April 27th, 2007 by Dan Meyer - Some difficult Pythagorean Word
Problems - A discussion of the distance formula. - Some really
pretty slide work. - Some really sturdy distance formula
scaffolding. - Louisianans, Mainers, Nutmeggers, New Jersey-
ites, Bay Staters (Massholes, more locally). - I cut the word
problem assignment waaay back. Painful. - Ask if the baseball
bat (34 in.) fits in vertically. Where’s the right triangle? -
Didn’t get to this. - Monterey Bay, CA. - I want to know the
distance, by air, from Pebble Beach to the Presidio. Each box in
the grid is a square mile. (Not true, but let’s roll with it for
argument’s sake.) - They’ll count squares here. - They’ll count
squares here too. - Here, they can’t count squares. So what do
you do? - Give what they’ve done on the last several problems,
have them derive the formula. - Again we’re Pythagorizing, but
looking for a rule, a pattern. Notes & Revisions: