Our blog assignment for Math Monday today required research. Our assignment was to find out the cost of a 12-pack of cans of Mountain Dew and the cost of a 2-liter bottle of the same soda. Then we had to explain why which one was the better deal and apply principles about decimals we learned in Math class.

What I found out was that the 12-pack of soda cost about $1.99 and that the 2-liter bottle cost around $1.50. Keep in mind that prices of certain items go up and down frequently due to sales, tax, and whatnot. These were based on average and what Google could tell me since I haven't purchased Mountain Dew in a while.

This is where our math standards come in. Each can of soda in a 12-pack is about 12 oz whereas a 2-liter bottle is about 33.8 oz. We need to divide to find something of a unit rate and then compare our results. You'd find that the 12-pack accumulates to about 144 ounces of soda for almost 2 dollars and the bottle was about 34 ounces for $1.50. The first proportion simplifies to 72 ounces for 1 dollar and and what would be 41.8 or so ounces for 2 dollars -- with a unit rate of just over 20 ounces for 1 dollar, it's clear that the 2-liter bottle is the better buy.

Happy New Year! Today is our first day back from winter vacation, and it is also the first day of the spring semester! As such, our Math Monday blog assignment for today was to reflect on a concept we learned during the first semester (quarters 1 and 2) that we remember most, and give evidence that suggests that we remembered it clearly and properly.

One of the mathematical concepts that I remember learning about most clearly was probably the Pythagorean theorem in quarter 2. My dad is a math teacher and I remember going into his class when I was in the 3rd grade. He was teaching his students about the Pythagorean theorem and I copied it down as a joke. At the time all I had written looked like a scribbled, unintelligible mess, but now I know what the Pythagorean theorem is and especially how to relate it to real-world situations.

At first I was confused about how exponents tied in to the number formula and how it had anything to do with triangles and geometry. I was always told that triangles had 180 degrees and anything that had to do with finding lengths of triangles required that knowledge. Now I know that that is incorrect -- the Pythagorean theorem is used to find the lengths of the sides, not the measures of the angles, in a triangle. Learning about the Pythagorean theorem taught me how to think outside the box as far as triangles go. The Pythagorean theorem is an excellent example of how exponents and square bases can be handy in real life. 

As I mentioned above, the Pythagorean theorem is a good example of how math lessons relate ro real life because until this year, I never saw use for math. Although I don't think it's the most important thing we need to be necessarily set in the real world, a lot of geometrical concepts are useful in adult daily life. This is why I'm excited to learn more about geometry. This learning of the Pythagorean theorem and reflecting about how it relates to geometry and exponents calls back to my sixth grade year, when my teacher explained in essence to her class how the California educational standards work -- concept upon concept until all of our knowledge ties into itself. I like the way we did this during semester one at Computech.