(An archive problem of the week) A couple weeks ago, in discussing the value of estimates, I included one example of a (very simple) Fermi problem: one in which it is necessary to invent the data as well as the method of solution. Today, I will examine one answer in which we dug deeper into …
Sometime soon I will do a series of posts on word problems, which are a common point of difficulty with students. But here is one recent example from a high school student, where language was the main difficulty, but the algebra is worth discussing as well. We’ll look a little more deeply into the problem …
Previously, I discussed how to round a number to the nearest whole number [or tenth, ten, etc.]. I focused there on what to do when you are simply told to do it — what “round to nearest” means, and how that determines whether you round a particular number up or down. I also pointed out …
(Archive question of the week) Sometimes, we get a question that seems familiar, and can look back at past questions to see if we have already answered it, or to get ideas about what it means. This is the story of a problem that seems to float around as folklore, in varied forms. At first …