Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin is one "human calculator" that i have actually watched over the years. I can't remember exactly, but my parents bought a series of videos called the "great courses" made by Arthur. They bought these videos to help my brother in his math class. This is when i first saw him. I then later saw him on some TED videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PTvXtz4GM. In these videos he demonstrates his insane ability to calculate huge multiplication problems. He calls his form of math "mathemagic." In these TED videos he usually asks his audience to give him a number with a certain number of digits. He then asks for another number with a certain number of digits and he is able to perform the multiplication of the numbers much faster than a calculator could. He also takes the square roots of up to 5 digit numbers and thinks out loud as he calculates the answer. Until he is asked to calculate numbers above 4 digits, Arthur always beats a calculator. Arthur also shows off in this particular TED video by demonstrating his knowledge on birthdays. He asks the audience for their birthdate and is able to give them the exact day of the week they were born. He takes his knowledge to another level by asking a volunteer to give him a random date between 1600 and 3000 (future). The volunteer gives the date 2730 on June 13; Arthur tells him that that will be a friday within 3 seconds. He probably is not the most famous mathematician. But Arthur Benjamin certainly blows my mind apart. He has a lot of videos on youtube where he provides math tricks that we can use in our every day life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvzsWmUqDF4.
Arthur Benjamin has been a professor at Harvey Mudd College since 1989. He is my favorite mathematician because he is so knowledgeable and also provides a lot of math help. He really helped my brother out in calculus and i hope i still have his tapes because he is a very good teacher. EUS!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_T._Benjamin

Sine Curves and Pools!

Graphing swimming is a lot more complicated than it might seem. The only graph that is somewhat simple is if the swimmer swims at a constant pace throughout the whole time/race. This graph would be a straight line angling at about 45 degrees; or a sawtooth wave. The faster the swimmer, the more compressed horizontally the sawtooth wave becomes. The slower the swimmer, the more horizontally elongated the sawtooth wave becomes. By increasing the distance (50 meter pool), it would take longer to reach the peak of the graph. For this reason the graph would be vertically stretched if the distance was increased.
To make the graph look like a triangle you would have to go a constant pace back and forth. To make the triangle look like a sawtooth wave, you would have to go a constant pace to the other side of the pool. It is impossible to make it look like a square because no human could ever achieve a graph like that. To make it look like a sine curve you would have to increase and decrease your speed at certain intervals of your swim.
In regards to the two swimmers question, the swimmer swimming the long length of the pool will get to the other side twice as fast compared to the swimmer swimming the short distance. The amount of intersections in the graph is one. By the time the slow swimmer gets across the 25m, the fast swimmer will have gone to the other 
wall and back. This is the intersection point. The paths of the two swimmers with intersect every time the slow swimmer gets to the other wall.

In real life

One of the most important professions that use trigonometry is architecture. Trigonometry is excessively important in architecture because architects use it to calculate distances. The architects especially use sine, cosine, and tangent to calculate distances that involve triangles. Architects also use cotangent, secant, and co-secant but not to the extent that they use sine, cosine, and tangent.
These Trig functions are important because the architect can find opposite, adjacent, or hypotenuse values of any building containing triangular structures. Here is an example in which architects use trig: Architects needs to find out how high a crane should be in order to reach a certain height of a buiding. They can find this by using one of the six trig functions.

Grades

Grade and slope are basically two interchangeable words. If you want to find the grade of a hill, road, or railway, you can use the slope formula. The formula for slope is rise over run. Finding the grade or slope of something is related to what we have been doing since the beginning of the year. In a right triangle, you can find the slope of the angle by dividing the height by the length of the triangle. To get the % grade, put the denominator as 100.
So what does it mean when you see signs with a percent grade on it? What if the sign says the slope of the hill, road, or railway, has a 9% grade? This means that for every 100 ft you travel horizontally, you will be 9 ft higher than when you started. The slope of this incline/decline would be 9/100. A 0% grade is horizontal and can easily be driven on. A 100% grade is vertical and is impossible to travel on.

Math Savvy

There are many reasons that America has lost its mathematical savvy. Education has changed over the years from moving slowly to moving quickly. Sometimes it is better to move slowly, understand a concept, and be able to use what you learned in your everyday life. I feel like math has particularly changed over the decades. With new technology such as the calculator and computer, our society no longer feels the need to teach basic skills. Kids know now-a-days that they can just punch a button on a calculator and get any answer they desire. Kids no longer have to remember their times tables. The problem with our society today is we have an attitude of "do as little work as possible without failing." Kids haven't forgotten the basic fundamentals of math because they don't care; they have forgotten them because there is no longer any need to learn them. 

We need to revive the basic fundamentals in kids. If this doesn't happen, we could all become brain dead and just know how to punch a button into a machine. Peace

Equality

This blog is a good example that although you may not enjoy doing something, you should give it a try anyway. Sometimes as your life goes along a persons personality and interests can change. I think the story shows us that math can be replaced with the roses and peaches. Although the character wasn't interested in the roses, the character cut them properly anyway. The reward was peaches. The character eventually grew to enjoy the memories of the roses and peaches in the following years. This is how we should approach math this year. We should be open minded. The goal of this passage shows us that if we persevere through math, the reward will be great.
I tend to have a neutral attitude towards math. If i understand the concept then I tend to enjoy it. If I get lost in a lecture or the material is difficult I tend to dislike it. I understand that math is a very important subject when it comes to getting jobs in the future. I also like to do well on Math tests because it makes me feel like I conquered the math instead of it conquering me.