Monday, September 26, 2011

Math for Monday, September 26, 2011

We finally got back to prime and composite numbers. 

  • Today’s Lesson: Math Makes Sense
    • Chapter 2, Lesson 5 - Prime and Composite Numbers (Pages 45-47)
  • Learning Goals:
    • A number with exactly two factors, 1 and itself, is a prime number.
    • A number with more than two factors is a composite number.
    • The number 1 is neither prime nor composite.
  • Classwork: Practice Questions 1-11
    • Hand in #5 & 8 – Show your work
  • Homework Book: Pages 20-21

An important concept that we talked about today in class was that you could eliminate possibilities in order to come up with a correct answer.  For example if I want to know which of the numbers between 40 and 50 are prime, I could list all of the the numbers, and then explain why some aren’t prime (i.e. are composite) and the numbers that remain are prime.

  • Possible prime numbers:  40     41     42     43     44     45     46     47     48     49     50
    • 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, and 50 are all even numbers that can be divided by two so they aren’t prime.
  • 41, 43, 45, 47, 49 remain
    • 45 is a multiple of 5 (5 x 9) so it isn’t prime.
  • 41, 43, 47, 49 remain
    • 49 is a multiple of 7 (7 x7) so it isn’t prime.
  • 41, 43, 47 remain
  • Now I only have three numbers to test using division.  I will test them to see if they can be divided by any of the low prime numbers that I haven’t already dealt with.
    • None of these can be divided by 2, 3, 5, 7 or 11 so they must be prime!
  • 41, 43, 47 are prime numbers.