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X=X X2 = X2 2 X - X2 = X2 - X2 X(X-X) = (X X)(X + X) xX (X X)X = (X X)(X + X) (X X) (X X) X=X+X Let X = 1

1=1+1 1=2
Go to page 3 to see why this is wrong. Practice makes perfect!

M.U.R.D.E.R. That Test and other video links can be found on page 4.

Whats the secret? Dont be the last one to know! Hurry to page 5.

Math can be beautiful. Inspiration begins on page 7.

Use This Guide All Year Long

Welcome to Ms. Olsons Classroom. This resource binder has been created with you in mind. This year you will be exploring many different topics in mathematics. Sometimes verbal explanations, classwork and homework are not enough to help you understand the math you are working with. The resources included in this binder will give you some extra practice, but in a different way. Here is what you will find: Page 3 - Not Quite Perfect? Get Some Practice Here provides you with some manipulatives to help you understand what the math actually looks like. Sometimes understanding comes better when you can change numbers quickly and see the results without doing the math. Take some time to enjoy these pages. You will be sur prised how well understanding will come when you spend time playing. If you just want to sit and relax with a video, page 4 - Get the Picture? Visual Aids Just for You may be what you need. From how to study to the best way to organize your classroom materials, insights from teachers and students will get you on your way to a successful year. Check out Memory Tips for some fun ways to amaze your friends!

Slow and Steady Wins the Math Race - Be the Tortoise Not the Hare on page 5,
explains the best way to study for a test. You may be surprised. If you do not remember Aesops fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, it is provided for you on page 6. Finally, on page 7, math and art collide. This section is just for fun, but be careful you may not only learn something new, you may find that art and math is the combination you have been looking for; you just might be inspired to do something on your own. ENJOY!

Not Quite Perfect? Get Some Practice Here

(When you divide by zero, the universe is no longer the same and suddenly, 1 = 2.)

NCTM Activities
Algebra Tiles

http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activities.aspx?

Manipulating Algebra Tiles to Solve Equations, Substitute in Expressions, and Expand and Factor http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=216

Pan Balance Expressions

Investigating the Concept of Equivalence by "Weighing" Numeric and Algebraic Expressions http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=10

Two Terrains

Determining the Best Path for a Vehicle That Can't Go as Fast when It Travels Off-road http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=124

A Geometric Investigation of (a + b)2

Exploring an Interactive Demonstration of Why (a + b)2 = a2 +2ab + b2 http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=127

Exploring Commutativity and Associativity Within a Algebraic Transformations

Geometric Situation http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=193

Codes
Compound

Exploring Substitution Ciphers by Encoding and Decoding Text Messages Investigating Savings Account Earnings, Credit Card Debt, and a Stock Market Simulation

Get the Picture? Visual Aids Just for You

Memory techniques (M.U.R.D.E.R. That Test!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMmUBKwd7Nw

How to Get Good Grades - from an honors student. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em32FfoSUVo

Tips on Being a Successful Student. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lhzxuGZaI.

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More Test-taking Skills #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-bmMe5MF2w .

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Memory Tricks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulk9BCRA83Y

How to Take Great Notes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAhRf3U50lM.

Slow and Steady Wins the Math Race Be the Tortoise Not the Hare
If you do not know this story, please go to page 6

Its an aged old question, back to the days of the single-roomed school house How do I study for a math test? However, if this is the question you are asking, then youre asking the wrong one! You should be asking WHEN do I study for my math test? Just the thought of studying for a math test causes anxiety for many. Many subjects like history and science involve learning about topics that we can easily relate to as human beings. If Im studying the American Revolution, I can relate what Im learning to my life experiences growing up; If Im studying physics, I can relate it to events that took place in my soccer game. Math is harder to relate to. Sure, there are always story problems, but what kind of life experience do you immediately think of when you see the problem: 3.5X 6 = 4Y? Math is usually presented in a much more abstract format. So, it makes math much more challenging to learn quickly. Therefore, we need to train our brain in smaller increments over a longer period of time. Basically, we need to approach math in the same way that we approach developing habits. It takes 7-21 repetitions before a task becomes habit. So, we need to practice, and practice regularly, over a short period of time to turn our mathematical mechanics into a habit. So, back to our original questions: How do I study for a math test? Simple. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. If you dont understand how to do something, you MUST figure it out right away and get help immediately so that you can practice it the correct way and form it into a habit. You cannot learn math by just observing. Doing the problems is what trains your brain. Just staring at the problems and convincing yourself you know how to do the work does not lead to success. When do I study for a math test? Every day. Yes, I said every day. Dont think that this means that youve got an additional hour of studying each evening. It simply means, do your homework every night and review your notes frequently (i.e. at breakfast, on the bus, waiting for class to start, etc.). This will teach your brain HOW to do the problems from a habit perspective. If youre disappointed by the cold-hard truth of making math a habit, youre probably starving for some good news, right? Well, here it is. IF you follow this strategy of making math a habit, youre studying experience on the night before the test will be a breeze. Why? Because you will have virtually NOTHING to study! Yes, you read that correctly. If you practice your newly learned math objectives every day to the point of mastery or habit, then you could literally be ready for a test at any given moment. Therefore, theres no real purpose to spending significant amounts of studying the night before a math test. That being said, some people gain an added level of comfort by reviewing all of the math concepts that will be on tomorrows test, but this activity is really just building confidence and reducing anxiety, which is always helpful. So, what is the real lesson here? Slow and steady wins the math race, not the rabbit cramming the night before the test.

The Tortoise and the Hare One of Aesops Fables

http://childhoodreading.com/?p=3

Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone
else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: Who do you think you are? Theres no denying youre swift, but even you can be beaten! The hare squealed with laughter. Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet theres nobody in the world that can win against me, Im so speedy. Now, why dont you try? Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, to have a quick nap. Take your time! he said. Ill have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute. The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. Smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoises face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish line. At that very point, the hare woke up with a jolt. He could see the tortoise as a tiny speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and hed be first at the finish. But the hares last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the finish line. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiled at him and said, Slow and steady won the race.

Is art your Passion? The Beauty is in the Math

When Art and Math Collide
Web edition: January 16, 2009

An exhibit of mathematical art reveals the aesthetic side of math http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40017/description/When_art_and_math_collide By Julie Rehmeyer

PENROSE TILES UNDERNEATH Paul Stacy. www.pdstacy.com

This shows the pattern of the Penrose tiles at the center of Stacys artwork. Artist Paul Stacy made the joints between the tiles invisible when he painted it. Mathematics is beautiful: intellectually elegant, exquisitely austere and pretty. Yes, pretty. Like, pretty to look at. That aesthetic beauty was easy to see at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, D.C., January 58, which showcased mathematics research and also invited artists and mathematicians to come together to create a display of mathematical art.

THREE-FOLD SYMMETRY Vladimir Bulatov http://bulatov.org

The arms of each "starfish" polyhedron connect at symmetry points. A rhombic dodecahedron has the same symmetries as a cube, and this spot corresponds to the corner of a cube.

Paul Stacy, an Australian landscape architect, got seduced by the beauty of math when a friend brought him some ceramic Penrose tiles. The tiles dont seem like much at first glance: they can be one of two diamond shapes, either fat or skinny. But these tiles hold a secret. Put together according to certain rules, they form patterns that never, ever repeat, no matter how far you extend them. Even more surprisingly, they have five-fold rotational symmetry, so you can turn the whole pattern 72 degrees and it will look exactly the same. Stacy started playing with the tiles to make shapes of his own. He put together nine of the skinny tiles to form a yellow cross on a blue background, and then he did the same with nine of the fat tiles. These larger, nine-tile groups were each the same shape as the individual diamond-shaped tiles that made them up, so Stacy used each nine-tile group as a Penrose tile, following the construction rules of Penrose tiles to create a never-repeating pattern.

MONGES THEOREM Suman Vaze http://vazeart.googlepages.com

Suman Vaze took inspiration from a theorem in geometry for this painting. What emerged was a swarm of groups of blue tiles against a yellow background that seemed to swirl and buzz like a swarm of bees. Stacy discovered that the rules of Penrose tile construction meant there were precisely seven shapes the groups of blue tiles could form. Only long after he finished his piece did he find out that this discovery had in fact long been known by mathematicians. Artist and physicist Vladimir Bulatov builds his artwork like a mathematical proof. He began hisRhombic Dodecahedron I by pondering a funny, irregular looking polyhedron built out of 12 diamond shapes called rhombuses. Bulatov imagined replacing each rhombic face with a sort of four-armed starfish. Instead of connecting the arms directly to those of the closest starfish, he used the symmetries of the polyhedron to interlace the arms, forming an intricate knot. TREFOIL KNOT MINIMAL SURFACE Nat Friedman http://math.albany.edu/~artmath

This is the shape a soap film forms over the simplest knot there is, a trefoil. The symmetries of a rhombic dodecahedron, it turns out, are the same as a cube, even though the two are different shapes. Imagine, for example, holding the cube by putting one finger in the middle of a face and the other in the middle of the face directly opposite; you could then keep your fingers still, spin the cube by 90 degrees and have it line up exactly as it was. Your fingers were on either side of an axis of four-fold symmetry. You could do the same with the rhombic dodecahedron. Because a cube has three pairs of faces, the cube has three axes of four-fold symmetry and so does the rhombic dodecahedron. In addition, the cube and the rhombic dodecahedron have four axes of three-fold symmetry (if your fingers are on corners of the cube that are diagonally opposite) and six axes of two-fold symmetry (if your fingers are on edges of the cube that are diagonally opposite).

RHOMBIC DODECAHEDRON I: Vladimir Bulatov

Vladimir Bulatov took inspiration for this sculpture from an unusual polyhedron. Mathematically, Bulatov realized, it was possible to twist the faces 90 degrees and weave their arms to meet inside the figure at each of these symmetry points. The question then was: What would it look like? Im a visual person, but I can only rarely imagine my pieces before I make them, Bulatov says. I build them like mathematical relationships. For the first time, when I see them on the computer screen, its a surprise. I just have to see, does it have aesthetic value? In this case, the mathematical relationships resulted in an almost magical, twisting, interweaving knot.

