Date: Mon Oct 14 08:35:49 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Answer(or question to Mentor): I know that it might be 60miles between the light and the thunder. What I did was divide 5 into 32 and it came out as 60. I divided because you have to see how many times 5 will go into 32. I am not very sure if this is correct because I also multiplied 5 times 32 and it turned out as 160 miles. I don’t really know which one it is so can you help me?
Date: Mon Oct 14 08:36:21 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Answer(or question to Mentor): I know that it might be 60miles between the light and the thunder. What I did was divide 5 into 32 and it came out as 60. I divided because you have to see how many times 5 will go into 32. I am not very sure if this is correct because I also multiplied 5 times 32 and it turned out as 160 miles. I don’t really know which one it is so can you help me?
Date: Mon Oct 14 08:52:38 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Answer(or question to Mentor): I think that the answer is 160ft per second. What I did was multiply 5 times 32. I did this because if you divide then you would be fining the problem all wrong. You need to find the area to get the answer. Do you think this is right? Can you help me?
Date: Thu Oct 17 18:03:00 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Mentor Reply: Hello Rachel,
You were on the right track when you said to divide 32 by 5 in your first response. Check your math and remember that it is asking for how far away the lightning is in miles. Please try it again and let me know what you come up with. I'll be looking forward to your resonse:). -Kelly
Date: Sat Oct 19 16:12:15 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Instructor Comments:
Kelly,
I think that this could be an excellent opportunity to explain the difference between multiplication and division. For example, you could say that the result of multiplying 5*32 represents 5 sets of 32. In contrast, the result of dividing 32 by 5 represents the number of sets of 5 there are in 32. Then, ask her which one seems to relate better to the question. Also, you need to respond to her challenge answer.
Dr. Bowers
Date: Sat Oct 19 20:45:49 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Mentor Reply: Hello Rachel,
Thank you for your responses. I am happy to help you with the problems. For the first problem, remember that when you multiply, the answer will represent 5 sets of 32. When you divide it will tell you how many sets of 5 will be in 32. Which operation do you think relates to this problem?
For the first challenge problem, try thinking about how far light travels in the first problem versus feet per second. I'll give you a hint that you will need more information. How many feet are in a mile?
Let me know what you come up with. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you:). -Kelly
Date: Fri Oct 25 05:26:11 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Answer(or question to Mentor):
Date: Fri Oct 25 05:34:11 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Answer(or question to Mentor): I think the answer is 160 miles. What I did was multiply 32 times 5. The reason why I did this was because when you multiply it represents 5 sets of 32. It wouldn’t be division because when you do that you are seeing how many times 5 would go into 32.
Date: Fri Oct 25 13:12:27 PDT 2002
Student's Name: Rachel
Mentor Reply: Hi Rachel
Good try on the problem, but you should have used division. The question is asking how many miles away the lightning is if 32 seconds passes between the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder.
Think about how many 5 second intervals there are in 32 seconds (32 divided by 5). This will give you 6 (6*5=30) with a remainder of 2. With the remainder you will have a fraction of 2/5 or .4 since there is not a full set of 5. So the answer is 6.4 or 6 and 2/5 miles.
The next problem will be posted soon. I look forward to helping you again. Take care and have a good weekend:)
Kelly
