How to get high school students to do math

I came across this post on 9GAG recently. Was amused initially, then became sad.

My brother teaches high school math. This is how he gets his students to pay attention

image

Note by Calvin Lin
5 years, 9 months ago

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

• Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
• Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
• Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.

MarkdownAppears as
*italics* or _italics_ italics
**bold** or __bold__ bold
- bulleted- list
• bulleted
• list
1. numbered2. list
1. numbered
2. list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1paragraph 2

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

[example link](https://brilliant.org)example link
> This is a quote
This is a quote
    # I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
# I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
MathAppears as
Remember to wrap math in $$ ... $$ or $ ... $ to ensure proper formatting.
2 \times 3 $2 \times 3$
2^{34} $2^{34}$
a_{i-1} $a_{i-1}$
\frac{2}{3} $\frac{2}{3}$
\sqrt{2} $\sqrt{2}$
\sum_{i=1}^3 $\sum_{i=1}^3$
\sin \theta $\sin \theta$
\boxed{123} $\boxed{123}$

Sort by:

- 5 years, 9 months ago

Germans know how to have von

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Posts like these really makes me sad.....Marie Curie used to say "If you want to lead a happy life attach it to goals instead of people"...But sadly most people these days after the popularization of the social media do the reverse.....But on the brighter side educational websites like Brilliant are inspiring the young generation to travel in the right path and surely one day most people will be doing the right thing by helping others and also by pushing the frontiers of human knowledge instead of wasting time on people who are famous for being famous.......

- 5 years, 9 months ago

In 2 mins K's fan following increased by 28

in 2 mins J's following increased by 21

so 7 gap of 7 followers is filled in 2 mins

at 9 AM gap to fill of 1835484 followers

so gap will be filled in 262212 minutes

I am not so good at calculus but I think this will work

- 5 years, 9 months ago

No calculus required - only slopes and lines

- 5 years, 9 months ago

I don't like people who always ask how math is used in real life. I will present this.

- 5 years, 9 months ago

It will be 524433.1 minutes after 9am

- 5 years, 9 months ago

I might be impressed when typical teenagers actually use math to solve this. They would start seeing that math is not just doing what teachers say, but knowing what they're doing.

- 5 years, 7 months ago

Nice

- 5 years, 4 months ago

- 5 years, 9 months ago

Ha, so true!

- 5 years, 9 months ago

No

- 5 years, 9 months ago

For simplicity, call 'em J and K. in 2 minutes, J got 21 followers, K got 28 followers. So, K gains 7 followers per minute. Initially, J had 15921292-14085811 more followers ie, 1835381... So, in 1 min, K gains 7/2 followers than J, so in 1835381/7*2/60/24days both will be equal. Almost 364 days,ie an year!!

- 5 years, 8 months ago

364 days should be the answer. Think of it this way- Justin has - • 15921292 followers currently • 10.5 followers every minute

Kim has- • 14085811 followers currently • 14 followers every minute

Thus the equation- 15921292 + (10.5 × K) = 14085811 + (14 × K)

Where K = number of minutes until equal (constant for both)

Thus K = 524423 minutes = 364 days (almost 1 year)

Kim Kardashian will need approx. 364 days to be able to match up to Justin Bieber's follower count. This is so sad.

- 5 years, 7 months ago

524423.14 mins :)

- 5 years, 7 months ago

524423.142 min

- 5 years, 9 months ago

10 months 25 days 17 hours 40 minutes

- 5 years, 9 months ago