Testing

Hey guys, Im testing out ways of putting equations directly into the blog

Let me know what you think

Top of the rollercoaster

500 C.E.


Metrodorus (c. 500)
Anicius Maulius Severinus Boethius (c. 480-524)
Simplicius of Cilicia (c. 530)
Anthemius of Tralles (d. c. 534)
Aryabhata (476-c. 550)
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (c. 480-c. 575)
John Philoponus (c. 490)
Varahamihira (c. 505-c. 558)
Isidorus of Miletus (c. 540?)
Eutocius of Ascalon (c. 550?)
Liu Zhuo (544-610)
Zhen Luan (Shuzun) (fl. 566)
Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636)

Hope you enjoy it, the last hurrah
For your assignments, write a couple lines about how awful the Roman Empire was.

Absolutely!

Ok guys, now that we know about absolute values, lets learn how to plot them on a number line.

Absolute Value

Earlier we talked about how to always think of absolute value as simply a numbers' distance from zero.

Now we will expand on this!

when are we ever gonna use this?!

For today lets just list the ways we've used math in our daily lives
This does not apply if you don't use money or computers.

Tools! For The Tool Box!

This is an important yet simple concept to grasp

http://www.khanacademy.org/v/absolute-value-1?p=Algebra%20I%20Worked%20Examples

An easy way to think of absolute value is to remember that when you are asked about the absolute value of a number, its asking how far away the number is from zero. So dont think of absolute value as simply removing a numbers' negative status.

GO GO!

Here is a good concept we'll need involving algebra

http://www.khanacademy.org/v/averages?p=Algebra

Averages is a tool you will most likely use for the rest of your life, whether its the average of your test scores to see how well you're doing or the average amount of money you'll be making in your new business.
The importance of this cannot be underestimated and its essential that you have a firm graps of it because things will get much harder going forward.

Timeline update

400 C.E.

Dominus of Larissa (fl. c. 450)
Proclus Diadochus (410-485)
Zhang Qiujian [Chang Ch'iu-chien] (c. 450?)
Zu Chongzhi (Wenyuan) [Tsu Ch'ung-chih] (429-500)
Eutocius of Ascalon (fl. c. 480)
Marinus of Sichem (Neapolis) (c. 480?)

The first two people on the list actually lived in the same region and developed a heated rivalry involving the works of Plato. When Proclus eventually won, Dominus left Athens and went back to Syria. You guys just dont know the fury of men until it involves mathematics!

Back into it

Here we go!
We are going to move further into equations, once you have a firm basis in this we can move on.
This is very critical to learn as we will need it when we begin graphing ::GASP::

http://www.khanacademy.org/v/solving-equations-2?p=Algebra%20I%20Worked%20Examples

Its time to step it up, please continue emailing (personal email) me any questions and I will continue clarifying further. We have a very good discussion going and it will get more complicated as we continue.

Bane

We need one more concept before we get back into algebra.
The following is what many students believe is the bane of their mathematical existence, this is what gave students nightmares before algebra: Lowest common multiple!

Round 1: Fight!

http://www.khanacademy.org/v/least-common-multiple?p=Arithmetic

Break is over

300 B.C.E.

Pappus of Alexandria (fl. c. 300-c. 350)
Serenus of Antinopolis (c. 350)
Pandrosion (c. 350)
Theon of Alexandria (c. 390)
Martianus Capella (c. 365-440)
Synesius of Cyrene (c. 370-c. 413)
Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370-415)

Alright class, final timeline update before we get back to to the really fun stuff!

Chinese contribution

200 B.C.E

Diogenes Laertius (c. 200)
Liu Hong (fl. 178-187)
Wang Fan (217-257)
Diophantus of Alexandria (c. 250?)
Sun Zi (c. 250?)
Zhao Shuang (Jun Qing) (c. 260)
Liu Hui (c. 263)
Porphyry (c. 234-c. 305) (Malchus the Tyrian, Porphyrius)
Anatolius of Alexandria (fl. c. 269)
Sporus (c. 280)
Iamblichus (c. 250-c. 350)
Xiahou Yang (c. 350?)

This is a golden era for the Chinese and although they wont make such large contributions as this in the future (so far) it marks a beginning where the Chinese never let up on their contributions to not only math, but science as well.

In fact, recent studies have shown a large part of scientifically peer reviewed papers being published now are actually Chinese.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-29/world/china.world.science_1_china-output-papers?_s=PM:WORLD

The article mentions how the US is still ahead, but that it may be reaching an apex. This is the price the US will pay for having a large portion of its populance remember the roster of their favorite sports teams or the cast of their favorite TV shows rather than the names and the contributions of great people.

Timeline Update

100 C.E.
Balbus (fl. c. 100)
Menelaus of Alexandria (c. 100 CE)
Nicomachus of Gerasa (c. 100)
Zhang Heng (78-139)
Theon of Smyrna (c. 125)
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) (c. 100-c. 170)
Marinus of Tyre (c. 150)
Nehemiah (c. 150)
Apuleius of Madaura (Lucius Apuleius) (c. 124-c. 170)

You may have noticed I am using B.C.E. and C.E, as in Before Common Era and Common Era
While its not new, its much more popular now.
Its good to move away from religion based historical periods, now while this change may indirectly still be linked to christianity its a step in the right direction.