Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Geometry made Simple...

A simple geometry lesson livens up the southern sky when three bright celestial bodies form a right triangle — defined as a triangle where one of the angles is 90 degrees.

Let’s see. How many different types of triangles are there? There are only six. You’ve got your:

1. right triangle,
2. equilateral,
3. scalene,
4. isosceles,
5. acute and ,
6. obtuse.

The most familiar — the right triangle will be put on display at dusk when the moon, Saturn and Spica, Virgo’s brightest star, gather together in the southern sky. Watch for it!

You could quibble that it’s not a perfect right triangle where the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the two sides, but it’s a solid effort.

beginning Algebra made easy!

1. An Equal Sign means that one side is equal to the other.

15 = 7 + 8

7 + 8 = 15

2. Numbers or variables - it doesn't make any difference.

w + 5 = 14

14 = w + 5

3. You can move the constant (number) from one side of the equal sign to the other as long as whatever you do to one side you do to the other. Using the below equation to practice.

w + 5 = 14 (you want the variable to be all alone so you need to subtract 5 from each side

-5 = - 5 (what you do to one of an equation you do to the other)
w = 9

and...

C - 3 = 7

+3 = 3
C = 10

Did you notice that once the equation was set up with the variables on one side and the numbers on the other, it was much easier to solve?

Do not get into the habit of solving the equations in your head - try and understand what is happening.

for more practical ideas on alebra made easy... go to
www.numberpower.org