Homework Help Thread

[SpiraLethe]

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and I just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

Pavlov was a psychologist that performed experiments with dogs. Every time he rang a bell, the dogs would react a certain way because they were conditioned to do so. She's refusing to conform, fall into routine. She doesn't want to be a mindless tool.

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

I agree, quite confusing. I'd like to think she means that no matter how you look at it, the world is a sad place.

yeah the goons have gone global
and the CEO's are shredding files
and the democrans and the republicrats
are flashing their toothy smiles

She's refering to corporate corruption and globalisation. American politicians, regardless of party, are all the same. They have the same policies and they're all fake, attempting to look honest and hiding their true agendas.

and Uncle Tom is posing for a photo-op with the oval office klan
and Uncle Sam is riggin' cockfights in the promised land
and that knife you stuck in my back is still there
it pinches a little when I sigh and moan
and these days I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

Uncle Tom's Cabin was a racist novel from the 1800s. It was obviously anti-black, thus the Klu Klux Klan allusion. The government is still racist to this day. The American Dream is fake, it's all a setup.

cause all the wrong people have the power of suggestion
and the freedom of the press is meaningless if nobody asks the question
I mean causation by definition is such a complex compilation of factors
that to even try to say why is to oversimplify
that's a far cry, isn't it dear, from acting like you're the only one there
unrepentantly self-centered and unfair

The people of influence, that have power, are the ones that really shouldn't be. Freedom of the press is pointless if people are afraid to ask the real questions, the controvercial questions. People like to give silly reasons, over-simplify actuality because they are too selfish to see other points of view.

enter all suckers scrambling for the truth
exit mr. eye-contact who took his flirt and flew the coup
but whatever, no matter, no fishin trips, no fishin
cause momma's officially out of commission

People search for the truth, but instead they find lies, which they think are truth.

and did I mention in there somewhere
did I mention somewhere in there
that I traded Babe Ruth,
yes I traded the only player
that was bigger than the game
and I can't even tell you why,
cause you'd think I'm insane.
and that's the truth

The Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees, thus "cursing" their team with a huge losing streak, so the story goes.

and the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
sniping off sharp-shooter singles from their styrofoam towers,
and hip-hop is tied up in the back room with a logo stuffed in its mouth
cause the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house

Corporately marketed and mass-produced notions of feminism and racial equality. Instead, they are both fabricated and meaningless.

but then, I'm getting away from myself
as I get closer and closer home
and the difference between you and me baby
is I get (smurfed!yay!) up when I'm alone

and I must admit today
that my inner pessimist seems to have gotten the best of me
we start out sugared up on kool aid and manifest destiny
and then we memorize all the presidents names like little trained monkeys
and we spit into the world so many spinny-eyed TV junkies

Kool-aid = happy-go-lucky American popculture. Manifest Destiny = the idea in the 1800s that it was America's duty to go and conquer the West. Kids are brainwashed to be unthinking and blindly "patriotic", addicted to television.

incapable of unraveling the military-industrial mystery
pre-emptively passified with history book history
and I've been around the world now and I can see this about America

We're blind to see what big business and the government may not be acting in the best interest of the people. We believe in the history taught in books, unable to question it, think for ourselves, find other points of view.

the mind control is deep here, man
the myopia is steep here, man

and behold those who try to expose the reality
really try to realize democracy
are shot with rubber bullets and gassed off the streets
while the global power brokers are kept clean and discreet
behind a wall
behind a moat
and that is all
that's all
that's all she wrote

And the people who try to expose the truth, express different ways of thinking, are penalised and ostracized. The people in power are protected, kept clean. It's "murder" of thought and free-thinking. (allusion to Murder, She Wrote)

and my heart beats an s-s-s o-o-o s-s-s
cause folks just really couldn't care-care-care less-less-less
as long as every day is superbowl sunday
and larger than life women in lingerie are pouting at us from every bus stop
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not

SOS = save our ship. As long as people are given the simple things they want, they don't question, they don't think, they just blindly live on with the status quo.

and "big government should not stand between a man and his money"
i mean, "what's good for business is good for the country"
our children still take that lie like communion,
the same old line the Confederacy used on the Union

Letting businesses go unchecked, pure capitalism, is folly. We let ourselves be enslaved by capitalism.

conjugate liberty into libertarian
and medicated associated with deregulation privitization
we won't even know we're slaves on a corporate plantation

More stuff about being enslaved by capitalism. Liberal/socialism? vs. Libertarianism/econonmic conservatism.

somebody say hallelujah,
somebody say damnation,
cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance
and the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked
makes it serpentine
capitalism is the devil's wet dream

More anti-captalism. Basically, people are brainwashed to blindly follow it, without realising its evils.

so just give me my Judy garland drugs and let me get back to work
cause the empire state building is the tallest building in New York
and I have always got the feeling
you just like to hear it fall off your tongue

I can't remember what kind of drugs Judy Garland took. You might want to look that up.

but I remember my name in your mouth
and I don't think I was done hearing it close to my ear
on a whisper's way to a moan

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

Man, that was long. I'm very tired and it's late, so I hope what I wrote makes some sort of sense.

Last edited by SpiraLethe on Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Alex]

Well. I have a test for maths tomorrow, and I stupidly forgot to bring my books home over the weekend -.- I've worked out the other problems on the revision sheet (or will be able to in my free period before the test), but I'm totally stuck on this one.

If 2x^3 + 3x^2 + bx + 2c is to be expressed in the form (x-2)^2(2x+a) find the values of a, b, and c.

It confuses me *cries*

[M. Bison]

2x^3 + 3x^2 + bx + 2c = (x - 2)^2*(2x + a).

First, rewrite (x-2)^2 by foiling out (x-2)(x-2). This will yield:

(x^2 - 4x + 4)*(2x + a).

Now continue foiling the polynomial to get:

2x^3 + ax^2 - 8x^2 - 4ax + 8x + 8.

This can be simplified slightly to:

2x^3 + (a - 8)x^2 - (4a - 8)x + 8.

If that last step was confusing, just think of me factoring out an "x^2" from the second and third terms, and then an "-x" out of the fourth and fifth terms.

Anyways, set this equal to the other equation.

2x^3 + (a - 8)x^2 - (4a - 8)x + 8 = 2x^3 + 3x^2 + bx + 2c.

Now simply match each coefficient on the left with the corresponding coefficent on the right.

(a - 8) = 3
-(4a - 8) = b
8 = 2c

First, solve for a. Doing so gets a = 11. Now that you have a, plug that value into the second equation to get:

-((4)(11) - 8) = -36 = b.

And for the last equation, solve it to get c = 4.

[Alex]

Whoot, thanks

We'd actually been taught that, but I forgot how to do it

[Eidolon]

Thanks for the help with the song, guys I had my fishbowl discussion thingy and it went pretty well, I didn't get 40/40 but he said I got an A. yay!

[VeraX]

I'm having a bit of trouble with mymath, and help would be appreciated.

The cost, C dollars, for a school basketball team to play in a tournament is modeled by the equation C=300+20n, where n is the number of players.
Make a table of values using appropriate values of n. (Did that, its fine.)
Use your table to draw a completely labelled graph. (Make sure you put C and n on the appropriate axis.)

I need help with the graph. I'm thinking cost goes on the Y axis (verticle), and n goes on the X.
Assuming I'm right on that, I need help graphing. The numbers go from 540-620 on the Y axis, so I was going up by 20's. I did the little squiggly line at the bottem so I could start at 500, and have a nice big graph. I think I did that part ok, but I need help with the X axis, the number of players.
My number of players goes from 12-18. I can't start at 1, because I didn't have it in the Table Of Values, and I started the X axis at 500, where for 1 player it would need to be at 320. Should I change my Y axis, or can you just do the little squiggly line thing that lets you start wherever on the X axis as well? I think I probably did it ok, but I don't have a scanner, so thats the best describing job I can do.

But should the points be connected? Why Or Why not?
I put Yes, it makes sense to connect the points because we are comparing the number of basketball players to the cost of the team to play in the tournament.
But its worth 3 marks, so it seems a little incomplete.

Let me know how I can fix these things a little, or if I made a big mistake anywhere. Thanks you guys!

If that was way too confusing, let me know and I'll try to fix it so I'm talking sense, because I'm not sure if it sounds garbled or not.

[shapu]

Yes, the y axis should be cost, and the x axis should be players (n). The reason you do this is because the standard way of setting up graphs is to take the independent variable (the one you DO have the power to change) and place it along the x axis, and the dependent variable (the one that changes because of what you have done) on the y axis. So, you can change the number of players, and that in turn forces a change in the cost. Make sense?

I'd start the x axis with zero, but that's just me. It seems a bit tidier to only have one axis have a break in it to skip a huge section of numbers.

Finally, I don't think that the lines should be connected. Someone's welcome to disagree with me on this, but my intuition says they should just be data points. Why? Because if you draw lines, then you're going to have points along that line that correspond to fractions of a player (that is, between 12 and 13 on the x axis, the line will pass through 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, and so on). But you can't have a fraction of a player on a basketball team - number of players is measured in integers only.

[shavynel]

I agree with the y-axis and the x-axis being marked as they are and them being data points rather than a continuous line for the same reason.

However, I think it makes more sense to start at 5, because that's the minimum number of people needed for a basketball team, isn't it? I do believe you can make more than one break in a graph, at least, I was never counted down for it. Though I would say that the minimum y-axis should correspond with the minimum x-axis (I haven't bothered to calculate out what that was).

[JellyFish72]

I need help with a math problem... I can't figure it out...

+SOME
+MORE
.SENSE

[Squinchy]

I need help with a math problem... I can't figure it out...

+SOME
+MORE
.SENSE

Some hints:

Try to find relationships that are "must"'s. For example, how can two digits add up to the same digit? Which digits do that?

Also, look at the first S in sense. Since there are only two rows of digits being added, the maximum value of SE is 18. (EDIT: Or 19, if you carry from the column before) What's the most likely value of S?

Errr...then, start thinking really hard (because I can't) and hope you get lucky.

G'luck!

[shavynel]

I need help with a math problem... I can't figure it out...

+SOME
+MORE
.SENSE

Some hints:

Try to find relationships that are "must"'s. For example, how can two digits add up to the same digit? Which digits do that?

Also, look at the first S in sense. Since there are only two rows of digits being added, the maximum value of SE is 18. (EDIT: Or 19, if you carry from the column before) What's the most likely value of S?

Errr...then, start thinking really hard (because I can't) and hope you get lucky.

G'luck!

I can think "really hard", though. And I can step you through it.

+SOME
+MORE
.SENSE

Notice how you have E+E=E? And because it's in the one's place, nothing can carry into it. Let's try a number of things:
0+0=0 (this works)
1+1=2
2+2=4
3+3=6
4+4=8
5+5=10
6+6=12
7+7=14
8+8=16
9+9=18.

Looks to me that E must equal 0. So now we have:

+SOM0
+MOR0
.S0NS0

I am assuming that no number can be represented by 2 letters as I continue on. As we look at S+M. We have to note that 9+9=18 and 9+8=17. Plus the optional 1 from carrying makes 19 or 18. Either way, you still have a 1 in the tens place. So S must therefore be 1.

+1OM0
+MOR0
.10N10

Let's look at the M now. We see M+R=1 and M+1(+1 depending on carrying)=10. Doing a bit of algebra, we find that M=8 or 9 (subtracting the one from both sides and another optional one). If M=8, then R=3 because 8+3= 11 (no other single digit +8 comes out with a 1 in the ones place. I'll let you prove that yourself). If M=9, then R=2. So now we have.

+1O80
+8O30
.10N10

Or

+1O90
+9O20
.10N10

Either way, a 1 carries into the next column. So now you can look at the next part O+O+1=N. If M=8, we need this to carry, if M=9, we don't. Let's look at the M=8 variant first. What numbers left can we double +1 to make a two digit number (that conviently ends in a number in the ones place we also haven't used yet)?
5+5+1=11
6+6+1=13
7+7+1=15 (this could work)
9+9+1=19

We now have one set of numbers that work, but that doesn't mean we can forget about M=9 just yet and before we even go on to that, we'll check the problem.

+1780
+8730
.10510

Yah. It works. Let's look at M=9. If M=9, then O+O+1 cannot equal a two digit number because 1+9=10 and we can't have anything carry into 1+9. The +1 comes from carrying from the 9+2. So then substituting O for numbers we haven't used yet...
3+3+1=7 (could work)
4+4+1=9

We have yet another set of answer. Let's plug this new set in.

+1390
+9320
.10710

And it works. So we have two answers to this problem.

S=1, O=7, M=8, E=0, R=3, N=5
OR
S=1, O=3, M=9, E=0, R=2, N=7.

Hope that was helpful.

[Squinchy]

Ooo. Enlightening.

I almost solved it last night when I was attempting to give help, but the hundreds' place lost me and I had to go eat an apple.

[843]

Hmmm... I have to write a personal recount on any one of these topics:

1) Write about an occasion when a furious argument took place, based on a case of mistaken identity.
2) Write about a teacher's mistake that causes a great misfortune on one of the students.
Word limit: 300-400

I'm fine with the writing, but I'm totally stuck with the plot. Any good ideas?

[Anubis]

Isn't it meant to be a personal recount?

Can't help you there... I suck at those plots too...

[843]

Isn't it meant to be a personal recount?

Can't help you there... I suck at those plots too...

When I decide on the plot, I can just make myself the main character, making it a personal recount...