Monday, January 11, 2010

Dimensional Analysis

Today in class we learned about converting from units of one things to units of another using a type of math called dimensional analysis. It sounds abysmal, so I refer to it as 'train tracks math' and talk about adding trains. It seems complicated, but once you get the hang of it, its fairly simple, and results in correct answers with correct units.

Today in class we covered the basics and did some practice problems. The students did fantastic with this topic and we even (hypothetically) figured out how old I am in days... that is if I am 29 (second period) or 18 (third period). I did not confirm these ages, just that they were converted correctly.

Homework tonight was the Mission Impossible Measurement assignment and should be interesting to discuss in class tomorrow. :) At least I will find it interesting.

No comments: