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Why do people think it ok to not know math?

also anyone who honestly thinks philosophy is about the meaning of life should probably get an updated definition
 
Maths is easily my favourite subject and I suppose I'm fairly good at it (although ugh new head of maths who thinks we're retards), but most of my class seem to think I'm incredible at it. :\
fairly slow lessons in top group =/= incredible mathematical ability, classmates

Also I worry for anyone who needs a rhyme to remember the quadratic formula--come on, it's not hard. I can partially derive it, but our teacher feels it necessary to write the formula on the board whenever we may need it, which depresses me.
 
Music Dragon said:
Well technically, isn't that what it's about? Understanding life?
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No, not really. Philosophy is pretty damn complicated, and yeah, somewhere in there existence is definitely discussed (see: existentialism) but saying that philosophy aims to find the meaning of life is utterly ridiculous. It's only one thing among many.
 
opaltiger said:
No, not really. Philosophy is pretty damn complicated, and yeah, somewhere in there existence is definitely discussed (see: existentialism) but saying that philosophy aims to find the meaning of life is utterly ridiculous. It's only one thing among many.
Click to expand...
Well, will you tell me what it's about then?
 
42?

Anyway, to have my say on the maths issue:

I always enjoyed Maths. It had always been a great subject between years 9 and 11. Before that it was okay, except in year eight when we had Mr. Smith. >:(

He was the most boring and sucky teacher ever.

Anyway, after he left, we got a new teacher and he was an /awesome/ maths teacher, if not a bit on the weird side. He had our classes attention the whole time, and we were able to joke around with him and stuff. We had our fair share of in-class jokes, particularly with one pupil who didn't understand that south != downhill.

He was able to present maths in a fun and interesting way to our class and often included pupils in some of the questions he set on the board. If your class had a teacher like that, there'd be no reason for your class to be smirking and smiling about how bad they are at maths when their grades are way behind the national average purely due to their own lack of cooperation with the lesson.

If your friends want to be twats, let them be. You'll be the one laughing when you're being paid a lot more than they are.

</probably already been said.>
 
Could you guys stay on topic? The meaning of life isn't exactly my idea of on topic but I have trailed off topic before but... . By the way you don't need to ask to find out the meaning of life. I have my own opinion but you should find it out for yourself.(Trailed of topic oops) Espeon your "cool" teacher sounds alot like one of my favorite teachers in Elementary school that I had.
 
If it's just a related tangent that developed into a new discussion, it's still on topic.
 
Eevee said:
"understanding life" is a sufficiently large umbrella that anything could fit under it
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*ponders*

...

Well, maybe so. I don't know. Still, everything I associate philosophy with - knowledge, truth, existence, love, whatever - is, you know, more central to life than, say, physics, literature, music... Still, I suppose "understanding life" is a bad choice of words.
 
given that physics concerns the rules which literally hold our bodies together I would say it's a bit more central than pontificating about the nature of knowledge
 
so guys

for what values of k is the straight line y = kx + 1 a tangent to the circle (x-5)^2 + (y-1)^2 = 9
 
opaltiger said:
so guys

for what values of k is the straight line y = kx + 1 a tangent to the circle (x-5)^2 + (y-1)^2 = 9
Click to expand...
any values of k where they intersect at exactly one point

with that in mind, substitute one in the other and solve as a system:

(x - 5)^2 + (y - 1)^2 = 9
(x - 5)^2 + (kx + 1 - 1)^2 = 9
(x - 5)^2 + (kx)^2 = 9
(x^2 - 10x + 25) + (k^2 x^2) = 9
(k^2 + 1) x^2 - 10x + 16 = 0

for this equation, and thus the whole system, to only have one solution, the discriminant must be zero

so

(-10)^2 - 4(k^2 + 1)(16) = 0
(100) - 4(16k^2 + 16) = 0
25 - 16k^2 - 16 = 0
-16k^2 + 9 = 0
k^2 = 9/16

k = ±3/4



remember kids check your work

but I'm not going to because I'm way lazy



also if you are interested in this but do not get it then fucking ask. I didn't go into painful detail because I doubted anyone would care and I don't think opal needed me to. don't glaze over and go SEE THIS IS HARD I DON'T GET IT that drives me crazy argh
 
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Soon French is going to be as dead as Latin.
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wait what

At least I'll know a dead language, then.

I don't think Chinese is going to be the next big language. Japanese was all the rage in '80s, learning it was supposed to be important because Japan would have liek teh bestest economiez evar.
Someone please name some... Chinesaphones outside of China that aren't obscure little countries.

Math... isn't that bad. I liked Geometry. It's too bad I forgot about it. Tanget, Sine, Cosine... all I remember is tan = side a/ hypothesis and then the others were variations of that. Whatever. Sine/Cosine/Tangent was an easy part of the class. For some reason, I hated volume and stuff. Algebra was a horrible class. I blame the teacher, students, and materal. ugh

I know math is useful, but practicing it is extremely boring. I despise going over math works. I'm learning about set theory and friends right.

History is extremely cool. Same goes for Language arts, languages (if only they weren't so hard to learn :( ), and some sciences.
 
Math... isn't that bad. I liked Geometry. It's too bad I forgot about it. Tanget, Sine, Cosine... all I remember is tan = side a/ hypothesis and then the others were variations of that. Whatever. Sine/Cosine/Tangent was an easy part of the class. For some reason, I hated volume and stuff. Algebra was a horrible class. I blame the teacher, students, and materal. ugh
Click to expand...

Trigonometric functions are trigonometry, not geometry. :( Also: hypotenuse. Plus tangent is opposite over adjacent so uh.
 
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