SWARMING PENTAPLEX Paul Stacy www.pdstacy.com

The center of this painting is a Penrose tiling.

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Suman Vaze, a high school math teacher in Hong Kong, takes her inspiration directly from mathematical proofs. In Monges Theorem, she illustrates one of the more surprising results in geometry. Take three circles on a plane, any three you like as long as theyre different si zes and none is completely inside another. Connect each pair of circles with two lines that both just touch each edge of the two of the circles. Now consider the three points where each of these pairs of lines intersect one another. It turns out that the points will lie on a single straight line. Vaze found she couldnt get this theorem out of her head. It was like a bee in my bonnet, she says. I couldnt shake it off, so I started doodling. Her doodles reminded her of the Symphony of Lights, the enormous nightly laser show in Hong Kong, which includes lights from 44 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbor and is orchestrated to symphonic music Its out of this world, she says. She knew this was a theorem she had to capture in a painting.

TREFOIL KNOTS Nat Friedman http://math.albany.edu/~artmath

These three knots are different configurations of an overhand knot, called a trefoil. The usual, simplest configuration is on the left. Friedman used the one in the middle as the basis for his sculpture. She also loved the simple proof of the theorem: Imagine each circle with its pair of tangent lines as a slice of a cone. There will be two planes that just touch the three cones, and their intersection will form a straight line. The points where the original lines intersect will also lie in the intersection of the planes, and hence along that same straight line. Nat Friedman, a retired mathematician at the University at Albany in New York, finds intriguing shapes for his sculptures through mathematics. Some of the most profound questions in math concern the most humdrum, everyday objects, like knots and soap bubbles. Friedman combined these by twisting wire to form the simplest knot there is an overhand knot mathematicians call a trefoil and then dipping it into soapy water. A film formed across the wire, and he then carved this shape out of limestone. Viewed from some angles, it looks a bit like a yin-yang symbol. Mathematical art started for Friedman as a side amusement from his mathematical work, but it has come to be a central part of his life. Art, he believes, should be far more central in education. Learning to see is fundamental to both art and mathematics, he says. Whole new worlds open up when you can see better.

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Tessellations
Regular divisions of the plane, called tessellations, are arrangements of closed shapes that completely cover the plane without overlapping and without leaving gaps. Typically, the shapes making up a tessellation are polygons or similar regular shapes, such as the square tiles often used on floors. Escher, however, was fascinated by every kind of tessellation regular and irregular and took special delight in what he called metamorphoses, in which the shapes changed and interacted with each other, and sometimes even broke free of the plane itself.

Basic Tessellations

M.C. Escher
His interest began in 1936, when he traveled to Spain and viewed the tile patterns used in the Alhambra. He spent many days sketching these tilings, and later claimed that this was the richest source of inspiration that I have ever tapped. In 1957 he wr ote an essay on tessellations, in which he remarked: "In mathematical quarters, the regular division of the plane has been considered theoretically . . . Does this mean that it is an exclusively mathematical question? In my opinion, it does not. [Mathematicians] have opened the gate leading to an extensive domain, but they have not entered this domain themselves. By their very nature they are more interested in the way in which the gate is opened than in the garden lying behind it. Whether or not this is fair to the mathematicians, it is true that they had shown that of all the regular polygons, only the triangle, square, and hexagon can be used for a tessellation.

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(Many more irregular polygons tile the plane in particular there are many tessellations using irregular pentagons.) Escher exploited these basic patterns in his tessellations, applying what geometers would call reflections, glide reflections, translations, and rotations to obtain a greater variety of patterns. He also elaborated these patterns by distorting the basic shapes to render them into animals, birds, and other figures. These distortions had to obey the three, four, or six-fold symmetry of the underlying pattern in order to preserve the tessellation. The effect can be both startling and beautiful.

Regular Division of the Plane with Birds (21k)

Reptiles (62k)

Development 1 (59k)

Cycles (40k) In Reptiles the tessellating creatures playfully escape from the prison of two dimensions and go snorting about the destop, only to collapse back into the pattern again. Escher used this reptile pattern in many hexagonal tessellations. In Development 1, it is possible to trace the developing distortions of the square tessellation that lead to the final pattern at the center. Most of his symmetrical drawings can be found at http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/gallery-symmetry.htm

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String Art
http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/stringart.html

String art uses colored string, wool or wire to create geometric patterns. The 'string' is normally held between nails hammered into a base board. Multiple straight lines of string can form shapes ranging from simple curves to more complex designs resembling flowers, sailing boats, as well as others. The first recorded use of straight lines to form curves was by Englishwoman Mary Everest Boole (1832 to 1916). She used 'curve stitching' to make mathematical ideas more accessible to children. In 1909 Boole published a book called Philosophy & Fun of Algebra.

At http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/stringart.html you can learn how to make simple string art projects. Then, go to http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/icosihenagon.html to learn how to make this icosihenagon, below, which is a 21-sided polygon. It uses one long continuous piece of thread!