Studying Habits

This course was a very different style than what I am used to in a regular math class.
Since it is a hybrid course we learn on our own as best we can and then complete the
homework and come to class with questions as we sort of review the things we learned on our
own. Needless to say this takes a different approach to learning. A more hands on, self
motivated approach is necessary. Some of the study skills I learned that have benefitted my
success in this course are; I would just jump right into the material. I would start the questions
seeing what I already know, or what knowledge of prior sections need to be used and work as
much as I can. I would occasionally use the help me solve a similar question feature online to
see the process used. When I was unable to go any further, I would watch the videos. I believe
this helped because it forced me to connect it back to what I already know and not just assume I
don't know how to do it at all. Everything we learn builds on the last thing we learned and as
long as you take those little steps It becomes easier and easier.
Some areas I would like to improve though is being a lot more proactive in getting
around to my homework. I had a plethora of other things to do, that seemed very overwhelming
at times and I tend to just do things last minute before they are due. Because of this I have two
goals to improve my studying skills. I want to work on assignments the day they are available
and so if I have problems I have some time to work it out with less stress. Second, for the
sections that I have a bit more trouble on I want to solve extra problems until I feel comfortable
enough with the process. I can do this online by clicking the solve a similar problem button and I
can do that over and over. I will measure my first goal by making a checklist of assignments as
they become available so i can see everything I need to do that day, and I will focus to cross off
everything on the list before I do anything else. To accomplish the second, I will simply keep
working problems until I can do them with no struggle.

Pythagorean Theorem
The Pythagorean Theorem has many practical uses, some that I never even thought of
before. For starters, you can easily realize the shortest distance to travel is by traveling along
the hypotenuse. Another is, my neighbors always make a christmas tree of strands of lights
attached to their flag pole and the ground, if they know the height of the flag pole, the length of
each strand of lights, then they can use the Pythagorean Theorem to figure out the distance
from the pole they should secure each strand to the ground. You can also figure out if a triangle
is a right triangle by using the pythagorean theorem. If you square sides a and b and it is
equivalent to side c squared then you know it is a right triangle, if they aren't equivalent, then its
not! Another application is a painter painting a really tall wall. If he knows the height of the wall
and he knows how far a ladder needs to be placed from a wall to be safe, then he can easily
figure out what size ladder he needs to complete the job. Television sets are sold based on the
diagonal measurement. In order to get the correct size TV for the space you have available you
measure the space you have. Widescreen TVs nowadays are a 1.78:1 ratio. so for example for
every one inch of height you have 1.78 inches of width. You can use this ratio to figure how
much space you have, or what size tv you want, then you just use the pythagorean theorem to
figure out they hypotenuse, and then you have the size TV you should buy! Lastly, the thing I
found to be the most interesting, is that you can use the pythagorean theorem to figure out if
one things is bigger than two other things. Suppose you want to see if a large pizza (16 inches)
is bigger than two mediums (12 inches). Plug in 16 for C, and 12 for A. It looks like the large
pizza can be split into a 12-inch and 10.5-inch pizza, so two-mediums are in fact bigger. One
last little fun fact is that you can split a right triangle from the right angle to a perpendicular point
on the opposite side and you end up with two triangles of similar proportions to the original
triangle you started with. I never realized there were so many fun uses for the pythagorean
theorem but if you just look, there are uses all around us!

Factoring Polynomials
Factoring Polynomials is a very fundamental skill in math, it is also one thing that I really
enjoy. One night while I was in Jr High, I couldn't sleep and so I turned on the tv and there was
one of those college course study from home shows. This one happened to be a math class and
it was about factoring polynomials. I found it interesting that you can clean up such a messy
looking equation to something so simple. I was fascinated. The next day in my geometry class
we were talking about polynomials and my teacher, Mr. James, mentioned factoring as the next
step in solving, but at that level of math we didn't cover it. He did, however, offer extra credit if
we gave it a try. Well I was ecstatic! I attempted the factoring on every problem and it took me
forever to figure them all out, but I had a lot of fun. I took it back in the next day and my teacher
asked if I had help on it and I proudly told him I hadnt. Ever since this experience I have loved
this section of math and I just keep getting better at it the more I work at it. Also I plan to get
even better by studying and memorizing certain formulas which my College professor so
wonderfully put into a flow chart that I will use to study from in order to build a more solid
foundation that I may be ready for future courses. because factoring is one thing that should be
fun and easy, most definitely not the hang up on a problem to solve!

Distance formula and Pythagorean theorem?

As we all know, the distance formula is the square root of the sum of the change in x
values squared and the change in y values squared. From this formula we can see how they are
similar, but it can be proven that they actually are the same thing. By using the two given points
you can actually figure out a third point, the one that makes a right angle when connected to the
original points. This third point is found by taking the x value from of the first two coordinates,
and the y value from the other original coordinate. It doesn't matter which value you take from
which coordinate as long as you take the x from one, and the y from the other. The next step is
really simple, you find the distances of the sides you just created by making the third point. For
the vertical leg you simply figure the change in y values and for the horizontal leg you solve the
change in x values. This gives you the values of the two legs that you would plug into the
pythagorean theorem to find the length of they hypotenuse. These same values are also
represented in the distance formula as (x-sub-2 minus x-sub-1) and (y-sub-2 minus y-sub-1).