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Few Questions to Make Learning Effective

  Here, we are taking an example to demonstrate how students are answering the questions right, getting good marks, letting the concept level problem continue and getting stuck in their studies or career at later stage. We also discuss, what approach can help in making learning right.  I hope, readers are aware of linear equations in one variable. Something like 15x+5=90, or 3x+5=2x+9.  Let, a student is asked to solve the 2nd equation 3x+5=2x+9. It's easy for most of the students. He solves this equation using right method and gets the answer as 4. Correct and full marks. Does it mean that he knows the concept of linear equations in one variable good enough?  Why should he solve such equations? Where can these concepts be used? Can he frame a question based on real life scenario where such equation may be needed? Can he visualize the impact of change in coefficients or constant values on the nature of the equation? If he is not clear about all these, then solving large number of s

Some Mathematics in Park

During morning walk, I saw a bench on the right side of the path, something like below image. As I walked further, I found another bench but on the left side of the path. Something like below image. I found that these benches were placed at some regular intervals. There were few places on the path with benches on left side and right side both. I found this quite interesting and useful. Persons walking on the path get place to sit and relax at some intervals with views of right side or left side. Whereas, there are places where people can sit in front of each other and relax.  I decided to get some idea about the distance between two consecutive benches on either sides of the path. I counted the number of steps required to move from one bench to other and got estimates of intervals between two consecutive benches. Left side benches were placed at interval of 200 meters whereas right side benches were 140 meters apart.  There can be several interesting questions in this scenario. You hav

Fitness App Challenge -- An Example of Creating Variations to Understand Simple Things Deeply

  My fitness app gives me monthly challenge related to exercise each month. In June, the challenge was to complete 3600 minutes of exercise in the month. This averages to 120 minutes/ day as there are 30 days in the month of June. That means, If I do 120 minutes exercise each day of the June month, I total 3600 minutes which is equal to the challenge minutes. Average does this only. If average monthly expense in first 8 months of this year in your family is ₹25000, that means the total expense is ₹25000*8 = ₹200000. It is not necessary that the monthly expense is ₹25000 each month to keep the average same. Expenses may be high in some months and may be low too in some months. If the total expense in 8 months is ₹200000, then the average monthly expense is same ₹25000. Coming back to the exercise challenge. Doing 120 minutes of exercise each day was good enough for the June challenge. But, it's quite uncomfortable to keep doing that each day for 30 days. So, I divided the target of