tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28172905.post1564893679667799148..comments2024-03-03T17:53:46.947-05:00Comments on (x, why?): If You Could See My Expression, You'd Know It Has No Equal(x, why?)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17499160002806879025noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28172905.post-19805982199023041542014-05-29T21:40:34.495-04:002014-05-29T21:40:34.495-04:00In the beginning of the school year (which I, unfo...In the beginning of the school year (which I, unfortunately, didn't have with these kids) I stress and overemphasize the difference between expression and equation (which has two expressions and an equal sign), along with the difference between the words "solve" and "evaluate". <br /><br />That said, after solving quadratic equations for a couple of weeks in all sorts of forms and varieties, if you give them a polynomial to "factor completely", they will add a mysterious "=0" and attempt to solve for x.<br />(x, why?)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17499160002806879025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28172905.post-87412816201411755252014-05-29T09:05:06.952-04:002014-05-29T09:05:06.952-04:00I'm not surprised the syntactic distinction be...I'm not surprised the syntactic distinction between expression and equation is hard on students. Do they have a foundation in Grammars, did they do Diagramming Sentences is English? Didn't think so. And most "expressions" are in a Context where some (in)equality is implied and understood by the surrounding English of the Story Problem, even if though stated in mathematical = syntax. If a bare 6 is an expression grammatically, it's also the value of a elided variable, except in the unnatural context-free context this quiz question. William Rickerhttp://m.twitter.com/n1vuxnoreply@blogger.com