Factoring Polynomials

[teresaq]

So what do you think. Skim to the pics then you can go back and read if you want.  Do take time to study the last pics. P.S Rectangles can also be used to do percents, and n(n+1)/2, and....and....

Basically reduced to counting. And fun for kids, like me. LOL

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/factoring-polynomials.html

[Aliensanctuary]

I'm a little rusty, but this article reminds me a lot of matrices and determinates from calculus and differential equations. 

[joeb]

Interesting.  I like what he's doing. 

I absolutely hated algebra in high school and dropped out of Algebra 2 before I flunked out of it.  Ten years later I went back to school and took an Industrial Arts degree.  Part of that degree was a very thorough study of electricity from the science of it to electrical codes, reading schematics, and troubleshooting circuits.  It was in that course that I finally "got" algebra. 

In high school I had hated it because I could see no earthly reason for it.  No matter what teachers I asked not a one of them could/would tell me what it was really good for.   Then in studying electricity I found out the "why" of algebra.  Knowing the why made all the difference.  It was so simple I wondered why I basically flunked it in high school.  Then I realized why.  In high school it was taught in a very abstract way and algebra was not made practical in any way, shape, or form.  Twenty years later I went back to school again, and once again, electricity was part and parcel of the course study.  When I signed up for the course I was told I wouldn't be able to do the math without having a background in calculus, but there were no openings in the calculus classes that quarter.  So, I told the people signing me up for classes I figured I could do the math as it was related to electricity.  They allowed me to take the electronics course without having the prerequisite and by the end of the quarter I had aced the course.   The guy teaching electronics gave a point or two of extra credit every week and at the end I had more than 100% of the total points used to figure the grade. 

Trig I taught myself from a textbook written in the 1890's.  Whoever wrote that textbook knew how to communicate in the way I learn.  I read the first 8 or 10 pages of that book and said, Oh, this is nothing but ratios, and that is about all there is to trig.  Oh, it's in a lot more complex system than simple ratios but as long as I think about trig in terms of ratios it's a piece of cake.  I can visualize it easily.

 

[teresaq]

Don't give Crewton the credit as he is just a teacher of the program and a w ee bit on the cocky side. Maybe it comes across like that to me when in reality he is dealing with people who know nothing of the program or math. He's a trainer actually, but the real inventor died last year without finishing the program.   Jerry Mortensen received several patents for this program, Mortensen Math. 

I met his Mother-in-law, Ranae, back in late 80s I believe it was and she trained me a bit. She died soon after from cancer. She was such an awesome lady. Really nice. You can see her is some of the old videos on youtube. And JM. I've dabbled in the program ever since, as well as found many of the sources JM based his program on. A goal of some of us. Hopefully one of the two authorized dealers, or others studied in the program will finish it.

JM's ex-wife, and daughter of the lady I knew, informs me she found a rough draft for the next level of Problem Solving. I'm looking forward to when that gets put together. But its basically a mom and pop op. It'll happen when/if it does.  

Great testimony you gave.  I'd loved to know the name of that trig book. I had to buy several in order to get a sentence here or there in order to know when to apply a trig ratio/function. I still be on the learning side, tho.