Alternatives

Too Much Guessing?

Today we’ll look at a question from a student who was troubled by the amount of guessing needed to solve certain problems. This leads to an interesting survey of different kinds of guessing, and ways to develop that skill.

A Triangle in a Semicircle

(A new question of the week) Like many questions we get, this one can be solved in many ways. We like to guide a student to whatever solution will fit what they have learned; along the way, we may find various additional methods, and side trips into other topics of interest.

Equivocal Function Transformations

The last two posts were about transformations of functions (shift, stretch, reflect) and their effect on a graph, first individually and then in combination. The next thing to look at will be how to determine the transformations when you are given a graph; but before we take that challenge in general, we need to see …

Equivocal Function Transformations Read More »

Finding the Range of a Tricky Rational Function

I previously wrote about finding the range of various kinds of functions. The examples there were relatively easy. A recent question raised the level of difficulty, bringing up some interesting issues.

Tangents Without Calculus

I always like solving advanced problems with basic methods. For example, many problems that we usually think of as “algebra problems” can be solved by creative thinking without algebra; and some “calculus problems” can be solved using only algebra or geometry. Using simple tools for a big job requires more thought than using “the right …

Tangents Without Calculus Read More »

How Many Different Meals Are Possible?

(An archive question of the week) While gathering combinatorics questions, there were several that stood out. This one will serve well to summarize the topic, showing multiple methods for counting, and contrasting other kinds of problems.