Uses for parabolas

Well. I think that there are many uses for parabolas. Not just as trick questions on a test, but more legitimate, real life experiences. For instance, did you know that every time a dancer jumps, a parabola is made? They start on the floor, take off, sail through the air and come back down . If you could find the apogee of the jump and any point on the line if the jump, you would be able to determine the shape of the parabola and weather it was a vertical shrink or stretch. The higher the jump, the shorter the length of the parabola would be. If the center of the stage is (0,0) and a vertical and horizontal lines are "drawn" to form the Cartesian plane, the dancer(f(x)) leaps  two feet to the left of center, but still on that horizontal line, by accident, the equation of the dancer's jump would be dependent on the height, but the function form of the jump is f(x)= (x-2)2. 

                                      

Parabolas are in all sports. Everyone knows that the person jumping, diving or falling is making an arc, but only smart math geeks like us recognize that it isn't just arcs that are made, but  negative parabolas (concave down). 

Recycled fashion show

Every year Academy put on a "Trashion Fashion" Show. This is to show that fashion doesn't have to be just store bought items. Kids and adults alike make functional items, art pieces and clothing from recycled materials. This year i made three...well actually 5 items.

I made a dress and purse solely from playing cards tied together by yarn.

I also made wedges from my sister's old swimsuits, used firewood, the inserts to a pair of pointe shoes and extra plastic sewing mesh.

I made a 60's style dress based on the Monkees Video of "Cuddly toy" from an old sweatshirt and pop tabs for Sara. This is my favorite.

Then I made a flapper dress for my friend Molly from an old tee shirt and toilet paper tubes.

Aren't they cool?!?!?!?!

I also got First Place ($100) for my playing card dress.

Why do we have to learn math?

I know that many people are wondering why we have to learn math skills if we are going to go into a profession that doesn't need math. Why did we have to spend a year in geometry and even longer in algebra? Some professions actually use math on a daily basis. Like my dad's job involves him scratching really complicated math equations onto the yellow legal pad. I really have no idea as to what the chicken scribbles or how that helps but my dad is changing the world by using math.


My dad used math to write a soldering handbook. Trust me: it doesn't make for a very good bedtime story...

My mom is a stay-at-home mom. She cooks and cleans and takes care of us kids and she sews. The cooking involves math because if she wanted to make 1.5 of a recipe, she would have to use ratios to figure out how much of the ingredient to use in the new recipe. It is nice to experiment and see what happens, but if this is the first time she is trying that recipe, experimentation is probably not the best choice. You want to see what happens with the original recipe before you experiment with the ingredients. If it takes her to clean the house 6 hours by herself, how long does it take to clean the house if she has one daughter helping? 2? 3? So you can do a word problem to see how much time she saves with her daughters help clean the house. You can also make a word problem out of a simple trip to the store. Like if each daughter wants "x" amount of candy bars and you have a limited budget, how much can each daughter get? The final way that math is helpful in every day life (well... my mom's life)is in sewing. You have to use geometry when sewing. The triangle, for this specific pattern to work, has to have the biggest angle to be 90* with the sides to be a certain size. If she wants to make "X" sized quilt out of just these triangles of fabric, how many would she need? First she would find the area of the triangle and the area of the quilt. Then she would multiply the area of the triangle by a number that gets it very, very close to the area of the quilt with seam allowance included. Then you sew them together and you've got a quilt.


My point exactly...

Math isn't just another subject that you are required to take in school and you only go to the class because you have to. It is the foundation of our society, as much as we hate to admit it.... It solves problems of the world...much easier than trying to fiddle with it. If you take math class with a good attitude, you are likely to go far in life.

Tribute to the Beatles and the Monkees

I have a small tribute to the Beatles and the Monkees, my two favorite bands of all time. The first one is a piece that I made in Art class. I made a Yellow Submarine! Well, and 2 others to finish off the look if the "tri" idea. A triangle holds up the 3 pieces. Yeah...you get the point.

You can see the other 2 pieces in the background. Sorry the sub is the wrong way, but here is my piece that I dedicated to the Beatles. 

The second thing is a video I made and posted on You tube. I drew all the pictures except the picture on the song "Goin' Down." I chose my favorite song sung by each Monkee and made it into a video. Hope you like!

The third thing is now finished. I made a sculpture with my Beatles hat, and the Monkees logo. I made the sculpture look like George and Mike. My egg man is for the Beatles, because I am the Walrus. Goo Goo G'Joob!

I finally got my Beatles Vans!!!!!!

Pascal's triangle

  

First off, let me say that Pascal's Triangle is not a musical instrument.

Second of all, Pascal's Triangle will blow your mind. I hope.

