Don't Just Mix Mixtures!

I’m blogging about our recent lesson in Math, Mixture Problems.

EVERYTHING even the kitchen sink

 

If you think it’s easy as 1 2 3, it’s not. <strike>It’s like making a person  jump off a 30 storey building.<strike> Uuhhmm… let me change that. It’s like running through a cacti forest with a charcoal grounds  barefoot and with no clothes. Think I’m exaggerating? Nope. Hey! Stop contradicting me. You're noyt the one who had to spend # hours of Study Period trying to figure the whole thing out!

Sorry. I'm a bit bitter.

An example of this kind of problem is;

How many millimeters of pure chocolate must  Natalie add to 150 ml of chocolate toppings that is 50% chocolate to make a topping that is 75% chocolate?

My first thought was why didn’t Natalie just add them together bit by bit? Come on, it’s standard procedure! If you want to make something sweeter, pour this into this until achieved desired amount. If inadequate, add a bit more. If too much, well start all over again!

Wait. Start all over again? Sound like a major waste of chocolate. . .

Hhmmmm. . . Maybe this whole Mixture Problem could be important. . .

Before the Board of Pia’s Brain Cells make a final choice, let us consider another problem.

A goldsmith combined an alloy that costs P430 per gram with an alloy that cost P180 per gram. How much of each must the goldsmith add to make a mixture that

costing P250 per gram?

Okay. The standard procedure can’t be done here. I mean, you can’t pour alloys into each other if you aren’t sure how much of each you’re going to mix in. That’s wrong. You gotta make sure that you’re not going to do a mistake! What kind of dummy is going to waste gold by winging it?

So okay. I’ve made a mistake. But hey, I’m not perfect.

Actually, the standard rule could still apply but when money or business is part of the equation, better that you do it.You don’t  have to compute everything you mix in your life. Imagine computing how much sugar you’re going to put in your coffee every time.  Goodness, your making life complicated for yourself!

Mistakes: A Fundamental

Mistakes. The one thing we never want to do, yet we don't pass a single day without making one.

I was thinking about that for sometime. Mistakes vary from an everyday mistake like telling the time wrong to a big mistake like forgetting to turn the wheel while driving. Even so, all mistakes have a consequence in them. That's the hard part of mistakes; when you're wrong, the consequences hit you on the face like a hard brick.

Wouldn't it b better if we didn't have mistakes? 

No. 

See, if we didn't make mistakes, how will we ever learn? We'll just go through will life not learning a single damn thing. And c'mon, that sound super boring. Sure you won't get laughed at or embarassed or injured or whatsoever, but where's the fun in that?

And don't worry about being the only one making mistakes. You're not. Really. See, in everything in life we have to experience and make a mistake about it. In our first tries, that's when their most often.

Take Maths for example. To learn how to solve Maths, you have to understand them. Sure you'll probably get it at the first try sometimes, but that would be because somebody explained it to you. You'll probably understand it better if you made a mistake first and saw where you went wrong. If you didn't get it on the second try and made another mistake, try again. Made the third mistake? Try again. Keep trying even until you make 10, 50 or even maybe a hundred. There;s no mistake that you can't fix. 

A QUOTE TO REMEMBER. So don't feel bad.

But if possible, try not to make 100 mistakes on a single hour. Too much of  something is a bad thing.

Mistakes. How important they are. They teach us more about life than being correct all the time.

The Percant-asaurus Rex

iHola! How are you? Me? Fine! Superb really! Except for the fact I don't get the latest Maths lesson that much, I'm fine.

Although I probably should try and understand it. The past Maths lessons I found hard are reeaalllly, reeeaalll, reaaallly helpful to me these days.

Example? Hmm.. Well before, I had probs with one species of the Maths Monster; The Percent-asaurus Rex. Yes, he was quite fond of me but I sorta neglected him so he got his revenge by making me fail a few tests.

I hated P-Rex before. But he was quite helpful. At sales, I never understood what 50% of meant or why the teens that read squeeled so high my ears were practically BLEEDING. 

Even though I hated the guy, I called on P-Rex  to perform Maths. Then I discovered why the teens acted like they were monkeys being given  life time supply of bananas. 50% was half off, so the 1000 peso price tag would become, Tadah! 500 pesos!

Now that I'm practically a teenage girl, i can know how much I'm gonna save when a sale starts. I do that a lo. When I see a shirt that I really like AND it's 50+% off, it will be mine. Mine. ALL MINE! Muwahahaha!

SALE: The reason Teen girls squeel and my and P-Rex's Peace Treaty

Oops. Sorry about the evil  laugh bit. 

Hi! This is Sophia. I'm at home right now. You Wondering why I picked High Maintennance? Well, I'm a bit like that. I'm not very easily pleased. Though I might not reveal it, but I'm picky. I just don't show it because I've learned that if you don't like it, 'live with it.'

I'm really friendly, really. I could be a good friend. Although, you have to get used to me. Send time with me. Not all the time, though. That would be weird. But, you have to practice a lot of patience with me. I'm a bit like Math. We're not close but I'll tell you all I know about him.

Math has different personalities like yours truly. I've met his two different personalities. One is a huge hulking monster, ready to pull you and your grades down, destroy everything you worked for. This side is shown to people to hardly get to know him and spend little time trying to practice with him and tame him.

The other personality, the one I prefer, is the kind cuddly Math I met. This one is fun and makes equations, solutions and problems look like games. He's ah-dorable in this state!

I'm finding it hard to look for correct pictures of him so I'll put in the best similars.I put him as a tiger.

Your best bet is trying to spend time with Math and practice with him. See, you see him every single day of your life! How can you survive if everyday, a monster keeps trying to beat you up to a big squishy pulp?

If you aren't convinced with me, I'm going to give you situations in life when you're really gonna need Math.



Yesterday, my Mom and I went to the Mall. Wohoo! We bought a lot. We bought clothes, food and my much needed school supplies. I was about to drag Mom into National Book Store(I love books) when she told me,"Pia. No. We don't have enough money." and showed me the price tags and the money in her wallet. "If you add all the clothes' price tags, we won't have enough money to buy your book. Besides, we have a budget."

Youcch. If Mommy didn't remember to add the price tags and subtract it from the cash we brought, I would've waltzed right in, snatched a book and went to the cashier with no dough! Talk about embarassing...

See? Math just helped Mommy to keep me from looking like a total idiot.


That's not all. I would tell you everything right now but there's only P24.00 left in my broadband load and that's not enough time for typing the ways Math can save you from embarassment, trouble, failing grades or even death! Ok, maybe not death. Anyways, see you next week. This is Pia, the High Maitennance Girl.  Read my next blog post.