Oh, so now we're dealing with imaginary numbers, are we?
Today I found out that I need my bottom wisdom teeth removed. Instead of coming in right side up, like they are supposed to, they are coming in sideways and at an angle, so they are pushing up against my other molars. Also, the bottom left wisdom tooth is nearly on top of some sort of vocal tube thingy... So, on June 17, I'll have them surgically removed. I'm not looking forward to it, but at least the top ones don't have to come out (yet)!
In February my new story came to a halt. There was an aspect of one of my character's back story that I wasn't comfortable with and it kind of ground the whole story to a standstill. Well, the other day, I had an idea that clears up the back story problem, but allows me to keep the plot in tact too! Huzzah! Hopefully I can start work writing again. I miss it.
I have a summer reading list all written out, which I will post to my blog sometime next week. Last year having a reading list was really fun, and I can't wait to do it again this year! It features three biographies and I'm toying with the idea of adding a fourth...
I can't wait for summer!! And camping! And summer! And August! And reading and writing my way through summer!
Would somebody please give me a reasonable explanation of why I am doing these:
in math?
Will I ever use them? (A clue, no)
So why do I need to do them?
No doubt someone out there is thinking the logical answer: "To get through highschool, of course."
That's not reasonable enough for me.
If I am never going to use simplifying square roots, if I am never going to use a(2a+b), if I am NEVER going to become a mathematician, why in the universe do I need to waste my time on this stuff??
Why do I need to know stuff that I really don't need to know just to get through school so that I can go to college, get a well-paying job, save money, retire, and then do the things that I enjoy?
That isn't and has never been my ambition! It's my ambition to work in the church, write and read books, and have a big brood of kids if that's God's plan.
Why should I spend my time trying to understand things that I will never use in life just to pass the judgement of the secular norm with good results? Wouldn't it be much better if I learned to hone and use my God-given talents which will eventually become my career/life? Shouldn't I love learning instead of loathe it?
Imagine how much more kids would love learning if we let them learn what
they loved. Kids are surprisingly smart if you let them be.
Look at Mozart! He didn't go to school. He picked up his father's violin when he was four and never needed any lessons. He went on tour when he was six and wrote his first opera when he was 11. Admittedly, he died young and poor, but now he's one of the most celebrated and most listened to composers in the whole world!
Abraham Lincoln. He grew up in a log cabin. His family were very, very poor and he didn't go to school. Instead he read and read and read by firelight at night. Sure his lawyer firm failed, but then he became one of America's most influential and most recognized presidents!
I don't understand math. I never will. That equation up there about simplifying roots... that doesn't make any sense to me. I have NO idea why it works. But I memorize the formula so that I can get the right answer.
I'm getting a solid A- in math right now (or a B+, I'm not sure). That's good. Amazing actually, because I'm as stupid as a fish trying to climb a tree when it comes to anything more complicated than addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.
But is it worth it? Lately I have been getting so frustrated and angry during math that I scare myself. I always end up snapping at my mom who patiently helps me through math, and I hurt her feelings. I don't want to do it, but the anger just boils inside of me. I don't like hurting my mom's feelings. Because that just makes me all the more angry and sad. But I don't know how to control the anger... either it comes out in hurtful tones of voice or... I don't know. I've never let that side come out. But let me tell you, it feels something akin to this:
It makes me want to turn into a big green rage monster and go punch a hole through the wall. Or tear my hair out... or bite my fingers... or hurt myself or the house in some other way.
After my math lesson today I've been listening to this to calm myself down (because if my life was a piece of music after math, it would probably be this... or Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March or the Queen of the Night Aria from the Magic Flute):
Also, tears are usually involved during math time because I can't understand something, or even though I got the answer right I got the answer wrong, therefore making my answer wrong... and me having to do the incredibly long complex hard problem over again.
And don't even get my started on word problems...
One thing I love about homeschooling is the freedom to do things at your own speed. I don't understand something, we can spend more time on it, or come back to it later. We did this with addition and subtraction. I did not understand it. At all. I couldn't grasp the concepts. So we waited a few months. When we started it up again, I understood it and was able to get through it.
If I was in school, I would have been forced to continue doing it without understanding, and probably would have gotten horrible grades (and there would have been many, many more tears... and I would have probably ended up hating learning as a result).
Some homeschoolers abuse this privilege and use it as an excuse to forgo doing schoolwork (aka being lazy. I don't condone laziness). I think that's what people (in the real world) would assume if I told them what grade of math I'm in.
Since this isn't the real world, I have no problem shouting to everyone:
I AM SEVENTEEN AND A HALF YEARS OLD AND STILL IN ALGEBRA ONE AND PROUD OF IT! I'M NOT LAZY! I'M JUST WASN'T CUT FROM THE SAME COOKIE CUTTER! YOU WEREN'T EITHER, BUT SOCIETY TELLS YOU TO BE THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE!
So the other night I touched on the awfulness of editing... Now I'll mention one of the fun parts.
It's great to go through with mom not only because she's super helpful, but also because we laugh a LOT. We'll come across a funny scene and both burst out laughing... Or we'll come across some horrible sentence that makes absolutely no sense or some bad typo and we'll laugh and laugh and laugh...
There's lots of fun times.
BREAKING NEWS!
Abbey is using math in the real world!
My mom and I did 27 pages of After the Twelfth Night in an hour and a half. I was curious to know how many hours it would take for us to finish editing. We're on kind of a tight schedule because I'm sending for my trial copy on Monday and we have to get through the rest of the book before then...
Well, I did a quick calculation and put my findings into an algebra problem! O_O And I came up with the right answer! I can't believe it! Math is actually helping me in the real world! Before, I was always skeptical about how math (beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division - the easy stuff) would help me in the real world... Now I know.
So here's my equation:
We have 216 pages left to do, and so far today, we've been going at a rate of 27 pages every hour and a half.
Turning that into an actual problem... (I couldn't find a division sign, so pretend that the dash means "division")
216/27 = 1 1/2x
I'll give you a minute to figure it out for yourself, if you are so inclined...
Now here's the process and the answer:
To simplify the above problem, you divide 216 by 27, which comes out to 8. Then you make 1 1/2 into an improper fraction and you're ready to solve. The equation now looks like this:
8 = 3/2x
Next, we have to get x by itself, so we take 3/2 by its reciprocal (2/3). And what you do to one side, you have to do to the other... So you take times 2/3 which comes out to:
16/3.
Finally, divide 16 by 3 and you get...
5.33333333... (and the three's go on forever).
So, it will take my mom and me 5.3 hours to finish this edit, if we continue to do 27 pages per hour and a half (she says it's 18 pages per hour... but I haven't figured out how she got to that).
To make the equation even more complicated, you could add in that we have two days to get these 216 pages done... But I don't want to figure out how that works.
Mind you, I still see most word problems like this:
I haven't completely gone over to the dark side. I'm just happy I could figure this out!
