January 26, 2015 Physical Science
NASA took a serious hit in 2011 when budget cutbacks were enacted. The 2012 budget for NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) actually came out a bit better, according to The Washington Post: NSF funding will rise to $7…
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Pi Day is celebrated the last day of the second week in March because March 14 is the third month fourteenth day of the year and 3.14 is the most common approximation of pi. It was discovered by Archimedes of…
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Fractions can be difficult to work with since they are intimidating and have their own set of rules. Many students struggle in math classes because they do not have a good grasp on fractions. It takes a while for it…
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January 26, 2015 Physical Science
Stars are a ubiquitous feature of galaxies, where they live out a never-ending cycle of birth, life and death. This lifecycle is by no means meaningless though, and in fact contributes to the creation and dispersion of elements intricately linked…
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January 26, 2015 Physical Science
On Jan. 1, 1801, the largest asteroid and the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system, Ceres, was discovered by Giueseppe Piazzi in Sicily, an Italian Catholic priest and mathematician. Ceres was named after the Roman Goddess of growing…
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Division by 0… is a very harsh debate unto which should be interpreted as a very real possibility. Is it impossible, well, let’s see. Lets rule out the already “well, it’s an unimaginable idea,” along with, “it’s not a real…
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January 26, 2015 Physical Science
There isn’t a week that goes by where the news hasn’t announced another discovery of an Earth-sized planet revolving around another far-off star system. This is exciting stuff, and with the advances in astronomy, namely more powerful telescopes land-based as…
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The value of a teaching method is determined by the individual learner. Too often a new or different teaching technique is espoused as superior to others. I am a fan of manipulatives, having successfully used them with a number of…
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It is arguable that mathematicians possess the most intricate minds on Earth. Concepts that cause the “average Joe-on-the-street” to stagger at their importance are topics for the water cooler among mathematicians. The Poincare’ Conjecture is just such a topic. The…
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To this day, mathematics and architecture are close companions. An architect must understand his building materials and environment, and in the modern age such understanding is invariably measured in quantifiable terms. However, ancient structures also deliberately embedded basic mathematical principle…
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