I went over to office max today to pick up a simple scientific calculator for school. I have a calculator and all, but its a graphing calculator of which I just haven't honestly had much need of, but hopefully will in the future. That graphing calculator was about $169 and some change if I remember correctly and I have to replace the batteries about once a semester. Too bad I can't just recharge the thing, I remember back in highschool when they'd loan them to us in our math courses, we were using graphing calculators with rechargable battery packs or some such devices. I kind of wonder sometimes if I should have just simply waited on getting a graphing calculator, but then who knows I could've turned up needing one and then not have had the money to buy one.
My other new gadget that I bought is this circular thing a jig. The package said it was a two in one protractor and compass. I'm going to be working with a lot of trigonomentry once I get to physics and my engineering courses, so yeah I figured that'd be well worth the $2 and some odd change after tax. Figured I'd also get some graphing paper so that when I do my homework, I can graph everything more precisely, a visual example if you will.
I think I've been pegging myself as an audio visual learner for too long, or at least that I'm not as equally balanced between the two as I thought. It occurred to me sometime last week that I get more out of reading something and then putting it into practice and working my way through it then I do listening to someone tell me how to do anything. This does not mean that I don't learn audially at all however. Many, but not all, of the things I read or very carefully worded for the subjects they deal with and expound on the proper ways to solve equations and what not in the context of math, not because someone said so, but because people have studied many different things over the ages to prove that math happens in these forms.
I want to get rid of my old spirograph and find a new spirograph set someday, make really cool things with it and then study the mathematics behind it just for my own understanding. A lot of people always say they can't even begin to fathom some of the wonders of math and science. I couldn't fathom them either once upon a time, its not something you can acquire a knowledge of within a few minutes just the same as it would be for other subjects of interest. If no one at least takes the first step in trying to understand that which they do not, then they can only be caught in the never ending cycle of not understanding it. Furthermore each individual should have their own reason to be interested in understanding all of these things that go so far beyond themselves. Anyhoo that is quite enough nerd out for the moment.
My other new gadget that I bought is this circular thing a jig. The package said it was a two in one protractor and compass. I'm going to be working with a lot of trigonomentry once I get to physics and my engineering courses, so yeah I figured that'd be well worth the $2 and some odd change after tax. Figured I'd also get some graphing paper so that when I do my homework, I can graph everything more precisely, a visual example if you will.
I think I've been pegging myself as an audio visual learner for too long, or at least that I'm not as equally balanced between the two as I thought. It occurred to me sometime last week that I get more out of reading something and then putting it into practice and working my way through it then I do listening to someone tell me how to do anything. This does not mean that I don't learn audially at all however. Many, but not all, of the things I read or very carefully worded for the subjects they deal with and expound on the proper ways to solve equations and what not in the context of math, not because someone said so, but because people have studied many different things over the ages to prove that math happens in these forms.
I want to get rid of my old spirograph and find a new spirograph set someday, make really cool things with it and then study the mathematics behind it just for my own understanding. A lot of people always say they can't even begin to fathom some of the wonders of math and science. I couldn't fathom them either once upon a time, its not something you can acquire a knowledge of within a few minutes just the same as it would be for other subjects of interest. If no one at least takes the first step in trying to understand that which they do not, then they can only be caught in the never ending cycle of not understanding it. Furthermore each individual should have their own reason to be interested in understanding all of these things that go so far beyond themselves. Anyhoo that is quite enough nerd out for the moment.
