A Level Maths

Razor

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Just started my alevel maths course and i am having a few difficulties understanding konstants.

Now, it says Y = k/square root of Z, and it gives Y = 10 and Z = 4.

So it then says 10 = k/square root of 4, then says that from that, you can work out that k = 20, now how does it work out that k = 20?
 
just substitute the values of Y and Z into the first equation and rearrange to get k.

10 * sqrt (4) = 10 * 2 = 20

That is to say: multiply both sides of the equation by the square root of 4 to get a value for K (remembering sqrt (4) / sqrt (4) = 1 )
 
Good luck with the A-level maths Razor. I'm doing my GCSE exams in less than a fortnight and I want to do maths at A-level. It's going to be tough.
 
kirovman said:
just substitute the values of Y and Z into the first equation and rearrange to get k.

10 * sqrt (4) = 10 * 2 = 20

That is to say: multiply both sides of the equation by the square root of 4 to get a value for K (remembering sqrt (4) / sqrt (4) = 1 )


Genius, a few years ago, i could work that out no problem, it's just that it is years since i have done anything close to this.

And i need a calculator.
 
SHIPPI said:
And this is why I'm NOT doing maths at A-Level :p

But Maths A-Level is what all the cool kids are doing!

Although I'll say from past experience it's probably the hardest A-level. Apart from Further Maths, obviously.
 
dekstar said:
Good luck with the A-level maths Razor. I'm doing my GCSE exams in less than a fortnight and I want to do maths at A-level. It's going to be tough.


I am doing it at home so itis going to be extra tough, but i have just appointed the hl2.net community as my tutor, so it shouldn't be that bad :thumbs:
 
SHIPPI said:
And this is why I'm NOT doing maths at A-Level :p
A-Level, AS-Level, just don't do it. What a waste of subject that was :/
 
I shyed away from Further Maths, but when you get to degree level you just have to learn all the further maths stuff anyway, and more. Well if you do a science degree anyway.
It's not so bad when you get used to it and you're using it everyday.
 
SHIPPI said:
I'd like to go down a sciencey path if I go to uni.. but there's no way in hell I'm doing a-level maths. I'm doing chemistry, biology, physics, art, and some other maths thing which teaches you what you need to know for science.. I'm hoping it's enough

Should be enough... I chose to do Physics degree :)x) and it's really involved with Maths. I suspect another kind of science wouldn't have as much in-depth maths as Physics (well except Maths obviously).

Physics A-level is easy, it's just memorising equations. Hated Chemistry though.
 
kirovman said:
Should be enough... I chose to do Physics degree :)x) and it's really involved with Maths. I suspect another kind of science wouldn't have as much in-depth maths as Physics (well except Maths obviously).

Physics A-level is easy, it's just memorising equations. Hated Chemistry though.


I'm doing alevel physics as well. What i am going to do is start doing the alevel Maths for a couple of weeks, then start alevel Physics, so that i am back into the numerical way of thinking before i start doing Maths. I also thought that getting a better understanding of Maths would definately help with Physics.
 
I hate maths, which is why I'm not doing it at A-Level. Seriously, I can't stand it. Boring as bloody hell to me, and that's when I understand the stuff >_>
 
I'm revising for A level maths as I type this (lol... I'm great at this revision thing aint I! :p)


Well actually, I'm in fact revising for my AS level resits :LOL:

I have yet to really start the A level standard revision.. :monkee:




But don't worry people, maths gets alot easier if you just stick at it..


I got a U last year, thats up to a B now and I am resiting to get it to an A. :O :)


If thats not a turn arround I don't know what is :p


EDIT: Hehe, before you comment... I had an urge to use as many smilies as I posibily could in this post! :cat:
 
Math....I hate math. I have my final exam coming up on Wednesday. Its Intermediate Algebra. Good luck dude.

:cheers:
 
marksmanHL2 :) said:
I'm revising for A level maths as I type this (lol... I'm great at this revision thing aint I! :p)


Well actually, I'm in fact revising for my AS level resits :LOL:

I have yet to really start the A level standard revision.. :monkee:




But don't worry people, maths gets alot easier if you just stick at it..


