Misc Math

I like to use this video because, let's face it, any excuse to show a clip from Searching for Bobby Fischer is a good excuse. But the description of isolating the king serves as a good analogy--or at least introductory hook--for isolating the variable in algebra. 

Clear the lines of men in your head, one at a time and the king will be left standing alone like a man on a street corner.

You can do it step by step on paper. But it would also be good practice to clear the constant and coefficient in your head, while preserving equality of course, until the variable is standing alone on one side of the equation like a man on a street corner.


This is a link to the song, New Math, by Tom Lehrer. A former math professor at Harvard University, Lehrer was also a wry political and social satirist. New Math, from the 1965 album, That Was the Year That Was, was one of the formative comedy albums of my youth, despite the fact that it was released 6 years before I was born. Enjoy.