Sunday, April 28, 2013

B.O.B- Measurement

During the measurement unit, I was sick for most of the days in the beginning and we were introduced to secent, cosecant, and cotangent. This was all new to me. Although I was very familiar with the unit circle, going so much in depth with it was a bit of a challenge for me. So solving with secent, cosecant, and tangent was a muddy point for me because I was confused as to what they meant and what I was looking for, once I realized the theta value is what i needed, that made it easier, but doing all the algebra was very annoying to me, it really wasn't until the "more solving" paper came and we went over it in class that i finally got the concept and understood what those terms were and what I was supposed to be doing. I feel like if I hadn't been sick than that unit would've been a lot easier on me.




Sorry this was so late.
So far this class hasn't been going so well(obviously because this post is a week late). I remember at the beginning of the tri Mr. Jackson said that this trimester would be much easier then functions was, but so far it has been much harder for me than functions was. I really hope our second test goes better for me than the last one and that i can get my posts in on time. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

B.O.B. - Unit Circle

My Muddiest Point

Generally, this unit came really easily to me. Unlike most units of Pre-Calc Functions, I managed to maintain a solid amount of background knowledge from Algebra 2-B. My muddiest point however, similar to previous units, came with solving the trigonometric equations, particularly when there were sin/cos/tan/sec/csc/cot on both sides of the equals signs. Talking it out with Jackson was what gave me my moment of clarity, as it usually does. All in all, this was a nice unit and I'm very happy with how I scored on the test.

Unit circle

The unit circle that I learned how to find the point I always think cot and tan is same and reference angle I always does not know how to find it but now I get it.(-_-)zzz

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

First Unit in Precalc-Trig - Jacob Evenson

I didn't really have a tough time with the first unit.  However, I did enjoy re-learning the Unit Circle, because I had completely forgotten what it was, how to use it, etc.  Perhaps the most difficult thing for me was remembering that co-secant was the inverse of sine, not cosine.  The same was true with secant, where I kept thinking it was the inverse of sine instead of cosine.  Eventually I started remembering it, then everything became incredibly simple.  The only thing I'm not sure on is the clock problem, because I got that wrong on the test.  (Still need to ask Jackson about that, marking it on my to-do list now...)

BOB

this unit has been quite easy, but a little tough at times, the thing i had the most trouble with was secant, cosecant, and cotangent. It took me a while to learn how to solve them, but once I grasped the consept everything started to make sense, and I had no problem with the test on that portion.

muddy bob

I must say the most money point of this unit for me would be using radio.it took quite a bit of time after school in online to figure out how to work with radians to solve problems. I had trouble remembering how they corresponded with the unit circle. I spent quite a bit of time after school and online to understand radians. I'm also more self driven to ask questions when I'm unsure about something.

Monday, April 22, 2013

At a point of Reflection (bob#1)

It is interesting how time carefully erodes away our days. This last unit was not particularly challenging or difficult to understand, but my personal and social life definitely took it's toll. My participation in Indoles, the school musical, being co-in charge of my church's multi-area prom, early morning bible classes and working at Celebration Cinema took away a lot of my extra free time for homework and other such important activities. But of course I cannot fail to include that some of the days I had moments to do homework did not always consist of productive activity. After this first unit and watching my grades waver in the B+ range kicked me enough to remember my goal of being a straight A student and not let my last trimester as a senior look suspicious to my college. I don't want to be a good student or a good person, I want to be a great one. That requires work, and that's something I am determined to put into this next unit. Even getting the blog posts in on time. :)

-Annette

My muddiest point - Unit 1

My muddiest point this last unit was when we learned sec, csc, and cot. As soon as we began that part of the unit I became extremely lost. I looked over all the notes and tried my hardest to learn how to solve equations using these. It took a while for me to even partly grasp the concept. Towards the end of the unit I began to understand them more but not enough as my test score did not reflect my improved understanding. I would like to come in for help sometime to correct my test, but I have not found the time. Solving equations for sec, csc, and cot is the part of this unit that I will focus on reviewing the most for upcoming tests.

