This Week's Work : Week 49 - for Inquisitive Young Mathletes

Simon's Favorite Factoring Trick from AoPS

Notes from my blog

Now try this year's team round #9 using SFFT.

Review all the team round questions.

From Mathcounts Mini : Maximum Areas of  Inscribed Rectangles and Triangles

The boring algebra proof from my blog. (Oh, dear !!)

This Week's Work : Week 48 - for Inquisitive Young Mathletes

Tackling Problems with Vieta Section 10.4: Vieta for Quadratics Part 1 Section 10.4: Vieta for Quadratics Part 2 Section 10.4: Tackling Problems with Vieta Practicing Problems using Vieta's formula The Binomial Theorem

• Section 14.2: Introducing the Binomial Theorem   


• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 1


• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 2


• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 3


• Section 14.5: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 4

Casework Counting Part I 

Casework Counting Part II 

This Week's Work : Week 47 - for Inquisitive Young Mathletes

This week, we'll continue discussing this year's Mathcounts state harder problems. Please try these problems before our lesson. Review sprint round questions we went over at last Sunday's lesson, especially #18 to see if you can get that question right and fast the first try. The technique used for this question is very similar to the first explanation from this episode of Mathcounts mini -- more construction counting. Review Binomial Theorem and see if you can use the following concepts solving this year's state sprint # 28. (You can also use modular arithmetic, or mod.) Chapter 14: The Binomial Theorem

• Section 14.2: Introducing the Binomial Theorem   
• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 1
• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 2
• Section 14.4: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 3
• Section 14.5: Using the Binomial Theorem Part 4

Have a calculator ready for target and team round questions.

Take care and happy problem solving !!

This Week's Work : Week 46 - for Inquisitive Young Mathletes

Finally, this year's Mathcounts state problems are clear for discussions.

Check that out here !! We'll talk about those harder problems this week at our group lessons.

Please let me know how you did/what scores you got if you have followed this blog.
So far, there were a few states' top 10, 20, etc.. and two students I met online will go to the Nationals.

Some e-mails make my day and definitely make me more productive.

Thanks a lot in advance.

For this week's work :

If you haven't watched this video, do so this week.

Joint Proportion : In the video, three methods are discussed and as you can see, the last method is much, much
faster so try that to see if you fully understand the relationship now and can implement it on new, seemingly hard
problems.

We'll continue working on some rate, proportion questions (the harder ones) at our lessons besides reviewing and
practicing speed to solve other harder, counting/probability and geometry questions.

New Mathcounts Mini : Recognizing Squares and Solving a Simpler Problem

From TED Talk : The Magic of Fibonacci Numbers presented by Arthur Benjamin

This Week's Work : Week 45 - for Inquisitive Young Mathletes

From Mathcounts Mini : More Constructive Counting

See if you can use "sticks and stones" to solve the following questions (it requires a little twist).

Tossing 3 dice, what is the probability that the sum is 10 ? 

Tossing 4 dice, what is the probability that the sum is 10 ?

Tossing 4 dice, what is the probability that the sum is 18 ? 

If you want to try harder problems, check out this year's AIME II, 1, 3 and 4. (related to what we've learned recently)

This week's new links, working together, direct and inverse proportion, rate, time distance. 

• Section 7.1: Direct Proportion
• Section 7.2: Inverse Proportion
• Section 7.3: Joint Proportion
• Section 7.4: Speed Part 1*
• Section 7.4: Speed Part 2*
• Section 7.4: Rates Part 1*
• Section 7.4: Rates Part 2 - Work Problems*
• Section 7.4: Speed Problem Solving
• 
  

Take care and happy problem solving. 

Cheers, Mrs. Lin