by Dad on Worksheets
We rounded out the school year with a taste of long division, which quickly exhausted the site’s light treatment of worksheets in this category. A few more fine tuned levels of difficulty, in addition to just a larger number of worksheets, have been added. Also, when we ran through several sheets here I noticed a large fraction of problems that had 1 as a divisor… Not exactly challenging for a division problem. These lightweights have been filtered out.
The answer keys for long division are especially helpful because they show the actual steps to solve the problem. Showing detailed answers to a long division problem is important given the number of different procedures and operations (and the corresponding opportunities to drive right off the road in the process of reaching the solution). The old Python logic that generates the long division answers worked in general cases, but was a little flaky in spots when multiple digits had to be brought down to satisfy the divisor in a step. It desperately needed refactoring, and the new solution is much more robust.
Significantly improved long division worksheets have been posted at the link below (or as usual, in the ‘Worksheets’ menu to the right), just in time for your summer review sessions!
Long Division Worksheets
by Dad on Math Riffs, Off Topic!
As I type this, the calm clicks of the keys are punctuated once a minute by a sound I can most accurately ascribe to an evil, mutant cricket. It is the smoke detector at the top of the stairs, warning me that its battery is low. It has, in fact, been warning me quite urgently and persistently since 3:22AM this morning. I do not believe the timing is random, and I suspect it is actually, motive unknown, part of a sinister plan to do me in.
Having invested our full share to inflate the housing bubble, our home meets all of the recent building codes pertaining to fire safety. This includes a full complement of hard-wired smoke detectors — one in each bedroom, at the top and bottom of any stair way and in locations within hallways whose precise specification eludes me. The net result of this is that we have no fewer than nine smoke detectors in the house. I discern at a minimum that the authors of the current building code possess significant stock holdings in smoke detector companies, even if they are not fully complicit in the threats against my life.
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by Dad on Fractions, Worksheets
The addition worksheets for fractions are
posted here, and if we optimistically consider only the four basic math operations, that means I’m a quarter of the way through fractions. Fortunately we only touched on fraction addition this year, so that probably gives me the summer break to get geared up for fourth grade math. I’m certain that’s going to cover a lot more of our fractional friends.
The worksheets recently have taken more effort mostly because they show detailed problem steps in the answer keys. You’ll notice on some of the more complex variations of these fraction worksheets (mixed fractions and uncommon denominators) where we break down intermediate calculations to reach the answers. This really helps with “self grading” of the worksheets because your young mathematicians can see where their calculations went off the rails.
Click here for your full dose of fraction addition!
by Dad on General
Alright, so I know the Python programming language is actually named after the Monty Python group, but after all, the language’s logo (shown here) is a pair of snakes.
One of the great things about the site is how easy it has been to build the worksheets using Python, and it’s definitely gotten me out of some jams. Like today. I built all of the recent geometry worksheets using graphics saved in PNG format, which is a loss-less file format, making it somewhat more attractive relative to the older JPEG format. PNG isn’t a terribly new file format, but some people (including my wife) have had trouble printing the new worksheets. What I really needed to do was convert the 361 PNG files on which I’d labored over into JPEGs and then regenerate the worksheets. Not much fun for a lazy guy like me.
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by Dad on Worksheets
Somewhere out there I’m sure there’s a guy whose job is just to come up with crazy sounding names for all the shapes in the geometry zoo. Worse than the guy who names bacteria. But I suppose, better that than working out all the equations needed to compute key measurements for all those mangy beasts.
Fortunately, we’re starting near the bottom of the geometric food chain. After all, what’s less complex than a shape with exactly one side? Of course, that’s our friend, the perfect circle… The single-celled organism of math. Circles are special in that given one dimension, you can determine all sorts of interesting facts. Got a radius? You’re a few multiplications away from a diameter, area and circumference. And if your basic algebra kung-fu is strong, you can go from area to diameter to radius to circumference just as easily.
Given all the interesting tricks you can do with circles, it’s no surprise how big a role simple circle geometry plays when you start getting into trigonometry. Which is all the more reason for getting the basics down early, and hence the healthy collection of circle geometry worksheets at the links below. Enjoy!
Diameter and Radius of Circles Worksheets
Area and Circumference of Circles Worksheets
Mixed Circle Geometry Exercises
