Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason 
www.whyslopes.com - mathematics as an art and discipline, step-by-step  Parents: Help Your Child/ Teen Learn 
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||Définition d'une variable || Algèbre || Arithmetique || Logique ||La raison basée sur les règles et modelés||

Online Volumes (Book Orders)
1,  Elements of Reason.
1A. Pattern Based Reason 
1B. Math Curriculum Notes
2. Three Skills for Algebra
   Three Skills for Algebra
3. Why Slopes & More Math
 Avid Readers: Try Pattern Based Reason 
chaps  1 to  17  in  Three Skills for Algebra.
More Site Areas 
1. Solving Linear Equations  
2. Fractions Ratios Rates Proportions, Units
3. Euclidean Geometry
4. Analytic Geometry/Functions 
5. Number Theory
6. Calculus Introduction
7. Complex Numbers 
8. Quebec Maths Education  
More Site Areas 
9. Secondary IV(?) maths
10. Real  Analysis 
11. LaTeX2HotEqn:
12. Electric Circuits Etc  
13. Algebra, Odds & Ends, Etc
14  LAMP - Course re Design Plans
15. Math Education Essays
Teacher-Tutor Info & How-TOs
1. Arithmetic Reference
2. Algebra Starters 
3. More Algebra 
4. Geometry Starters
5. More Geometry
6. Calculus Modifiers 
7. Multiple Logics in Maths
8. Math Ed. Issues


  

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Have your gifted students read  logic chapters 1 to 5  in online volume Three Skills for Algebra  for greater skills & confidence in  work 
and study.

tell students to read notes and textbooks like a lawyer, so that no nuance, no subtlety and no clause escapes their attention.

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 Logic chapters 1 to 5  re- appear not in sequence, as is or longer,  in  Volume 1A,  Pattern Based Reason, Bon Appetite.

Logic Mastery
 Amazing, Amusing, Amorous,  Delicious, Delightful, Edifying, Strengthening Elixir. 
It eases work & learning difficulties Makes the hard easier. Opens eyes. Leads to greater precision.
in reading and
writing

Tell students that Logic mastery makes the hard, easier. Logic mastery  leads to better, stronger and richer comprehension.  Logic mastery  improves reading and writing.  Logic mastery ease learning difficulties.  Logic mastery gives a headstart.  In sum, logic mastery  will develops critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and give a firmer base for work and studies at many levels. Good luck.


After logic  (a) continue reading Three Skills for Algebra, chapters 8 to 14  and do so alongside site area on solving liinear Equations ; or (b) see this calculus starter lesson and Volume 3, Why Slopes  & More Math, chapters 2 to 6. In Volume 2, Three Skills for Algebra,  a 4th skill for algebra appears in Chapter 14. It provides a unifying theme for high school mathematics - equations and formulas may be used forwards and backwards, directly and indirectly, numerically in arithmetic solutions & with literals in algebraic solutions.

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Caution: Site advice is approximately correct, for some circumstances, not all. That leaves room for thought

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What may be learnt and when depends on how skills and concepts are developed. Making the hard easier and clearer will allow earlier & richer development of skills and concepts.


Try the Twiddla Whiteboard. In principle, it  allows to people to draw and chat together online on a copy of this webpage or a clean sheet. The chat may be via text or audio.  Visit www.twiddla.com to set up whiteboards to work with the webpage of your choice.

For online automated help in senior high school maths & calculus, visit  quickmath.com  For Automatic Calculus and Algebra Help with derivatives, integrals, graphs, linear equations, matrix algebra, visit calc101.com  With  overlap, each site quickmath & calc101offers a different range of services, some free, some not, all based on webmathematica. Good luck.


Chapter 11: Reciprocals Etc

Reciprocals of Whole Numbers. The division of the fraction [2/3] into 5 equal portions results in the same result as the product [2/3][1/5] = [2/15]. It can be easily visualized starting with 10 fifteenths of a pie or dividing each third into 5. The division of the fraction [2/3] into 5 parts gives the same result physically as 2-thirds divided by 5 if each third is divided into five first. Thus the division of a fraction by a whole number is easily represented.

