Introduction
In this lesson you will use similarities to solve real world problems. You will do a few activities to help you understand similarity. You get a plane ticket to visit your family for the holidays and decide to do brain teasers through the plane trip.
Task
When you are first purchesing the plane ticket you see two for the same price. You get intreiged and decide to look at the differences between the two flights.
First you decide to find the scale factor of the two planes.
Then you notice that the speed of the second planes is unknown, so you want to figure out the two proportions, knowing that the two planes are similar.
Process
When you look at the information of the planes it states that the first plane is 200 ft long and 50 ft high, the second plane is 226ft long and 56.5 ft high. Take these two planes measurements and figure out their scale factor.
50ft. 60ft.
200ft. 240ft.
http://www.virtualnerd.com/tutorials/?id=PreAlg_06_01_0013
The first planes speed is 535, however the speed of the second plane is unknow. Knowing that these two planes are similar, create a proportion to find the missing speed.
http://www.virtualnerd.com/pre-algebra/ratios-proportions/similar-figur…
Evaluation
| CATEGORY | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Explanation | Explanation is detailed and clear. | Explanation is clear. | Explanation is a little difficult to understand, but includes critical components. | Explanation is difficult to understand and is missing several components OR was not included. |
| Mathematical Errors | 90-100% of the steps and solutions have no mathematical errors. | Almost all (85-89%) of the steps and solutions have no mathematical errors. | Most (75-84%) of the steps and solutions have no mathematical errors. | More than 75% of the steps and solutions have mathematical errors. |
| Completion | All problems are completed. | All but one of the problems are completed. | All but two of the problems are completed. | Several of the problems are not completed. |
Conclusion
As you can see similarities are not that hard to understand. You can apply in so many different everyday situations, or even at practically any job. You can compare weight to price, building to building, or item to item. As you can see theres alway a situation where knowing this concept is essential anywhere.
Extra Practice:
http://www.ixl.com/math/geometry/similarity-ratios
http://www.ixl.com/math/geometry/similarity-statements
Credits
My name is Vianor Ropalo, and I am 15 years old. I chose this topic because there are so many uses for it. You can compare practicly anything to anything with it. I am sure that knowing this skill will be usefull in your life.