmetic, questions
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Processed Math: Don’t Eat This
There has been considerable backlash against processed food products in the last few years, and for good reason. A slew of health problems implicate what we eat, and processed food products are more product than they are food. As industry … Continue reading
Math education in two themes
There are two major thrusts to math education. One is to teach skills–how to combine numbers, for example, and the definitions and rules of things in the mathematical universe. The other is teaching how to think (as it pertains to … Continue reading
Doubling Algebra? Or making it work?
I’d call this article, about how doubling the time students spent studying algebra led them to do better in math and also reading and writing(!) a case of burying the lead. Why? Before anyone rushes to double the lengths of … Continue reading
The Path to Freedom
We seem to be experiencing a brief cultural moment, in cinema, at least, to look back at slavery. Lincoln and Django Unchained at least, take place in a six-year period where people enslaved each other with all the brutality that … Continue reading
Posted in Math Musings
Tagged Django Unchained, euclid, Frederick Douglass, freedom, Lincoln, slavery
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“Help, my daughter hates math!”
Back in August, an email with the subject “Help, my daughter hates math!” showed up in the Math for Love inbox. To quote that email: Here’s our situation: We are entering our fourth year of home schooling and my 10 … Continue reading
Goat River Crossing
This is a post about owning your mathematical experience, problem-solving, and flexibility. It also involves our goats—yes, we have goats—and a story of what happened when we took them hiking this summer. What you need to know about our goats … Continue reading
Posted in Math Musings, video
Tagged difference of squares, flexibility, goats, hiking, multiplication, ownership, problem solving, river crossing
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Math and the Drug War
The drug war is one issue that tends to be too hot for presidential politics. You won’t hear any questions at the debates about it, and you can be sure the candidates won’t be talking about it. But there’s a … Continue reading
Posted in link, Math Musings, video
Tagged daily show, data, drug war, graphs, i-502, jarecki, marijuana, math, politics
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How to make math tip?
I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. (I know, I’m over a decade late to the party. I’m a slow reader.) It was mostly pleasure reading, but towards the end I realized that what the book is about is … Continue reading
Posted in Math Musings
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