Year: 2024
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Down Memory Lane Just recently, while introducing me for a talk, someone stated that I have two loves – theology and mathematics. This is a reasonably accurate statement and I blog about these two areas regularly. I have been quite open about both of these with my students too. Hence, even though I am their…
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The Presenting Problem In this post, I wish to continue with some geometry along with some insights from sequences and series. Consider the figure below It is given that ∠AOB = 60°. Also, the radius of the largest circle is 1 unit. The successive smaller circles are tangential to the circles on either side. This…
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Recap In the previous post, from two weeks ago, I had addressed a development in Maharashtra, according to which they have lowered the pass mark in mathematics and science from 35 to 20. I had concluded that post with three questions. First, what is the relationship between a pass mark in an exam related to…
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A Recent Development Late last month, around 23 October 2024, many newspapers carried the story that the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in Maharashtra has decided to reduce the pass mark for mathematics and science from 35 to 20. The caveat is that students who have scored at least 20 marks but…
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The Presenting Problem There is one big problem with being a mathematics tutor. You aren’t the students’ main teacher and hence you get to hear what the students have actually learned from their main teacher. Why is this a problem? Well, it exposes me to the ways in which we mathematics teachers regularly let our…
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Looking Back, Looking Ahead The response to last week’s post on geometry was heartening. So I thought I would give the readers another small dose of geometry. Some of the ideas that arise from geometry are simple, yet so profound that it is hardly surprising that geometry was considered the pinnacle of human wisdom by…
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Mathematical Cardiac Arrest As my readers should know by now, I teach mathematics, focusing mainly on students in high school and there too preferring to focus on students in grades 11 and 12. Hence, when students reach me, their foundation in mathematics has, for the most part, been laid, for good or ill. Unfortunately, very…
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The Presenting Problem In response to the previous post, in which I had categorically declared that the use of calculators in mathematics education is a hindrance to students, a former student asked me, “Do you think it would be feasible or even beneficial to move mathematical assessments from the current manipulation & computation to something…
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Tools that Help There are tools that enhance one’s ability to understand. And there are tools that are a hindrance to understanding. For example, when I first came across a Phillips head screw and the screwdriver that accompanied it, I was blown away. I was intuitively able to see why this screw head was superior…
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The Siege of Yodfat In AD 67, in the middle of the first Jewish-Roman War, a rag tag band of forty Jewish revolutionaries managed to get themselves besieged in Yodfat. Realizing they were going to be captured and perhaps tortured, the group decided that they would commit mass suicide. However, given the Jewish aversion to…
Acutely Obtuse 