BOB - A Reflection

            As has been seemingly characteristic of my mathematics career, it's the little things that get me. Coming into class, I was pleasantly surprised to find that what we were to be doing over the coming weeks was an extension on what I had just done the trimester prior in Algebra 2B. Nevertheless, the content was challenging, but not impossible. Over the course of the four(five?) weeks of unit one, I was able to understand the core concepts of what we were learning, and am fairly confident in my ability to solve sine, cosine, tangent, cosecant, secant, and cotangent functions. That being said, I still got problems wrong on the test. Upon further review, one will see that the majority of questions I got wrong were due to the omission of a negative sign somewhere in the process of solving. I've heard many a man say something along the lines of "I can do complex mathematics; it's the simple stuff that trips me up". It is my philosophy that for every problem, there is at least one solution(math aside), and in this case the solution would be to pay greater attention to detail in the future.

                                              -Vance Wade

Reflective BOB

I'll be honest, this tri hasn't been going as we'll as I would have liked. I feel like everything makes sense in class but when I go to ask for help a world of understanding opens up. I remember one day you said this course was much easier than functions, I beg to differ, on the contrary this class is much harder. Hopefully I can get my act together and the rest of the tri will go better.

BOB 1

I had a difficult time solving in this unit, especially with a negative theta value. I just couldn't seem to wrap my mind around it. Mr. Jackson then told me it was like solving for x in algebra. That was seriously my lightbulb moment and it was so awesome! I also really enjoyed going back to the unit circle because it was my favorite unit in algebra two. I like how we were also introduced to secant, cosecant, and cotheta, because we didn't go that in depth in algebra two. I look forward to graphing all these functions too!

B.O.B #1

The first unit was quite long. I found the unit circle easy because I had previous experience with it. I used sin cos and tan in my career center to find an angle measure while reverse engineering a part. Arc length and sector area was pretty easy and enjoyable. All you had to do most of the time was plug in numbers to the calculator. I had fun with the equation portion was fun, depending on the equation it was semi easy, I liked how much each equation could very over just one number. Over all I enjoyed the unit, keep up the good teaching and thanks for reading.
-Devon

Sunday, April 21, 2013

my muddiest point

One of the things that stumped me was knowing the equations for the "other three". Throughout the unit it gave me alot of time to memorize which equation goes with which. To help me remember, I came up with my own way of figuring out how to set each up. When i look at cotangent i see the "c" and think "c" is for cosine, and then you see tangent which equation is sine over cosine and so for cotangent it is cosine theta over sine theta. To remember secant I look at "sec" in the word and recognize the "c" and know that it is (to help me remember) cosine. Knowing that it is easy to say the equation is one over cosine theta. To remember cosecant i looked at its other name "csc" and recognize the "s" and i think of sine. leaving the set up to be one over sin theta. Figuring all this out helped me alot throughout the Measurement and the Unit circle unit.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

Well I have had some prior knowledge to the sin, cos, and tan problems. I was comfortable solving the different equations in this unit, and understood the unit corcle very well in coorilation to the sin, cos, and tan functions. However i was a bit confused when we got into the reverse functions of csc, sec, and cot. However towards the end I was able to understand the unit  more and I understood  the test miles more than where I was at the beggining of the unit.

Interesting

What I liked about this last unit is how csc is the inverse of sin and sec is the inverse of cos.  "Some people just want to watch the world burn"---Alfred ....I know that there is probably a logical reason why the "c" one goes with the "s" one and vice-versa but I prefer to think about it the other way, and that brings me amusement.
My "muddiest point" in the measurement unit would have to be finding the sector area and sector length when they were involved in story problems.  It was really hard for me trying to figure out what we were suppose to find. Once I had it re-explained to me, then it was easier to figure out the problem. Now I am more aware of which one I am suppose to find and which equation to use.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point


So the previous unit was going off pretty strong. I was feeling confident with the unit circle, because I did really well with it in Algebra 2 last year. Then we got to the sin, cos, tan problems, which was so-so for me. Then came the sec, cot, and csc problems and that’s where I started to struggle. The area and length problems were easy to do as well but the clock problems and some of the story problems were difficult. So this week after taking the test I will be going in and making sure that I understand everything for future units, test corrections and the exam! But most importantly so it stops bugging me that I am not 100% confident in those types of pre calc problems! Also put more effortand practice into these problems now I know what type of things and how the problems range on diffuculty in this class!

