Thursday, November 5, 2009

A New Math Word

My husband's seventh grade class has come up with a new math term! In science they have learned that the prefix "eu" means true. So eubacteria, as opposed to archeabacteria, means true bacteria.  And eukariotic means true nucleus. 

In math, they are learning about variables. Now the definition of variable is "a value that can change". In the the equation y=2x + 5, the variables are x and y. And their values can change.

But sometimes variables or letters are used just to hold a place and the value is pre-determined. An example of this is in the equation 2x +3 = 7. In this case x=2 and the variable is holding the place of the 2.

So the new math word? Here it is: EUVARIABLE!!! It means a true variable and not just a place holder.

Congratulations to my husband and his seventh graders! Good thinking!

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