 Reciprocal of Fractions. The reciprocal of a fraction R = [(p)/(q)] can be arbitrarily introduced to students as S = [(q)/(p)]. Then the identity

RS = p
q
· q
p
= pq
pq
= 1
follows immediately. It can be illustrated in examples.

Multiplication by Reciprocals. The number of times 4 pies goes into 11 pies can be obtained by dividing the 11 into groups of four and then counting them. The answer is two and a three quarter times, or the improper fraction [11/1]×[1/4] = [11/4] simplified.

The number of times 3 goes into 7 pies can be obtained by dividing the 7 into groups of three and then counting them. The answer is two and a third times, or the improper fraction [7/3] simplified.

The number of times 1.5 or [3/2] pies goes into 5 pies can be visualized by dividing the 5 each into halves, and then dividing the resulting halves into groups of three, and then counting the groups. The answer is then three groups with one half leftover or the answer is three and a third times. The third leftover is one third of a group of three halves. The latter gives the same result as [5 ×2/3] = [5/1] ×[2/3] = [10/3] = 3[1/3] as before. So division of 5 by [3/2] gives the same result as multiplication by the reciprocal [2/3].

The foregoing [4] inductively suggests that division by a fraction gives the same result as multiplication with the fraction’s reciprocal.

Now an answer to the question, what fraction when multiplied by [5/2] yields the result [2/3] is obtained as follows. Multiply the desired result [2/3] by the reciprocal [2/5] of [5/2], and simplify. The answer to the question is [2/3]×[2/5] = [4/15]. This may provide some motivation for the further or later notion that division and multiplication (thanks to the associative law) are inverse operations.

 



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Volume 1B, Mathematics Curriculum Notes,

 Foreword + Chapters 1 to 10 + 12

Book Entrance
Inductive Principles
1 Introduction
2 For & Against Math
3 Algebraic Thought
4 Why Slopes & SQRT of -1
5  Books & Articles to Read
6 Unruly Origins of Algebra
6. Axiomatic Civilization
7 Geometry, 2 Ways
8 Modern Instruction
9 The Two Ends
10 The Transition
10 Explaining Logic
10 Explaining Algebra
10 Why Sets in Math.
12 Four Phases
Links

Chapter 11: Primary School Mathematics

11 Primary Math
11 Cue Cards
11 Counting
11 Decimals - Addition
11 Decimals -Times
11 Decimals & Subtraction
11 Fractions and Division
11 Notational Conflict
11 Reciprocals Etc
11 Decimals - Ratios
11 Size Comparison
11 Numbers, +ve or -ve
11 Rename < Sign
11 Complex Numbers

Will provide an alternative to Chapter 11 later, most likely in the Parent's Area: Help Your Child or Teen Learn 

Most students in high school are not heading for calculus, but most topics in high school mathematics are present due to calculus.  Preparation for calculus demands their coverage at  full strength.

See too, this site 55+,  Math Education Essays. Site areas and pages provide pieces of the a Mathematics Education, Jigsaw Puzzle, in formation.

-Inductive principles for course design & delivery  require a clear description of where and how skills and concepts may rest on earlier ones, so that difficulties may be explained and remedied by looking for  what was missed or forgotten in earlier studies. 


Mathematics is a demanding subject. All errors in notation and comprehension need to be identified and corrected. In reading, spelling and writing, students have to learn all the letters in the alphabet, not just some. and memorize spelling. Anything less implies difficulty.

Likewise in mathematics, students have to master key skills and concepts, one at a time and one after another. Anything less implies difficulty.


Modern mathematics curricula introduced an inconsistency into course design and delivery. They did not sanction the use of decimals nor the use of diagrams in skill and concept development but decimal arithmetic and diagrams are needed for student comprehension and for an operational mastery of quantitative skills. That implies the need for an mixed-math curricula based on a systematic development of operational skills, sufficient for applications and sufficient to provide a base & context  for  the very optional study of pure mathematis.


 


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a 1983 McGill. Ph. D. in mathematics
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