Paige Miller

B.O.B. Muddiest point

I am going to be honest, this was the hardest unit of math that I have ever done. In previous math classes we mostly dealed with plain ole numbers and solving for X. This unit really challenged me to step outside my comfort zone. There were many things in the unit that I was having trouble understanding but the hardest part was solving the equations to find the radian measure of sin, cos, tan. I always started them off good but when it got time to solve for the stuff in the parentheses I had no idea what to do. If I messed up one step solving, my whole answer would be wrong. Also, when we had to add a period to get the answer in the range that made things more confusing. With the help of Grant I feel that I have it down better but I still need to practice.

yay bob yay

I was behind for weeks. Feeling still behind and defeated, on April 9th, we went over "more solving practice". While doing problem number 13 all together, I had an "ah ha!" moment.These problems had always been something i could follow along with but not do myself. Then something clicked while looking at the unit circle and I work on that problem a step ahead of Mr. Jackson's explanation. Some new way Mr. Jackson explained it, the wording all of a sudden made sense to me and I don't feel as lost as before.

Muddiest Point- BOB

When we were doing just the solving the sector length and area I was doing completely fine. However, once we started doing story problems with solving, I started struggling. For some reason I could not do the clock problems very well at all. I knew that to start, I had to split the clock into sections of pi/6. After I got this, I did not know where to turn next. I did not know how to split up the one section I needed to find. For example, if it was 8:45, I didn't know how to find what portion of the clock was between the 8 and the 9. After the problem like this on the test, I asked Mr. Jackson how to solve these problems and now I understand them very well. I now know how to solve clock problems and problems like them, and that makes me very happy. I would definitely say that this was my muddiest point in the unit, and I am very glad that I cleared it up.

Erin :)

B.O.B

This first unit of the trimester definitely had its ups and downs.  The muddiest point for me was solving.  I always made a mistake or forgot a step and simply could not find the right answer.  Also I struggled with how to determine the coordinates of many equations which made it even more difficult to solve.  There was not one specific moment that truly helped me to solve this problem just practice, practice, practice.  I had been going through work throughout the trimester but the day before and the day of the test is when the wheels started turning.  I still am not as confident as I'd like to be and won't be until I receive my test back but I feel a lot better than I did even just a few days prior to the test.  All together I felt that this unit was slightly easier, although still difficult, than the first couple of units in pre-calc Functions.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

I think the hardest part in the unit for me was when we had to solve the equations to find the radian measure for sine, cosine, tangent, etc. They were very time consuming and if you missed a simple step, you would have to restart. Also, when you had to add the period to get within the range, I had a few struggles. As I continued doing more practice problems with these huge equations I got the hang of it and can now say that I understand how to solve them.

B.O.B. Reflective Comment

At the start of this unit I was a little rusty on my math skills, considering that this was the first math class I had taken this year.  Once we progressed through the unit my math skills improved, and the problems we were working on became more natural to me.  I struggled periodically on some problems throughout the unit, but by asking for help I was able to gain a better understanding of what I was doing wrong, and fix it.  The concept I struggled with the most was probably the story problems from "More Practice" and "Around we go".  However, by the end of the unit I felt like I had a good grasp on the material, and understood the majority of the unit.

B.O.B. Moment of Clarity

When dealing with sec, or csc of a radian, I had no idea what was going on. I knew that I had to use the Unit circle for it, but did not understand how to use it. After staring at the circle for quite some time, and flipping the paper over to see how the Unit Circle was divided up, everything made sense!!! I then understood why at some points you had to go clockwise on the Unit Circle, and how far you had to go according to the denominator of the fraction. I felt so relieved at that point! Then I was able to use cos and sin to solve the problem. It was a fantastic moment right there :)

B.O.B - muddiest point

My muddiest point in this whole unit was solving and finding the solutions for sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, cosecant, and secant. I figured out how to do the short ones with one or two solutions but I had trouble with the harder ones. My problem is trying to find out how many solutions there actually were and which ones to use. I always seemed to use the wrong ones and had problems getting the right answers. I'm slowly but surely learning the steps to figuring out how many solutions there are and which ones to use.

