Little Geek Nat

This is part 2 of the Math Calculations: Simplified blog. Welcome back! This time I’m going to share tricks about counting squares such as 41 2 or 52 2 .  There are 2 simple methods that I am going to explain. Here is the first one: METHOD  1 For numbers that begin with 1, the formula is simple:  (N-1)²+ (2N-1).  For example, let’s calculate 51². The equation becomes (50)² + (101). It is now easy to figure out the solution, which is 2601. This method makes it much easier to do these types of calculations rather than using the traditional method of carry-multiplying. Next, we have the 2 digit numbers that begin with 9. We can figure this out by using pretty much the opposite of the method used to calculate the square of one digit numbers. The formula: (N+1)² - (2N+1). Let’s use 29² as an example. We put this into the equation, which makes it (30)² - (59). That leads to a solution of 841. This method also helps with these types of calculations. ...

In Math, calculating numbers can indeed be quite annoying for some students. For example, you are doing a math test and end up spending too much of your precious time calculating 51 ² or √67. Fear not, for I have a quick and easy solution in squaring and square-rooting numbers. Just a quick reminder, N in the methods stated below means the number you are trying to square or square root. Let’s start with squaring 2 digit numbers and the ones that end with 0. These numbers are simple to be squared because all you have to do is to square the first digit then give two zeroes in front of it. Pretty simple, right? Here’s an example: 30². We can calculate this by first giving 3², which is 9, then give two zeroes in front of it, which makes it 900. Easy peasy! Conclusion, 30 x 30 = 900   à   3 x 3 = 9 and 00 = 900 Another example :           80 X 80 = 6400 And                 ...

Hello! Nat here, and in this blog, I am going to discuss and give the solution to the famous Cheryl birthday problem. This was popular because it is a difficult logic puzzle and involving the ability of carefully tracking down hints in the conversation and working with only a small amount of data. Here’s the question: Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl gives them a list of 10 possible dates. May 15           May 16           May 19 June 17          June 18 July 14           July 16 August 14       August 15       August 17 Cheryl then tells Albert and Bernard separately the month and the day of her birthday respectively. Albert: I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know that Bernard doesn’t know too. Bernard: At first I don’t know whe...

Light is an important part of our daily lives. Light is something that we humans definitely need. But a lot of us take it for granted, and only remember it in the middle of a science lesson. But what exactly is light? That is what I will explain today. I will explain about what is light, its speed, and some strange facts about light. First of all, if we want to know about light, we need to know what it actually is. Light is well known as a wave in the electromagnetic spectrum, but some people think that light is a particle. Nobody knows for sure. This causes the wave-particle duality of light. Light behaves as a wave, but in some ways also behaves as a particle. It’s sort of like the Schrodinger’s Box , where there is a cat that is both dead and alive. Does that ring a bell? For now, we’ll save that for another blog. Next, it’s speed. We all know what the speed of light is: 299,792,458 m/s. But let’s presume that we are in a car moving at 10% the speed of light. What woul...

Hello! Now I will share my knowledge about the rest of the solar system which is about the comets, asteroids, and much more! First of all, I will talk about the comets or in other words, shooting stars. The comets are big rocks made of ice and dust, which makes them some sort of dirty snowball. They hurtle through space at relatively high speeds. When a comet is close to the Sun, it moves much faster than when it is farther away from the Sun. Comets also have their own irregular orbit, which is usually oval-shaped. The most famous comet is the Halley’s comet, which makes an orbit around the Sun every 76 years. Comets mainly reside in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. The Kuiper Belt is a pack of dust, rocks, ice, and comets that orbit the Sun at 30-100 AU (Astronomical Unit), which is further from the Sun than Neptune. Just in case you don’t know, an Astronomical Unit or AU is a measure of length, which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun (150,000,000 kilometers). The O...

Hello! This is part 2 of the Solar System blog! (If you haven’t read part 1 yet, try reading that one first!) Today, I will be talking about the Jovian planets aka gas giants in our solar system! We begin with the fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter. It’s the biggest planet in the solar system. Even though its mass is more than all of the other planets combined, it still only consists of less than 0.1% of all the mass in the solar system! Jupiter’s most famous feature is the Great Red Spot, a high-pressure hurricane region on Jupiter’s surface. It’s been occurring continuously since it was first spotted by Cassini in 1665. The Great Red Spot is as large as 3 Earths. Jupiter also has over a whopping 60 moons. The most famous are the Galilean Moons, which names are Ganymede, Io, Callisto and Europa. Ganymede is also the biggest moon in the solar system, being bigger than Mercury, having its own magnetic field and atmosphere. Io is a volcanically active moon, spewing out su...

You know about the solar system, don’t you? It belongs to our star, the Sun. The Sun's gravitational pull helps the planets have their orbit. Together, they form the solar system. I will be describing our Sun and planets. The Sun is our star. It gives our planet warmth and life for eons. Some cultures believe that the Sun is a god. It is around 1.5 million kilometers wide. Its surface temperature is around 6000°C but its core can reach temperatures of 15,000,000°C. One day the sun will explode into a white dwarf. When the sun‘s light is blocked out by the moon, it causes a solar eclipse. Plus, the Sun is the reason why there are seasons (along with the earth’s axis), equinoxes, and solstices. Coming up pretty small is Mercury. It is the smallest of the planets. Mercury has barely any gravity and a very thin atmosphere. However, it has scorching temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius and can suddenly drop to a teeth-chattering negative 180 degrees Celsius. It has a year...