A Mathematical Queiz

February 9, 2010 4 Comments

Implicit plot

xy = x + y + 14 and (y - x = 2)

There are two numbers, the difference between them is two. Their multiplication equal their sum plus fourteen?

A similar questions was asked few days ago on facebook between teenagers. One of teenagers did not know the answer (or maybe the question). The other was able to answer it in few minutes. The time taken to answer the question was impressive. They might had help from an adult or a calculator but at least they have the motivation to answer it.

This questions represent a hyperbola and can be mathematically represented by:

xy = (x + y) + 14

y – x = 2

that can be reduced to

y = (x + 14) / (x – 1) where x – 1 ≠ 0

Hyperbola according to WolframAlfa definition is an open curve formed by a plane that cuts the base of a right circular cone. So to reach the desired answer for the question you may replace an integer in place of x and calculate the result. You should start by the number 2 because x -1  ≠ 0. You will reach the result when you set x = 4 and then y will equal 6.

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My Hand Writing

February 8, 2010 5 Comments

Daily Practice

My hand writing is impossible to read. It is so bad that I sometimes can’t read it. My Arabic hand writing is even worse than English. People who saw my hand writing told me that it looks bad enough to be mistaken for doctor’s prescription. To overcome this handicap, I started learning Arabic calligraphy in an attempt to improve my hand writing. The result of my calligraphy attempt is improving my calligraphy skills and worsening my handwriting! For English, I did not try to improve anything, I just learned touch-typing and that’s it. Whenever I need to write a note, letter or comment, I just use the laptop or my iPhone to key-in the words and then hit “send”. One of the main reasons I write this post in English is because my English typing is lightning fast when compared with Arabic typing.

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Is YouTube Educational?

February 7, 2010 Leave a comment

Google - YouTube

Google - YouTube

Listen to this postYouTube was online five years ago in February 15, 2005. The site was designed by young and energetic programmers who sold it to Googlefor $1.6 billion after one year. YouTube platform had about 100 million videos and 72 million visitors daily when it was sold to Google. Now, about 350 million visitors view 5 billion pages every day. The latest internet site ranking according to Alexa are: 1- Google, 2- Facebook, 3- Yahoo, 4- YouTube and 5- Windows Live. The site host mixed videos that rage for plain stupid to scientific and educational videos. I have discussed this subject with my friends and they claim that YouTube is addictive because the moment you finish watching an interesting video you would be presented with two similar videos to watch. Since YouTube has advantages and disadvantage, the Question here is: Can YouTube be educational?

YouTube Headquarters in California

YouTube Headquarters in California

The researchers, Fralinger and Owens(2009),  selected 61 graduate students and 20 non graduate students to test the effectiveness of educational material made by the students and uploaded in YouTube. The qualitative study, which was published in a peer-reviewed journal two months ago, showed statistical significance on the benefits of using YouTube as an educational method. Students responded “Everything was very helpful for the exams and very good to view and use in a school classroom.” So next time you are caught watching YouTube at work or while studying you can argue that YouTube is entertaining and educational!

Reference:

Fralinger, B., & Owens, R. (2009). You tube as a learning tool. [Article]. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 6(8), 15-28.

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Try Listening to Your Books

February 5, 2010 4 Comments

Freakonomics

Freakonomics my favorite book

AudioI love to read and I am sure that you like it too because you chose to spend some time reading (or listing) to this post. I do not read newspapers though, I just skim through the newspaper‘s pages and then throw it away every morning. Few yours ago I heard about the audio books, and I thought of trying them instead of reading the regular paper back books. I did not like it in the beginning because I like the feel of holding the book and  paging through it, but then I liked the convenience of listening to the book while I am on the move.  The main problem with audio books is the impression they give to others. When you see somebody holding a book you would imagine that they are educating themselves.

I am listening to

I am listening to

But if you see somebody inserting those white ear-buds in their ears and listing to an audio book you would think that they are wasting time listening some useless music. Do not get me wrong, I like music and I am now listening to one of the Smooth Jazz internet radio channels now while writing this post.

I was able to read, or better said, listen to a book every week. Which total to almost 50 books every year. I listen to the book while I am driving, walking or while exercising in the gym. Below I listed (alphabetically) some of the books I listened to in the past few months and I would like to recommend them to you. Go ahead try listening to books instead of reading them and let me know about your new experience. Also, please recommend for me a good book that you read and enjoyed.

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One Thousand Visitors

February 3, 2010 1 Comment

Candle

1000 visitors and going strong

AudioI set up this blog and started fiddling with it in November 2009, but started my first regular posting in Jan 3,  2010. I targeted 1000 visitors in the first month, and you made it possible. As I write this post the count is 995 visitors to the blog in one month and this count  does not include the blog subscribers who receive the new posts by E-mail the moment I post them. Thank you for visiting me again! I try to write interesting and thought provoking posts and you were generous with your constructive comments, so please keep them coming.  I have added audio feature to the post for your convenience. So if you would like to listen to this post you need to click on the small speaker-like icon on the top left corner of this post and enjoy listing!

The top 5 posts in this blog  so far are:

1- What is behavior?

2- What happen to my Latte !

3- Your Smile Will Last Longer

4- When We Will Meet Again

5- Customer Retention

Please let me know how I can improve this blog. What do you like to read (or not read) here.

Smart note:

Thirty one days past since I started posting in Jan 3, 2010. This is equivalent to one month and 14 hours  or 2.678 x 106 seconds  or 44,640 minutes or 744 hours or 4.429 weeks … To simplify this subject for you I would like you to image that if I light up a candle that day, its light would travel 802,901,721,600 kilometers or 498.9 billion miles in 31 days. While the light was traveling all that distance, and feeling exhausted, this blog site got 1000 visitors!

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