Borland Educational News and Views

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Sudoku Fever

From a March 19, 2006 article appearing in the Lincoln Journal Star:

“It seems like everyone with Sudoku fever has the same story: They stumble upon it accidentally in some book or newspaper, play it once or twice to test their skill and ride the slippery slope into Sudoku addiction.

Take Jason Brewer, for example. Flipping through the pages of a newspaper last year, he stumbled upon his first Sudoku puzzle.

Looking at the blank grid peppered with numbers here and there, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

But he was intrigued.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Get more info on Sudoku by visiting these sites:

http://www.sudoku.com/

http://www.soduko.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Monday, May 01, 2006

SAT And PSAT Dates: 2006-2007

Heads up!

The dates for 2006-2007 administrations of the SAT and PSAT are as follows::

10/14/06, 11/4/06, 12/2/06, 1/27/07, 3/10/07, 5/5/07, and 6/2/07.

The Fall 2006 administration of the PSAT takes place on 10/18/06 or 10/21/06 (registration deadlines vary from school to school).

For registration and late registration deadlines, and to register online, click the link to the College Board site, below.

Why not sign up or jot a note in your calendar, now, while you’re thinking about it?

Visit the College Board’s Web site for complete information, and to register for either test:

http://www.collegeboard.com/splash

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Educator's Blogs

Here's a site devoted to publicizing blogs written by educators.

Featured are a great number of blogs and podcasts from teachers in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools across the country.

Check it out here:

http://educational.blogs.com/

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

This Sentence Is False. True Or false?

Seems like a simple question.

Uh, no. Not really.

Like a dog chasing it’s tail, brushing the bristles of the brush you’re brushing with, seeing your eyes with your own eyes (impossible, unaided), or drawing a circle around all circles on a page (try it!), the first sentence in the title of this post is strange, to say the least.

I’ll repeat the sentence in question, for convenience, immediately below this one.

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This sentence is false.

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What makes this so weird is that the sentence in question is an example of “self-reference.” Like a brush brushing itself, eyeballs seeing themselves, or circles circling themselves, the sentence in question “sentences” (i.e. refers to) itself.

[“Self reference” is the subject of a wonderful book titled: Godel, Escher, Back: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter. I highly recommend it.]

Is the bold-faced sentence three paragraphs above this one true, or false? That’s the question.

The answer might surprise you.

(Click here to go to Part 2.)

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Mathematical Mind Reading

The old "Sum and Difference" game is a simple trick that even very young children can play to amaze and frustrate playmates or (better yet) adults (even teachers) whose algebra skills have atrophied.

It's a great way to introduce "unknown" numbers to beginning algebra students.

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Instructions:

Pick any two numbers. Add them (first number plus second number), and report the total. Then subtract them IN THE SAME ORDER (i.e. first number minus second number), and report the total.

You can determine the two numbers using simple algebra:

1st number = x (perhaps: 7).

2nd number = y (perhaps: 12).

Let: a = x + y, and let: b = x – y. The player will report to you the values of "a" and "b," the sum and difference of the two numbers (in our example, these numbers are 19 and -5). Add these results in your head (in this case, the sum is 14), and what you have will always be twice one of these numbers [since a + b = (x + y) + (x – y) = 2x.] Divide by two (14 ÷ 2 = 7), and you now have one of the numbers. Since you already know the sum of the two numbers, subtract to find the second one (19 – 7 = 12).

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An entertaining variation is the "Birth Date Trick, below.”

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Instructions:

Add your birth date plus birth month (example: for June 17, 1990, the birth date would be 17, the birth month would be 6, and the total would be 23), and report this number. Then, subtract these same two numbers IN THE SAME ORDER (i.e. birth date minus birth month). Again, be careful – this second result could be negative (in our example, the difference would be 6 – 17 = -11). Since this is really just another “sum and difference” exercise like the one above, all you have to do is add these two results and divide by two to get the birth month, then subtract the birth month from the total to get the birth date!

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com