I got a U last year, thats up to a B now and I am resiting to get it to an A. :O :)


If thats not a turn arround I don't know what is :p


EDIT: Hehe, before you comment... I had an urge to use as many smilies as I posibily could in this post! :cat:

That's a good turnaround.

I used to get Es in my mocks and then As or Bs in the real exams.

Got a B in AS maths, but got it up to A for A-level (I was determined to get an A in maths), it's just practice makes perfect really.
 
kirovman said:
That's a good turnaround.

I used to get Es in my mocks and then As or Bs in the real exams.

Got a B in AS maths, but got it up to A for A-level, it's just practice makes perfect really.


Aye, you sound like my brother.

He got predicted Ds and Es and got AAB in the end. :)


He took maths physics and ICT. The B was in ICT.



Neway yeah, I am soooo very pleased maths is falling into place now. I would been right skrewed if it hadnt....

But I still must do this revision. I'm not leaving anything to chance this time. I've been insanely lazy so far to be perfectly honest. Like revising a few days before at most.
 
Maths may be hard to start off with, but in the long run after you've learnt it you can apply it and it makes understanding things alot easier.
I even remember when I was 4 years old adding 2 numbers together was tricky,l and I used to dread times table tests at 10 years old, but now I'm doing tensors and matrices and Quantum statistics....the fun never ends.

Example designing aircraft and a lot of engineering feats require maths, as do the sciences.

The best way to learn maths is to do lots of examples for yourself.
 
kirovman said:
Maths may be hard to start off with, but in the long run after you've learnt it you can apply it and it makes understanding things alot easier.
I even remember when I was 4 years old adding 2 numbers together was tricky,l and I used to dread times table tests at 10 years old, but now I'm doing tensors and matrices and Quantum statistics....the fun never ends.

Example designing aircraft and a lot of engineering feats require maths, as do the sciences.



Oh hell its worth learning it if you can say stuff like:

I'm doing tensors and matrices and Quantum statistics

:thumbs: :LOL:
 
Matrix and vector maths is cool. Anyone who has done graphics work would know how elegent it makes things.
 
SHIPPI said:
I'd like to go down a sciencey path if I go to uni.. but there's no way in hell I'm doing a-level maths. I'm doing chemistry, biology, physics, art, and some other maths thing which teaches you what you need to know for science.. I'm hoping it's enough

If you choose to do chemistry at uni, maths will undoubtedly be very useful.

You'll do reaction kinetics and the like a lot in physical chemistry, and if you know integration/differentiation and some other maths things it makes it a whole lot easier. Thermodynamics is also a bitch for the non-mathematically minded.

I don't do a pure chemistry course (in fact it's centered on biological sciences), but the chemistry modules I do would have been so much easier had I done at least some A-level maths. Which is why next year for MBB (molecular biology and biochemistry) they are changing the requirements to at least a B grade at AS level.

If you are sure you don't want to do maths at all, but want to do a science course, then stick with the biological sciences.
 
when i did my a levels i thought i could do 4 and work 20 hours a week.
It ****ed me up bad and i had to leave my maths because i simply couldn't find time to do the work (and maths is terrible) so i ended up just doing physics, chemistry and DT
I'm an intelligent guy but number maths it just annoying, i like problems i can visualize......i loved doing mechanics physics with A2
 
Knowing Maths and Physics Shippi will allow you to judge trajectories of paintballs as they leave the gun, allowing you to make split second decisions on who to fire at and when to fire your gun. Just think of it this way, you could be the greatest and most intelligent Paintballer the world has ever seen :D
 
SHIPPI said:
hmm thanks :)

We haven't done much maths in science, just the basic formulas in physics (which I have no problem with, they make sense) A big problem for me in maths is that it all seems kinda pointless. Oh yay, I've found X.. I've no idea what X is or what it's for, but I know it! If I have a reason for doing it, it makes it easier. I don't tend to forget what to do then :p

I know what you mean. Good thing about physics is you're working with actual quantities (well sometimes), but it's still a lot of Maths. I don't like the full blown Mathematical notation, it is too abstract.
I prefer a "lite" version - you still get all of the information, but it makes you learn more easily. The key to learning maths is do lots of examples, you can't learn by staring at x = y blah blah for half an hour (well I can't anyway).
 
SHIPPI said:
hmm thanks :)

We haven't done much maths in science, just the basic formulas in physics (which I have no problem with, they make sense) A big problem for me in maths is that it all seems kinda pointless. Oh yay, I've found X.. I've no idea what X is or what it's for, but I know it! If I have a reason for doing it, it makes it easier. I don't tend to forget what to do then :p



Hehe, maybe X is time and you've found the shortest way to complete a task or something.

X could be anything. Thats why maths is so usefull :)



But I see what you mean, everyone thinks in the same way until you do something in another subject that requires some maths you've done previously..


Like in physics, were taught how to use radiocarbon dateing..

But to do that you need knowlege of exponential functions and log laws. Those in the class who did'nt take maths were at a huge loss at what to do.... particulaly because the teacher assumed everyone knew what she was going on about....
 
marksmanHL2 :) said:
Like in physics, were taught how to use radiocarbon dateing..

But to do that you need knowlege of exponential functions and log laws. Those in the class who did'nt take maths were at a huge loss at what to do.... particulaly because the teacher assumed everyone knew what she was going on about....

Mrs. Pope? I remember a GCSE radiactive decay lesson with her :O.Yeah she assumes a lot of things, like the assumption that half of 128 was 63. When someone pointed it out she shouted "No, it can be any number I like, because decay is random!"

Yep, knowing all about logs comes in handy. As I will find out when I do a Lasers exam tomorrow ;(
 
kirovman said:
Mrs. Pope? I remember a GCSE radiactive decay lesson with her :O.Yeah she assumes a lot of things, like the assumption that half of 128 was 63. When someone pointed it out she shouted "No, it can be any number I like, because decay is random!"

Yep, knowing all about logs comes in handy. As I will find out when I do a Lasers exam tomorrow ;(


lol, yes mrs pope :p


And good look with the exam, I'm sure you'll be fine. :)
 
marksmanHL2 :) said:
And good look with the exam, I'm sure you'll be fine. :)

Cheers :cheers:

Oh and I'm sure it's exam season for a lot of peeps now, so good luck to all :thumbs:
 
When you say an X*Y matrix does it mean X rows and Y columns or X columns Y rows.
 
Ok, another prolbem to do with Partial Variation

It says y = ax + bz, where a and b are constants.

Where x = 1 and z = 1 and y = 5; and when x = 2 and z =3 and y = 13.

We substitute in y = ax + bz
5 = a + b and 13 = 2a + 3b, to solve the problem as a = 2 and b = 3, now how did they go from those 2 equations to solving it?

From what it looks like, there only explaining to me half of the working and leaving the other half in the dark :s.
 
Razor said:
Ok, another prolbem to do with Partial Variation

It says y = ax + bz, where a and b are constants.

Where x = 1 and z = 1 and y = 5; and when x = 2 and z =3 and y = 13.

We substitute in y = ax + bz
5 = a + b and 13 = 2a + 3b, to solve the problem as a = 2 and b = 3, now how did they go from those 2 equations to solving it?

From what it looks like, there only explaining to me half of the working and leaving the other half in the dark :s.

Simultaneous equations I think. Just find 'a' in terms of the other variables in one equation, then substitute that value for 'a' into the other. Or you could do it with b if you like.
 
kirovman said:
Simultaneous equations I think. Just find 'a' in terms of the other variables in one equation, then substitute that value for 'a' into the other. Or you could do it with b if you like.


So it is a matter of looking at the first 5 = a + b equation and working out in your head what a and b might equal, then seeing how that fits in with the 13 = 2a +3b equation to see if you're right?
 
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