Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Hazing in a math/science magnet program

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

It depends what kind of social life you aspire to in ten years time.  Math 
seems to be a very good indicator of future success.  So if you try hard 
in math today, in ten years time you will have a really great, well-paying 
job, and you can have all the fun social life you like.  Whereas if you 
spend your days today having fun, parties and girlfriends, in your later 
life you will be languishing in a trailor court and reminising about the 
good old days.

On Wed, 23 Sep 2009, Michael wrote:

> Math teachers always seem the worst about assigning to much homework.
> My current math teacher is actually a physics teacher and much less
> anal retarded than most math teachers but even he is a little out of
> touch. He says one of his assignments should take less than 30 minutes
> to do. I'm one of the better students in the class and they usually
> take me about 2 hours.
>
> I don't know about everyone else but I have four other classes that
> average around another two hours of homework a night. With school and
> work I'm busy from 9am - 9pm. So with homework I have 16 hour days and
> then have to squeeze in family time.
>
> Kids may not have to work but they still do sports, year book, etc
> which means they don't really have four hours a night for homework. As
> you said it even makes it hard to study on your own by working out
> those fun/challenging problems.
>
> One math teacher about a year ago told my class that math should come
> before any other classes, work, family, and that we shouldn't have a
> social life. Okay that is just a bit nuts.
>
> Thanks,
> Michael McGlothlin
>
> On Sep 23, 2009, at 8:50 AM, Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
> wrote:
>
>> It was definitely a challenge problem at the end of the homework. The
>> trick is that they are giving these 14 year olds a ton of homework, so
>> there is not always as much chance to savor or relish the challenge,
>> alas.
>>
>> jking
>>
>>
>> On 9/23/09, Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
>>> Mike Miller wrote:
>>>> On Wed, 23 Sep 2009, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Jonathan King wrote:
>>>>>> OK, so my son seriously asked for it. He got himself admitted to
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> county high school level math/science magnet program, which is
>>>>>> pretty
>>>>>> strong academically (as in: they just announced that half of the
>>>>>> senior class were National Merit Scholar semifinalists).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So for the first time in a long time, the subject matter is
>>>>>> somewhat
>>>>>> challenging. Here are the two most entertaining problems from
>>>>>> his last
>>>>>> night's precalculus homework:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1) [actually, the fifth problem assigned]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Find all roots of:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> (x+1)(x+2)(x+4)(x+5) = 40
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2) (This is very difficult.) Factor and find all roots of a^5 +
>>>>>> a + 1.
>>>>> So - after following Mike's advice and putting it into
>>>>> Mathematica - I
>>>>> found that it factors as (a^2+a+1)(a^3-a^2+1).  Solve the first
>>>>> factor
>>>>> using the quadratic formula, and the second using the cubic
>>>>> formula.
>>>>> (The cubic formula is a real pain, but first reduce the equation
>>>>> to the
>>>>> form x^3+Ax+B - normally this is done using a linear translation
>>>>> x=ma+n,
>>>>> but in this case it is easier to do x=1/a.  Then look for
>>>>> solutions of
>>>>> the form (u+sqrt(v))^(1/3) + (u-sqrt(v))^(1/3).)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mathematica does that for you too!  ;-)
>>>>
>>>> So how was this kid supposed to solve this problem?  Isn't he only
>>>> about
>>>> 14 or 15 years old?
>>>
>>> When I was 14 or 15 years old, I loved this kind of problem.  The
>>> point
>>> is this - if it was set on a regular exam, it would be extremely
>>> unfair.
>>>  But as a challenge problem, where the joy is in the trying as much
>>> as
>>> in the answering, it is totally appropriate.  If this were set on the
>>> Math Olympiad (which is meant for this age group), this would
>>> probably
>>> be considered one of the easier questions.
>>>
>>>
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>>
>> --
>> Sent from my mobile device
>>
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