Muddiest point

In this unit there were a few things I found difficult,  one was remembering the unit circle in radians. It got easier as the unit went on but I could never seem to remember the order.  Also near the beginning of learning cosine, sine, tangent, cosecant, etc. I always forgot if sin was "x" or if it was "y" (same thing with cosine).  But with all the practice in the homework I started to remember cosine was "x" and sine was "y".  Overall though this unit got easier because the homework was good practice before the test.

Muddiest Point-Nathan

My muddiest point in this unit cam once we got to the point where we combined the secant, cosecant, cotangent idea with the concept of transformations inside the parentheses with the theta sign.  It made sense once I finally slowed down to the point where I would figure out which pi value I was looking for.  Then I would set my equation equal to that pi value and could find theta from there.  The other idea that I struggled with was that there could be more than just two solutions.  This was an easy fix once I remembered to look  at the number in front of theta and multiply it by two to get the # of solutions.  The arc length and area of a circle seemed straight forward as well as the converting from radians to degrees(and vice versa).  As a whole, this unit made sense conceptually, the key was remebering the small parts of the process when solving equations. 

B.O.B - Muddiest Point

Coming out of Algebra 2 I found this unit fairly easy with a few new concepts, but mostly review. Secant, cosecant, and cotangent were a little confusing to me when they were first introduced but after Mr. Jackson walked us through a few problems on his dying projector and gave us plenty of practice problems to work on, the confusion was cleared up very quickly. My muddiest point of this unit was when the trigonometric equations became very long, more complicated, and they hurt my eyes to look at. Again, Mr. Jackson came to the rescue showing us how to do a couple of the problems and giving us a lot of practice solving those problems. The first couple of the complicated problems took awhile for me to finish but as I did more, I understood them and became quicker at solving them. It also helped me a lot to look at the answer keys on his website to know if I was doing them correctly; if I wasn't doing them right I could look back at my work and try to find the mistake or I could look at Mr. Jackson's work to help me get back on the right path. If I still couldn't figure it out, Mr. Jackson was always there to help. Mr. Jackon, you're the best!

B.O.B My Muddiest Point

My muddiest point was solving equations with secant, cosecant and cotangent. I could solve the equations once I got it converted back to tangent, sine or cosine but I was really struggling with getting it there. To fix the problem, I went back and studied my notes. One night while I was looking over things it just clicked. It made so much more sense. Part of my problem to begin with was with the unit circle. I kept mixing up the coordinates for the sixty degree angles. After review of the unit circle and practicing filling out blank ones, I had solved the problem and was able to move forward with solving the secant, cosecant and cotangent  equations. Also, with solidifying the last few points on the unit circle, it was even easier to solve sine, cosine and tangent equations.

B.O.B - Muddiest Point

This unit was pretty good but when it came to secant, cosecant, and cotangent it's like I couldn't find a way to learn them. Everything I tried to remember and get help from peers never quite stuck with me. I couldn't remember what each one meant, how to solve for them, and when to flip them. The Unit Circle was a good recap for me because I was coming straight out of algebra 2. Sector angle and area was pretty easy overall once you know what your doing. Still it all came down to secant, cosecant, and cotangent and that's what probably hurt me the most is not finding a way to remember how to use them. It's quite a nuisance because I love math and normally I find a way to do most things, so if somebody that maybe I haven't talked to could give me some pointers that would be great. This was my muddiest point for this unit.

Muddiest Point

During this trimester, I struggled a lot with rationalizing fractions. I don't remember ever learning how to rationalize in previous classes so being thrown into it was sort of difficult. On one problem I would understand what I was doing and the next I would be completely lost with it. Towards the end of the unit I sort of understood what I was doing, but I still never had a complete understanding.
The best part of this unit was dealing with the unit circle. Although I had to remember each spot, I became really good at using the unit circle, and that was my favorite part of this unit.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

