Unit+3

Unit 3 In unit 3 we move away from simplifying expressions to solving equations.At first we learned that an equal sign signifies that we have two side of the same quantity. Duh, right!? What else would an equal sign signify? In order to solve equations we have to "undo" operations to isolate the variable. In other words, we need to get the variable by itself on one side of the equal sign. Sometimes it helps to think of an equation as a balance or a see-saw. You know, those things that little kids play on in the park. The see-saw is in balance when both sides have the same weight on them. What happens when one kid jumps off the end? The see-saw gets out of balance and the poor kid on the other end drops like anchor off the side of a boat. So how do we get it in balance? Well, what we do to one side, we need to do to the other. If we add 50 pounds to one side, we need to add 50 pounds to the other to keep the balance.

In Unit 3 we hone our algebraic thinking skills by looking at maintaining a balance. Here is a great website with an good game that helps hone in on reinforcing the Algebraic Reasoning. =@http://www.mathplayground.com/algebraic_reasoning.html=

Here are the notes for the first three sections of Unit 3.

Here is a practice sheet that we worked on in class. Once we were pros at solving one, two, and multi-step equations, we moved on to using formulas and literal equations. Literal equations are equations which have more than one variable. Your job was to rearrange or manipulate those literal equations to solve for a specific variable. We practiced on the board using a few simple equations.

We also went back to our good ol' pendulum equation and learned how to solve for L (length of the pendulum). That was the challenge problem on the pendulum experiment packet. Here are the notes for the last 3 sections of Unit 3.

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We practiced using formulas and literal equations in our Pendulum experiment. Here is the pendulum experiment

Here is another worksheet to help you practice with literal equations.