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Today's soundtrack is Liquid Tension Experiment: Liquid Tension Experiment, an experimental progressive instrumental rock album by some of the members of Dream Theater (and friends). This afternoon, I'm working on [what I hope will be] the last part of this lesson about the vertex form of the quadratic formula. Links to previous sessions: part 1, part 2, and part 3. I figured out today that we can use the vertex form of a quadratic function to determine the number of x-interc

Today's soundtrack is Meshuggah: Chaosphere, perhaps the best album from the grandfathers of djent. Their music video for the song "New Millenium Cyanide Christ" is hilarious. This afternoon, I'm working on the assignment portion of the lesson I did on the quadratic function in vertex form. Parts one and two are here and here. Through a bit of trial and error, I figured out that if I substitute 0 for y in the vertex form, I can solve the equation, turning it into standard (or

Today's soundtrack is Charlotte Church: Voice of an Angel. As she was only twelve at the time that this album was recorded, and it's clear that she hadn't yet reached her vocal prime, I do wonder how much of this album was actually her idea and how much of it was a case of her being exploited by a major label. The arrangements are all quite cliche, and sometimes a bit over-the-top. It is a pleasant enough album; I think that later on I'll see what else she's been up to musica

Today's soundtrack is Living Sacrifice: Conceived in Fire, one of my favourite Christian metal albums. This afternoon, I'm continuing on to the second portion of the lesson I just did about the vertex form of the quadratic function. To graph a quadratic function from its vertex form, we do the following: Compare the equation with its formula, y = a(x - p)² + q, so that we know which variable each number represents If a is negative, the vertex will be the function's maximum po

Today's soundtrack is Tchaikovsky: Masters of Classical Music, Vol. 6. This afternoon's lesson is "Analyzing Quadratic Functions of the Form y = a(x - p)² + q". Now, I've never heard of this form, so I did a Google search on it and found a video on Khan Academy which says that there are three forms of the quadratic equation: vertex form, factored form, and standard form. Apparently y = a(x - p)² + q is vertex form. Based on that information, I was able to find another video o

Today's soundtrack is Shai Linne: Storiez, a collection of (of course) stories about people from different places and times coming face-to-face with circumstances that test their faith. This afternoon, I'm working on the assignment portion of the quadratic function lesson. Parts 1 and 2 of the lesson can be found here and here. The very first question asked me to graph and identify the vertex of several equations. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to do so with m

Today's soundtrack is Wintersun: Wintersun. I remember being disappointed with this album when I first bought it. I was really into Emperor and Satyricon at the time and, based on the name and the album art, I was looking forward to a bone-chilling album full of blast beats and vocals recorded in a bathtub in a tunnel. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a melodic death metal album! Fortunately, it grew on me over time, and I now really enjoy this album. This evening

Today's soundtrack is Petra: Jekyll and Hyde, which I still thought of as being a fairly recent album until I looked up the artwork for today's post and realized that it was released in 2003. It's fifteen years old. I bought it shortly after it was released. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. Unrelated side note: My website has hit a new milestone today - 200 unique visitors! This afternoon, I'm working on the second part of the quadratic function lesson. In this uni

Today's soundtrack is Rush: Moving Pictures, which I think is one of the greatest albums of all time. Neil Peart's drumming is incredible, and I'm blown away by Geddy Lee's virtuosity on the bass. He really treats it like its own instrument; it dances gracefully with the guitar, confident in its own right. And, of course, the synthesizers are top-notch: sweeping, soaring, singing - adding such flavour and atmosphere. My favourite tracks on the album are "Tom Sawyer" and "YYZ.

Today's soundtrack is Beethoven: Symphony No. 5. This afternoon, I'm handwriting the seventh part of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." #WaltWhitman #Beethoven

Today's soundtrack is Symphony X: Iconoclast. This album was a Christmas gift from my wife a few years back. It has some really cheesy moments lyrically, but musically, it's solid. This afternoon, I wrote my Unit 3 test on quadratic equations. I think it went really well. *Update: 98%! #SymphonyX

Today's soundtrack is Nine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a fun, raunchy, and unexpectedly tender-hearted album. I've seen both the film and the live performance, and both are wonderful experiences. This afternoon, I'm doing my Unit 3 Review in preparation for my test tomorrow. This section has covered factoring polynomial expressions, solving quadratic equations by factoring, using square roots to solve quadratic equations, the quadratic formula, and interpreting the d

Today's soundtrack is Shawn McDonald: Simply Nothing. "Take My Hand" is by far my favourite track on the album; it brings me back many years to a time of seemingly endless possibilities. We can interpret the discriminant of a quadratic equation to determine the number of roots that a quadratic equation has - without needing to solve the equation! When we substitute a quadratic equation in the form of ax² + bx + c = 0 into the quadratic formula, the section inside the radical,

Today's soundtrack is Evanescence: The Open Door. This evening, I'm continuing to work on my assignment from the Quadratic Formula lesson. The first two parts of my homework can be found here and here. It was a lot of work, but I've finally finished this section. One problem that I ran into was on a question asking me to convert radicals to a quadratic equation before solving. I made a mistake in squaring, forgetting to isolate the radical before applying the square. Once I g

Today's soundtrack is Relient K: Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...But Three Do, a fun pop-punk album about mood rings, talking gibberish, and wearing pink tuxedos. This evening, I'm continuing to work on my Quadratic Formula homework. I got 1/4 of the assignment done yesterday; I made better progress today: I'm now done 5/8 of the assignment. #RelientK