During this tri I understood the beginning of the unit a lot when we worked with sine, cosine, and tangent.  When we moved into cosecant, secant, and cotangent is when I started having more trouble.  Even though I still understood the problems i was doing I started having more and more trouble in completing the problems the more complex the problems became. 
For me the hardest part of the Measurement and the Unit Circle unit was the packet Solving w/ Secant, Cosecant, & Cotangent.  I missed the day Mr. Jackson explained how to do those problems so when I got back I did not understand how to do it.  After looking how Mr. Jackson did the problems online, on his website and him doing a couple of the problems at school I started to understand it more.  Also with Allie's help I started understanding how to complete the problems.  Once I started understanding it more I could complete more problems, but some of the problems got complicated and I did not know how to do them again.  After going back to a couple of the problems again I understood how to do the harder problems.
By the end of the unit I understood how to do most of the problems.  Although I had a couple of moments where I needed clarity on how to do them, I still ended up understanding the unit. 

Muddiest Point

I have always enjoyed math and found that it came fairly easy to me, the concepts just click and I get it right away. Unfortunately, this can lead to mistakes on my part and missing out on information. I understand the unit circle very well and I am able to easily map it out and find solutions to sine, cosine, tangent, etc.. In the beginning, when we were learning about secant, cosecant, and cotangent, I found the problems easy to solve and breezed through them. However, when we got to the more complex problems, that changed. I started getting the wrong answers for every single homework problem because I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to finish the problems as soon as I could so that I wouldn't have any homework. I would forget to set the theta value to zero to find the solutions, use the wrong period or make simple math mistakes. To fix this, I simply slowed down and actually took the time to think about what I was doing and why. I asked Mr. Jackson many questions and thank him for always being patient even when I feel like I ask simple or too many questions. He helped me a lot because he doesn't just do the problem for you, he walks you through it and makes sure you know why he is taking the steps that he is taking. Because of this, I understood how to do the problems more after talking to him and found the right answers every time.

I also had a little trouble with the "Around, around we go!" homework. The problems in this packet were fairly straight forward and not too complicated but I just didn't seem to grasp the concept. I was taking the equations from the arc length and sector area sheet and only using those. I didn't quite understand how to change them to work with the individual problems and I got confused as to when I should use the radian or degree equations. After again, asking Mr. Jackson more questions, I began to understand the problems and soon saw how easy they were. Thanks again, Mr. Jackson!

Friday, April 19, 2013

B.O.B.- muddiest point

The thing that I found hardest in this class was solving the trigonometric equations. The first time it was introduced I really struggled with it. I think I understood how to solve the cosine, tan, and sin ones, but since secant, cosecant, and cotangent were new to me these were the ones that I generally struggled with. I could understand the algebraic part of the problem but when it came to adding cycles I was lost. I tried looking at examples online, but those didn't really help. I think what really help me grasp a better understanding on how to solve the functions was looking back at the examples we had already done. I wouldn't say I am at an expert at these problems now, but I think I know how to solve them.
Thu

Friday, April 12, 2013

B.O.B - Unit 1

When we started this unit I was confident I could do the work because I was really good with the unit circle in Algebra 2. However, I was over confident and started to get behind in my work because I thought I could just fly through the work. It is no surprise that I needed help for a while, especially when Secant, Cosecant, and Cotangent were added to the mix. It wasn't until I had engrained the unit circle into my memory that I was able to quickly solve the problems that I was presented with. Every time I needed a coordinate pair, I image the unit circle in my head and find the point I need. If we hadn't gone over the unit circle so much I feel that I wouldn't know the information that I'd need to in order to pass this unit.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Unit One- B.O.B.

        I have posted in the earlier blog and made significant blog posts. This time I will do so as well, and I hope to really bring something to the table. This first unit was about the unit circle, with most information presented as review from Algebra 2B last trimester. I learned new things along the way, such as sector area and length, but mostly I reviewed past material. Even though this unit was full of review, I still had trouble with remembering to find ALL solutions to a problem. I would find two problems and think that was all I needed, but it turned out I could have double checked to see more solutions were possible. I found a clever way to check for multiple solutions to cosecant, secant, tangent, etc. by looking at the theta value. If the theta   was had a three by it, then I could have 2 x 3 = 6 solutions. Or if the theta was divided by 2, then I would have 2 / 2 = 1 solution. This helped me through my problem, and I feel more ready for the upcoming test.

Posted,

Evo_3000