When looking at the grade of a road, it becomes apparent that it resembles a trig function. The Grade of a road is exactly like the slope, just put in different proportions. if a road has a 10% grade, you might not think much of it especially when in a car but in reality, a 10% grade is a rather steep road. To find the grade of a road, you have to take the rise over the run and multiply it by 100. So this means that a 10% grade would be rising 1 foot for every 10 feet traveled. Still doesn't seem like much right? Well most hills around Albuquerque do not exceed a 6% grade. So what does this mean for the roads themselves? Is getting a 100% no longer what is strived for? If a road had a grade of 100% it would be at a 45 degree angle to the ground. This would be nearly impossible to drive up. This can tie back into our last discussion about uninformed students. This can cause for confusion especially with kids. They might ask their parents, "Mommy, why does this road have such a bad grade? a 6% is terrible, what did it do?" The explanation of this to a little kid would be very difficult, which would cause anger in the parent, thus creating a tumbling ball of frustration! haha This is yet another example of when math can be applied to the real world.

I find this blog very interesting. Mostly because ive never thought of any of that in such detail and its funny how stupid some of the things we do are, but we do them anyway. Im going to talk about a mathy idea that i find interesting. 

Basically the collest thing about math is when you can apply it to the real world. Whenever i find a problem in the real world (i work construction on weekends) that i can solve using cosine, sine, the pythagorean theory, or any other part of math, i get happy. It makes me feel like ive accomplished things and it answers the question that students ask all of the time "Why do we have to learn this? when will i ever use this in real life?". I find that awesome that ive been able to see how much math is in our lives. We cant escape it. Thats why math is near the top of my favorite subjects list. Love it!

Math and Peaches

This blog brings up many potential ideas. Some of these ideas may be long shots, but they can all be related to the jam and peaches. In this story, i feel like the roses represent math. In my case, and many cases of other teenagers, math is not something that we live and breathe. It something that we do because its required. Thats not to say that we don't get enjoyment out of it, some of us even do more math because we like it that much, but i admit that i do not eat and sleep math. In this story, the roses were something that you didn't pay much attention to. But as you went along in your life, they grew on you. They started to mean something bigger. You grew connected to them. I think this is what happens with math. I think at first, students are annoyed by math, but once they finally realize how much it can be applied and how easy it is for math to be in almost everything that you do, it grows on them. This is what has happened to me, i enjoy math a lot more than i have in years past. It means something to me now. Like the peaches and the jam. The rewards are starting to show up, and as time goes along, they will continue to grow and become a bigger and better part of my life.

The way i feel towards math is best described as a love hate relationship. Math can be very useful at times. It has helped me solve many problems especially at work (i work construction). When i can apply the math that i have learned to my life and to problems around me, i get a smile across my face. It makes me proud of my self that i accomplished something. The hate side of the relationship is that sometimes, math can be very difficult. It gets to the point that i get so frustrated that i cant finish what i am trying to do. Usually it is because i am missing some sort of small detail which aggravates me even more. In the end, i enjoy math, and i really enjoy math class. Without it, i think society would be lost.