http://blog.mathsian.io/enMon, 30 Jan 2017 09:12:46 GMTNikola (getnikola.com)http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rsshttp://blog.mathsian.io/posts/equating-coefficients/Ian Dickerson<div tabindex="-1" id="notebook" class="border-box-sizing"> <div class="container" id="notebook-container"> <div class="cell border-box-sizing text_cell rendered"> <div class="prompt input_prompt"> </div> <div class="inner_cell"> <div class="text_cell_render border-box-sizing rendered_html"> <h2 id="If-it-can-be-taught-by-equating-coefficients,-then-it-should-be">If it <em>can</em> be taught by equating coefficients, then it <em>should</em> be<a class="anchor-link" href="http://blog.mathsian.io/posts/equating-coefficients/#If-it-can-be-taught-by-equating-coefficients,-then-it-should-be">¶</a></h2><p>This post was prompted by finding the following part of a question in one of the specimen papers for the new A-level maths specifications</p> <blockquote><p>Write $1.8+0.4d-0.002d^2$ in the form</p> $$A-B(d-C)^2$$<p>where $A$, $B$ and $C$ are constants to be found.</p> </blockquote> <p>Heaven help any student who's learnt completing the square as something about halving the $x$ coefficient.</p> <p><a href="http://blog.mathsian.io/posts/equating-coefficients/">Read more…</a> (3 min remaining to read)</p></div></div></div></div></div>algebrapedagogyhttp://blog.mathsian.io/posts/equating-coefficients/Fri, 27 Jan 2017 18:09:53 GMT