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Hey, I’m Edison, a math learning strategist for grade 7 to 12 students, age 12 to 17. Math by Edison* is the platform I use to share the strategies I’ve invented, designed and used with thousands of 1-on-1 math students. Been my sole job for decades, though four million eight hundred-thousand minutes and counting sounds more wow 😊! Ha!
Edison’s Math School will focus on understanding, the 3rd step of The Learning 5. It’s written for math learners aged 12 to 120 😊.
Four objectives for Edison’s Math School
1) Practical help a math learner can incorporate now!
2) See the relevance to real life,
3) Math remembered,
4) Use non-math strategies to understand math - math isn’t what makes math hard.
Let’s get started: Below I have a bunch of questions for you about this, Part 1 of ‘x’. Some will be easy and quick, and others will require a bit of pondering and wondering (aka thinking).
One point of clarification, the ‘x’ I am referring to in ‘Part 1 of x’, is the letter ‘x’, the lower-case cursive ‘x’. The ‘x’ with two curves – it’s curvy. It is not the multiply or times math symbol, x, which has two lines that cross.
The x I’m talking about has two curves,
To distinguish I’ll write ‘x’ in quotations to mean the letter with two curves, as Substack doesn’t have the Script font that allows me to write a curvy ‘x’.
I’ll ask you 12 questions and by the end, you will have a good understanding what, the math in, Part 1 of ‘x’, means. And yes, there’s a lot of math in those two Words and Two Symbols, a-lot! It’s important you understand that!
Why? It’s the foundation for a lot of math and will help you with whatever math you’re doing now. How do I know that? Well, all math has numbers (1), and/or letters/variables (‘x’) and/or math words (Part, of) … and ‘Part 1 of x’ has all three 😊. Yay. Let’s do this get learning.
Part 1 of ‘x’ is the foundation for a lot of math - will help you with math you’re doing now.
Q & A, for, Part 1 of ‘x’. You’re up!
1. What does the number, ‘1’ mean in, Part 1 of ‘x’?
2. Why can’t ‘x’ be a decimal (1.3, 2.99, 10.0001 etc.)?
3. a) Could ‘x’ be a fraction - yes, no? b) And why?
\(x=\frac{3}{4},~\frac{5}{3},~1\frac{2}{3}~?\)4. Could x be a Whole number (0, 1, 2, 3, …)?
5. Why can’t ‘x’ be a negative Integer (-1,-2, -3, …)?
6. What’s a number ‘x’ could be?
7. What are ten possible numbers that ‘x’ could be?
8. Could ‘x’ be 99?
9. Use a little of ‘1-‘ in the 1-2-3 Pattern Principle and what you know about ‘x’ to predict the future: If Part 1 of x is Edison’s Math School first article, the next article will be called?
10. Could x be square root of one hundred and forty-four?\(x=\sqrt{144} ~?\)11. In Part 1 of ‘x’ What is the meaning of the two words, a) Part, b) Of?
12. 2 Words, 2 Symbols: What does, ‘Part 1 of x’ mean?
Below I’ll add 13 more thoughts I have, about ‘x’ to deepen your understanding, of Part 1 of ‘x’. Then afterwards, I’ll do something advanced … I’ll show you what questions look like at a grade 7 level (age 12) all the way up to a grade 11 level (age 16), all involving that ever popular, letter ‘x’, soon to be called a variable.