When will I ever use this?

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@druinok sent me a formula the other day on Twitter that predicted the amount of time between insurgent attacks in battle.  She asked me when I thought we'd be able to use this in Algebra 2.  I thought that it looked more like a precalculus application (when dealing with sequences) and may show it then, but it also got me thinking that I'd like to find some formulas that people actually use outside the classroom.

I did a little bit of research online and this is what I came up with.  If you have any more, please pass them on! :)

Comments

  1. trackerAugust 13, 2011 at 2:33 PM

    You are amazing! Thanks for sharing this with everyone.
    @scsocha

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  2. Mrs. HAugust 13, 2011 at 5:21 PM

    The formula for predicting a child's sex worked for all three of my kids!

    ReplyDelete
  3. iodeanAugust 13, 2011 at 6:59 PM

    There was a TED talk about predicting insurgent attacks in Iraq as well as their intensity. The talk was by a New Zealand physicist working in London. I used it in Precalc when talking about functions and their ubiquity in the real world. The kids paid attention, but I don't know how many realized that it illustrated the power of math.

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