Yes, students have trouble with infinity. And with zero. The great James Propp has written an in-depth essay about conceptual and linguistic issues with infinity and zero. Concrete examples are always best. Propp offers eight ways in which a student… Read More ›
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Finally… Dining in at the Ashmont Grill
After more than a year, Barbara and I finally had dinner inside at the Ashmont Grill! It’s really a different experience, especially when we are greeted by Butterfly at the door and the meal is presented by our favorite server,… Read More ›
A welcome respite from takeout
Now that Barbara and I are both fully vaccinated (two jabs + two weeks), we ventured out to the Ashmont Grill at 6:30 last night for the first time in six months—dining on their beautiful patio of course: Note the… Read More ›
A supposedly “new” way to solve quadratics
What’s wrong with the Quadratic Formula? Let me count the ways: It’s pure magic to 99% of high-school students, who have no idea why it works. It lends itself to sign errors because of the subtraction under the square root… Read More ›
William’s 17th
William is preparing for his upcoming 17th birthday by taking a power nap on his kitty couch to make sure that he remains cute enough.
A Christmas Song for 2020
For a variety of reasons there are almost no Christmas songs that I Iike. But I can recommend a new one that I heard yesterday — a song that was specially written for the year 2020: Don’t Wait For Me… Read More ›
Apparently I was unclear…
Apparently I was unclear In yesterday’s post. In no way was I advocating getting rid of trig as a unit in regular high-school math, as some readers apparently thought. I wouldn’t do that; whenever I taught precalc, which I did… Read More ›
What’s wrong with this picture?
Cool new shirt (matching my trademark jacket), but… What”s wrong with this picture? (Thanks, Alison B., for noticing what I hadn’t noticed!)
Learning Strategies 