Math Bait

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(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Everyone else has already left MathBook for the next Math big thing!

These fake math "click bait" articles were things that I came up with on Twitter in response to a challenge to create one. I created two, and would've done more daily but I got distracted by the something else on my To Do list.

I tried taking an informal poll of Twitter between Mather, MathSpace and MathBook, but the more I thought of it, I thought that MathSpace should be the dying one and MathBook should be what everyone's parents use. And both Mike and Ken are parents, so there's that.

Those platforms will probably get mentioned again. I can't ignore social media. Even if it mostly ignore me. (sniff).

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Five Things You Need to Know About Algebra, ONE BIG POST

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I thought I could do all this in one day???

Five Things You Need to Know About Algebra, Part V

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I still can't believe I wanted to do this all in One Day as a Mega-comic.

As for the math: you'll notice that I actually left it out of the comic. I never heard "PEMDAS" until I became a teacher ... for a couple of years, no less. I learn Rules. Having a nice little code was nice at first, until I realized that students didn't understand the meaning behind the letters. Sure, they knew two things that they stood for, but the words didn't mean much to them. Worse, there was insistence that addition must come before subtraction, which isn't true.

Moreover, there are omissions. Where do the absolute brackets go? Well, there like Parentheses, but they aren't the same thing -- don't try any fancy Distributive Property stuff. And what about Factorial? Is it multiplication? No, it's more like exponentiation!

5⁵ = 5 X 5 X 5 X 5 X 5
5! = 5 X 4 X 3 X 2 X 1

However, not the same thing because, for instance, 3² X 2² = 6² but (3!)(2!) =/= 6! -- and I'd like to add another exclamation point for emphasis!

By the way, I meant what I said about "two" things. I drew this Halloween comic (from 2007) on the board, and I student told me, "It's DEAR Aunt Sally! Don't you know anything?"

Could've been Aunt Silly for all that it mattered. And it was silly.

Five Things You Need to Know About Algebra, Part IV

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I'd like to take an EPEE to FOIL. Or maybe a SABER.

Multiply everything inside the second set of parentheses by what's outside the parentheses, which in the case of two binomials is the first binomial. And then do it again with the other set of parentheses. This method will work with trinomials as well without leaving you scratching your head.

I've had students who could multiply a trinomial by a binomial because they didn't know what to do with the extra term because they'd learned a short-cut but not the concept.

Interestingly, when I try to demonstrate using integers instead of variables, the point gets lost because they finally start using the Order of Operations, correctly, and add what's inside the parentheses first. Sigh.

Five Things You Need to Know About Algebra, Part II

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

True story: a student exiting the bathroom after a Regents exam, spotted me in the hall and asked, ''Mr. Burke, what does an exclamation point mean in a math problem?'' It didn't help that it was a meaningless probably and nothing to do with statistics or probability.

On another note: the number 5040 is very interesting. Not only is it 7 X 6 X 5 X 4 X 3 X 2 X 1, but it is also 10 X 9 X 8 X 7 (and that also means that 10!/7! = 6!). But here's another interesting fact: If the Moon was sitting on Earth's equator, the distance from the center of the Moon to the center of the Earth would be 5,040 miles. Unfortunately, if the Moon were sitting on Earth equator, it would be very bad because we would all die. Food for thought.

Five Things You Need to Know About Algebra, Part I

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Unless they want the third side rounded to the nearest tenth or expressed in simplest radical terms -- then you're on your own!

By the way, every multiple of the 3-4-5 right triangle has the same exact shape. They are similar figures so there angles are the same. And those angles will be 53 degrees (across from the "4" side) and 37 degrees (across from the "3" side). But show your Trigonometry work anyway like you didn't already know the answer in advance.