Student-Led Conference Blog

This nine weeks, I have learned many useful and exciting math skills. At times, it seemed hard and stressful, but I managed to pull through. I’ve learned how to add and subtract negative numbers, aswell as multiplying and dividing. There’s a simple rule multiplying and dividing. (If you’re multiplying or dividing by a negative, the number’s negative. ex: 7 * -7 = -49)

Now, performing the distributive property and combining like terms using the distributive property, was a little challenging, but I also pulled through on this. I would show an example, but it’s easier just to solve a problem on Khanacademy. (which I will do if needed)

I also can evaluate positive, zero, and negative exponents. (ex: 7^3 = 7 * 7 * 7 = 343)                                 With negative exponents, you just flip the number. (ex: 7^-2 = 1/49)

I can simplify expressions using exponents aswell. (Again, it would be easier just to show on Khanacademy.)

In Conclusion, I have learned many useful skills in Math this nine weeks. Overall, math is pretty fun and easy. Even though it is easy, I do need to practice and keep my brain sharp. I believe I deserve a B for these nine weeks, just because I could have put some extra effort in (practicing at home) if I wanted to.

~Tommy

Properties of Exponents

Hi guys, Tommy here again. Basically I’m making this post to help people that don’t know how to work with exponents.

First of all, if the number is the same as the one you’re multiplying, you will just add the exponents.

x^7 * x^4 = x^11

If you’re diving, you will just subtract the exponents.

x^6 / x^3 = x^3

And finally, if you’re taking an exponent to another exponent, you’ll just multiply.

(x^7)^2 = x^14

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions ask below. Hope I helped!

 

Approximating Square Roots

Okay, so this might seem kinda challenging at first.. Sometimes it is, but I’m here to help. First of all, if you have to find a square root, you want to find the two closest whole number square roots. Let’s use the number 50 for example.  You’d find the smallest, but closest whole number square root to 50. That’d be 49, because 7×7=49. Then, the same for the other side. 8×8=64. So, then you need to decide if it’ll be closer to your smaller or larger number. In this case, it’s closer to 7 because 49 is only 1 away from 50. Once you do that, you’ll have to play around with some decimals. Since it’s closer to the smaller number, we know it’ll be under 7.5

I’ll try 7.1 since it seems close to 50. 7.1×7.1=50.41 This was a pretty simple one, but let’s say we had 52 or something. You’d still keep the numbers 7 and 8, but you’d change the decimal. It’s obviously not going to be 7.1, but you can try 7.3 If that’s still not close enough, you can try 7.4 If you’re number’s bigger than 52, then you’d want to go down a number on the decimal part. (ex: if 7.3 was bigger, you’d try 5.2)

Hope I helped, if you have any questions just comment below.

Hey!

I guess this will be my first post. I’ll just be talking about my experience with our most recent test, not that any of you really want to read about it. To be honest, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers is pretty easy. Also, if you guys didn’t know, if you’re multiplying/diving 2 negative numbers, the outcome will be a positive. If it’s a negative and a positive, the answer will always be negative. I used Khan Academy to practice. It’s very helpful considering there are many in-depth videos on multiple math subjects. If you need anymore help with negative numbers, you can comment below and I’ll answer asap.

Hope this helped!

~Tommy