Math Is A Really Cool Thing....
Hey folks,
This is a little off topic from my usual rants, but I thought I would share it with you anyways. I found out this semester that in order to get into the education program at UNBC one of the requirements that I must meet is having at least 3 credits in any math course. So I decided to take the easiest math course at CNC that I could find, which turned out to be math 190 (Math for elementary teachers), and according to all the websites, and counselors I have spoken with, this math is perfectly legitimate. Well let me tell you, this IS NOT math that elementary students do! I have friends that are still in highschool, and this is equivalent to GRADE 10 MATH!! I was shocked.... But that isn't the point of this blog... It all goes back to grade 8.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with math ever since the early days of elementary school. I was never a fan of math until I got to grade five and had the phenomenal Mr. Chidiac teach me math it was awesome! Mr. Chidiac was able to explain the concepts in a manner that I would understand, and I loved it! Then in grade six, I wasn't a fan anymore, because for one more year I didn't understand, then in seven I had Mr. Chidiac again! and loved math... Grade eight I had a horrible teacher and got 60%.... Horrible, but in grade nine Mrs. Kozak made math fun again, and I did really well... Grade 10 Mr. Thomson taught math incredibly well, and that was my best year! In grade 11 Mr. Jawanda made another outstanding year for math, and really made me think that I might want to teach math! But then grade 12 math slapped me upside the face and made me rethink. Until now that is. This math course I'm taking is really cool, and we learn some really neat concepts from it, which I would like to share a few neat ones with you! Ready? AND GO!
This concept is called Gauss' sum, and really simple but neat problem. The problem posed is: Add the numbers one to one hundred inclusively without using a calculator. Now most of you are thinking, "that's stupid", or "that would take forever and a lot of space!" Most would think to do it like this: 1+2+3+4+5+.....+98+99+100, or 1+2=3, 3+4=7, 7+5=12 and so on. That would be a really long way of going about it, and this mathematician name Gauss proposed this solution: "We know that A+B=B+A, so what we do assign the sum of this equation the symbol Sn, so Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100 (... means I'm just leaving out all the numbers in-between), so we can also write the formula: Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, then we can write the two formulas (which are essentially the same) as another addition problem:
Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100
Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, So we get:
2Sn=101+101+101+101+...+101+101+101+101, and we know that there are 100 terms in this addition problem, and they all come out to 101, so we can write it like this:
2Sn=100(101), then to solve for Sn we simply divide both sides by 2:
Sn=100(101)
2
This is a little off topic from my usual rants, but I thought I would share it with you anyways. I found out this semester that in order to get into the education program at UNBC one of the requirements that I must meet is having at least 3 credits in any math course. So I decided to take the easiest math course at CNC that I could find, which turned out to be math 190 (Math for elementary teachers), and according to all the websites, and counselors I have spoken with, this math is perfectly legitimate. Well let me tell you, this IS NOT math that elementary students do! I have friends that are still in highschool, and this is equivalent to GRADE 10 MATH!! I was shocked.... But that isn't the point of this blog... It all goes back to grade 8.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with math ever since the early days of elementary school. I was never a fan of math until I got to grade five and had the phenomenal Mr. Chidiac teach me math it was awesome! Mr. Chidiac was able to explain the concepts in a manner that I would understand, and I loved it! Then in grade six, I wasn't a fan anymore, because for one more year I didn't understand, then in seven I had Mr. Chidiac again! and loved math... Grade eight I had a horrible teacher and got 60%.... Horrible, but in grade nine Mrs. Kozak made math fun again, and I did really well... Grade 10 Mr. Thomson taught math incredibly well, and that was my best year! In grade 11 Mr. Jawanda made another outstanding year for math, and really made me think that I might want to teach math! But then grade 12 math slapped me upside the face and made me rethink. Until now that is. This math course I'm taking is really cool, and we learn some really neat concepts from it, which I would like to share a few neat ones with you! Ready? AND GO!
This concept is called Gauss' sum, and really simple but neat problem. The problem posed is: Add the numbers one to one hundred inclusively without using a calculator. Now most of you are thinking, "that's stupid", or "that would take forever and a lot of space!" Most would think to do it like this: 1+2+3+4+5+.....+98+99+100, or 1+2=3, 3+4=7, 7+5=12 and so on. That would be a really long way of going about it, and this mathematician name Gauss proposed this solution: "We know that A+B=B+A, so what we do assign the sum of this equation the symbol Sn, so Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100 (... means I'm just leaving out all the numbers in-between), so we can also write the formula: Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, then we can write the two formulas (which are essentially the same) as another addition problem:
Sn=1+2+3+4+...+97+98+99+100
Sn=100+99+98+97+...+4+3+2+1, So we get:
2Sn=101+101+101+101+...+101+101+101+101, and we know that there are 100 terms in this addition problem, and they all come out to 101, so we can write it like this:
2Sn=100(101), then to solve for Sn we simply divide both sides by 2:
Sn=100(101)
2
From this we can simplify to 50(101), which then we get the solution of 5050 by using simple multiplication!
Isn't math wonderful Folks? I love it! I'm excited about mathematics, now I am a true geek! Hope you all enjoyed this wonderful session, I look forward to posting more little tricks in the future.
Cheers
-Andrew-
Isn't math wonderful Folks? I love it! I'm excited about mathematics, now I am a true geek! Hope you all enjoyed this wonderful session, I look forward to posting more little tricks in the future.
Cheers
-Andrew-
posted by Rosser at 11:35 PM
7 Comments:
Are you sure your feeling alright Ross??? Math and FUN in the same sentence, I think you need to sit down. Now seriously, the thing you were talking about sounded really cool, would probably have sounded more cool if I actually understood it. Glad that math is working for you!!! I have to take one to, for the education program, I'm looking at the Introduction to Calculus, because it looks the the easiest one, math and I do not get along. Have fun with school and especially the math!!!!!:)
Way to go buddy! That's what I like to hear. Math is really a good time. Definitely the most enjoyable classes that I took in university. What other class can you get 100% in and have it directly linked to how smart you are and how hard you work.
I can be smarter and have more common sense than some English teacher...and work my ass off to write the most amazing literature review that teacher has ever seen, but still only get an A because that teacher's "philosophy" is to not give out A+'s. What kind of BS is that?
Math Rocks...and Gauss is the man.
Andrew
*shakes head* Rosser, what have they done to you? ;)
Andrew, you're always on some sort of rant about English. and you know, i've heard rumour that people who have issues with being humble are the ones who have problems with English...:D
damn English teachers...
Hey Jenn, Mr. Lafleur was a teacher at PGSS when my brother went there (he graduated 3 years before me). I'm not too sure about Mr. Quarenghi, but Ed says the name also sounds familiar.
Mr. Quarenghi is the head of the math department at College Heights...or at least he was last year..... GONZO!
I must say after almost failing grade 11 math, I have had no likes for it at all. And then in my grade 12 year, after failing the in class practice provincial for English, I decided to stop the games and actually start showing what I knew. And that’s the story of how I aced the English provincial. And ever since then, I have found my English skills a lot more useful in my area of work than I have my math skills. Good for you on your math fun, but I still like the idea of being able to write a completely error free paper. And plus, you can't read a good story written in numbers :P
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