Pascal's triangle has many patterns. First if you add all the numbers in the row together, you get the powers of 2. The first row would be 2 to the zero power which is equal to 1. Any number with the power of zero is equal to one. Then the next row has 2 to the first power, so that is equal to 2. And the pattern continues down the line. Another pattern with Pascal's Triangle is toe powers of 11. The first 5 rows are pretty explanatory, while any row after that gets somewhat confusing. The first row is the answer of eleven to the zero power. The second row is the answer to 11 to the first power, which is 11. Then on the 5 row, eleven is raised to the 4th power and that is equal to 14641. The pattern goes on from there.

Another pattern on Pascal's Triangle is if you go down to the second row and look at the second "one" going down diagonally to the left, you will notice that the entire set of counting numbers is there is counting number order. And the diagonal row below that is the triangular numbers. Triangular numbers are the numbers that can be formed by making a triangle. If you ever wanted to organize objects, you would put one on the table and the center of the first object would be above the point where the bottom two objects touch. Then you would have 3 objects. You would continue doing that until you got bored or just ran out of objects. Another way to use the pyramid idea is in swimming. You would start off with, say 200 yards, then a rest. Continue on to 100 yards, rest. Then split the previous length in half and swim that. That is in a way, like triangular numbers. Because there is more on the bottom than on the top, it ends up looking like a triangle, even if the total lengths don't add up to exactly the triangular number.

So I just ranted about Pascal's Triangle for some time now, right? Well.......he actually didn't come up with this idea. The Chinese mathematicians came up with the idea of organizing numbers long, long before Blaise Pascal even was born. The Chinese organized the numbers into a right triangle and Pascal organized it onto an isosceles triangle. That's why he gets the credit: it was different than the old way of doing it.

I felt that the blog needed some laughs. (Self explanatory)

The Beatles...50 years ago!

Today is February 9, 2014. What do you know about this date? Just the February 9th part. Maybe your Auntie Grizelda was born today or your estranged cat died on this date 5 years ago or was it the fact that the first Boeing 727 took off from a runway in 1963 or better yet...the greatest band of all time was introduced to America in 5 words: “Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!!!” (Ed Sullivan on February 9 of 1964. ) Yes I mean it. If they had never come to America, the world of music would still be hopelessly lost to Tommy Dorsey and Perry Como, (not that they are bad or anything). With just those five words for an introduction, they became the greatest and best band  that America and the world had ever heard. These four young boys from Liverpool became the subject of the Times! (That reminds me of a joke: What do you call Liverpool during a drought? Liverpuddle! Sorry for the humor.) 

If you look at the calendar for February of 1964, you will notice that The Beatles got introduced to America exactly 50 years ago! Like exactly to the day. I don't know the time, but these young men shaped the world of music, controversy and politics. 

The sound of The Beatles was NEW, UPBEAT and DIFFERENT. That is why the kids liked it. 

They also created a huge uproar with their album Abbey Road. Why you might ask. If you listen to the Beatles a lot like me, it seems like a “duh” sort of answer. If you don’t really listen to the Beatles, then here is the answer. Abbey Road was the start of the “Paul is dead” rumors. John was in white to symbolize the preacher/priest. Ringo, in black represented the embalmer/undertaker. Paul was dressed in a business suit and barefoot because people thought that shoes weren't needed in heaven. George is in jeans to symbolize the grave digger: didn't want to get a suit dirty by digging the grave. There is a licence plate that says “28IF.” That was to mean that Paul would have been 28 if he lived and if you connect the dots on the back of the album it makes a 3: 3 remaining Beatles. Paul said after the release of the album that it wasn't true and he was alive and healthy, thank you very much! 

Yeah: Lots of unrest among fans. When John was with Yoko, they had many political views together. But to make a long story short, John was killed by something he strictly opposed: violence. The Beatles were the greatest band of their age and of today as well.

I Referenced stuff. See below for pictures.

Abbey Road Blanket

Sorry that it is so short. But it has the five words that helped kick start Beatlemania in America!

Pictures of my TV and the CBS special:

Math Humor!

A classic I love and that never gets old!!!

 As a dancer I think that this is cute. The little arms are the graphs of the given values.

We learned how to find the volume or a cylinder this year: V=πr²h. 

Now I really don't know it that is true....

Reducing the given statement, you get six! But n can't equal 0!

Since we learned about roots of numbers, here is the root of evil.

Yeah!!!!

The proper way to use math!!!!!!

The best of math jokes: apple pi.

Never miss an opportunity for practice...when you have a little extra time....

I don't think that a mathematician named this state.

 

Now I know!!!!!

The final one:

This is one of my favorite Beatles songs. I just thought that it was cute.