Integrated Mathematics Course 1 Name_________________________

Course work 2, Period ___ Date 20August 2004

Communicating in Mathematics

Communications in mathematics is just as vital as communication with any of your friends. You say words that are usually grouped into sentences and then complete thoughts. If your friend came up and started saying a group of random words, would you know what your friend is trying to tell you? If the words or letters in this sentence were scrambled, would you have any idea what I was trying to communicate? Communication can be done by words, spoken or written, pictures, symbols, expressions, etc. Do the following:

1. Look at page 3, what are each of the people saying? Let us discuss what each of the signs on the bottom of the page mean.
2. Sometimes you might be able to translate things better than you might think. If the first and last letters of the word are correct and all of the other letters are contained in the word, your brain will translate the sentence for you. For example: “Tihs is a smbcareld snteence, deos it mkae any ssnee at all? How wulod you tanrlaste it?”
3. Mathematics uses letters, like x and y to represent variables (values that can change). It also uses symbols that represent various functions. What do the symbols +, =, -, /, * (or x) mean? In what order would you apply them in an expression?
4. Sometimes mathematics uses pictures, like graphs or tables. What do the following tell you?

Apples	Worms found
5	1
10	2
15	3
20	4

5. Algebraic tiles can also be considered multiplications to find an area.
6. Patterns are also sometimes call powers, which are each a number with an exponent.
1. Squared: x² = x * x
2. Cubed: a³ = a * a * a
3. a¹ = a
4. a⁰ = 1
7. We will now discuss the graphs on page 4, the Concept map on page 5, and collectively do the exercises on pages 6 through 9. If you cooperate and write the answers, you will get full credit for your class work.