The Pythagorean Theorem Animation October 31, 2012

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I had never realized that the Pythagorean Theorem’s a^2 + b^2 = c^2 actually meant “the area of the square made by the side length C is the same as the sum of the areas made by the squares made of the other two sides’ side lengths” until I was in graduate school.  When I saw it for the first time in Professor Oliver Knill’s class, aside from his animation being totally bad ass, I was totally blown away by the realization of what I had never realized.

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So here are some animations, starting with Oliver’s, that show how awesomely dynamic Pythagoras’s theorem is:

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Coldplay, meet math! (turn down the volume if you don’t like loud!) December 9, 2010

Easy Factoring Trinomials…by grouping! November 27, 2010

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When I was a kid in high school, I remember trying seemingly endless combinations of numbers that would factor each assigned trinomial.  Well, you can kiss those hours of work good-bye!  Factoring by grouping is not only faster, it’s SIMPLE!  Just a few steps lie between you and complete trinomial factoring success… 

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