Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

School year 2004-5, Term 3, Ninth week of classes, first meeting, Advanced Mathematics: I had written four sinusoidal equations on the board for the students to solve.

They weren’t paying attention though. They were looking out the window at the grass fire ravaging the area beyond the football field.

The alarm didn’t sound though until the fire spread to near the guardhouse and they broke out the fire hose.

We hung around the quadrangle for several minutes until we saw the other students and teachers streaming back into the halls and their classrooms.

I just told my class that the questions would still be part of their quiz in the next meeting, so they should try to answer them.

But when I tried solving them myself, I realized that a computer (particularly a graphing software), as well as a lot of trial and error. The first problem we tried to solve kept giving the cosine of a certain function as a straight line, despite the fact that all instincts said it was supposed to be a wave.

It turned out that we needed smaller intervals for our graph to see the whole function. Using integers, particularly when multiplied to pi, only gave the maximum peaks.

On an aside, my request to have our class moved to the Robotics lab to use the computers. I told the students we could still have the quiz on Monday, but without the last part I gave them.

We’ll probably have the graphing part using computers as a separate hands-on quiz.

In my mechanics classes, I gave them sample problems on forces and vectors in two dimensions and projectile motion.

The most difficult problems for them to answer were the ones where they had to use the solution of linear equations in two variables (in other words, two unknowns), because it forced them to recall their Mathematical Methods One classes, and they had to find which two equations to use to be able to solve for the quantity being asked. At least they already knew that most of the time the equation for constant velocity is one of the two equations they needed.

The second most difficult were the ones that required them to use the quadratic formula, although most of the time also, they just needed it from the equation for time in vertical projectile motion and thus could eliminate the negative value if it popped up.

Other than that the rest of the problems just needed direct substitution in the formulas with one unknown.

From the third day to the fifth day of the ninth week of classes, there was also the play that was put up by the college students.

But I’ll talk about that next time. For now, class dismissed.