Thursday, February 21, 2008

What did we do this week in class?

For the remaining weeks leading up to June, You will be assigned a summary blog of what was learned in class for your week. Be sure to include the specific topics, how to solve the problems, what was difficult, and what you found easy. Thus, it is a summary of the week and what you learned. Find links that will help to review your topic. Title the post with the topic.

If you can find a connection to the real world, include this as well. This assignment is worth 25 points. See the eboard for your week! Note: more than 1 person might have the same week. Both people must make an individual post. Your post is due by the following Monday night at midnight.

When it is not YOUR week, comment every other week on the post of the week. That is, every other week, you must read & comment on the summary, either adding details, asking a question, or making a correction. A "good job Bernie" comment is not sufficient.

Example: Week of February 18, Algebra 2
TITLE: POLYNOMIAL DIVISION
This week we learned long division and synthetic division for polynomials. Synthetic division is best to use when you are dividing by a binomial with a leading coefficient of 1. You place the opposite of the # with the binomial in a box, and line up the coefficients from highest exponent to lowest, putting in zeros for missing powers. Carry down the first one, then multiply by "the box", placing the product under the next column. Add down, and then multiply your result by the box, and so on until your columns are completed. The last column is your remainder. To write your answer, start with one less degree (exponent) than the original problem, and work your way down. I found this method easy, but you do have to be careful of your signs!
Look here for some examples.


Polynomial division is a little bit more tricky, but follows the same pattern as normal long division. What I thought was hard was remembering what step was next. I kept forgetting once I initially divided, to divide into the first term after I subtracted. See here for some examples.

Both ways of dividing help you to divide polynomials by binomials & trinomials when you cannot factor and cancel.

When you do synthetic division, it enables you to find another factor of the equation. Thus, synthetic division in the end can help you to factor, solve quadratics, and solve application problems such as tunnels, throwing objects in the air (parabolas) and other quadratic shaped functions.

2 comments:

Nikki said...

well.....i was woundering where to find the other bolgers post....???

jordanh said...

wow mrs.ditullo, i found that to be a wonderful summary of what we have been doing in class.