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February 2023 – The Lazy 8
Believe it or not, this isn’t about eight lazy students. You might find this surprising, but the last subject I expected we would have to write was an essay related to Mathematics. In Grade 13, when I was in high school, we had Calculus, Functions and Algebra.
I think it was Mr. Vogan who assigned us to write an essay about something we learned in one of those subjects. I was far from being a math genius. I had a difficult time in class to understand Euclid Geometry, quadratic equations, deviations and Pythagoras theorem or was it, theory? LOL
After thinking about it, I came up with a subject that I didn’t hear any classmates mention to write about. The trouble was, I couldn’t find too much about it in my research except for occasional mention in my math books. I decided to “wing it” and write about the subject.
And so, I began to write out my essay about Infinity! Thinking about it, I drew a line with a ruler on the page. I explained you could divide it in half forever. Even a track and field athlete if they were somehow able to go half the distance from the start line to finish line which each step, they would never reach the finish line because you can always divide the distance, never reaching the finish line.
You can always add a zero (0) to the end of a number. Some names of large numbers are million, billion, trillion, quadrillion and quintillion.
The ∞ symbol for infinity is like an 8 resting on its side.
I forgot to explain, that the essay was to be a certain number of words.
I wrote about the finite number of words I wrote about infinity. I remember writing the words “The End” at the finish of the essay, but remember this isn’t the end of infinity.
- Which alumni who are three brothers were inducted into a Hall of Fame?
- Find out the answer in next month’s newsletter.
Last month’s answer: True. In 2005, the Ontario government announced changes to the secondary-school mathematics curriculum that would allow imperial units to be taught along with metric units.
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