In terms of getting through videos, exercises and units, this week was a huge fail. The goal this week was to get through two units, Polynomial Factorization and Polynomial Division, and I didn’t even get through the first unit. In my defense, however, a pandemic broke out that might end civilization as we know it.

This week, cases of the coronavirus began popping up in Canada and across North America. On Wednesday, Mar. 11^th, March Madness (the NCAA basketball tournament) was cancelled, the NBA suspended the league, and Tom Hanks reported that he and his wife picked up the virus. That was the point at which I really started becoming concerned. The following day, Thursday, Mar. 12^th, all major sports leagues including the NHL, MLSE, ATP, and many more, suspended their seasons too. It was then that I subscribed to the Coronavirus sub-reddit and started to get a better idea of how bad (read: scary) this situation really is.

As I sit here writing this post on Sunday, Mar. 15^th, North America is still in what appears to be the beginning stages of this pandemic. I believe things are going to get much worse and that this virus will dramatically impact our societies way-of-life for the next 8-12 months. (Hopefully I’m wrong.) I believe this pandemic will be considered as significantly impactful as September 11^th and perhaps as World War 2. By comparing this pandemic to World War 2, a big part of me feels like that “dooms-day”, conspiracy theorist who you hear going on about how the world is coming to an end for whatever reason. Unfortunately, an even bigger part of me is telling me that there’s a good chance it will be just as bad as I think it could be. (Again, really hope I’m wrong on this.)

With that said, I did manage to get some math done…

While I was still focused on KA at the beginning of the week, I began working through the unit Polynomial Factorization which, just like last week, was mostly review. One new thing I learned was how to get the ‘complete factorization of a monomial’. This is similar to taking the prime factorization of any number but, when taking the complete factorization of a monomial, you not only take the prime factorization of the coefficient but you also reduce the variable(s) down to it’s/their most “factorized” form (I’m fairly certain that’s not the right way to phrase it). For example:

• 6x^3 = 2 * 3 * x * x * x
• 14x^2y^3 = 2 * 7 * x * x * y * y * y
• 30xy^3 = 2 * 3 * 5 * x * y * y * y

By getting the complete factorization of two or more monomials, it’s then easy to find their greatest common factors.

• 10x^2y^5
  • = 2 * 5 * x * x * y * y * y * y * y
• 25x^3y^2
  • 5 * 5 * x * x * x * y * y
• GCF
  • 5 * x * x * y * y
  • = 5x^2y^2

I then worked through questions where I was asked to find the missing value of a monomial from an equation through cross multiplication/division. As an example:

• 8x^5 = (4x^3)(C)
  • 8x^5/4x^3 = (4x^3)(C)/ 4x^3
  • 2x^2 = C

Lastly, I got practice reviewing factoring out binomials from quadratic equations. Ex.:

• x(x + 1) + 2(x + 1)
  • = (x + 1)(x + 2)

Overall, although most of the material I covered was review, I did struggle a bit working through a number of the questions, specifically the lengthy ones which asked me to factor or distribute binomials. This tells me that I need more practice working with binomials to strengthen my understanding of how they work and make them seem more intuitive to me.

I’m now sitting at my desk finishing this post at 5:10pm on Monday, Mar. 16^th. I’m finding it very difficult to focus on anything other than the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier today, the stock market had its biggest drop since 1987. Justin Trudeau spoke at midday announcing that non-Canadians/permanent residents of Canada are allowed into Canada for the time being (except Americans for some reason). My work has also been closed for two weeks. I suppose it means I’ll have plenty of time work on KA which could be a positive, productive distraction, although I’m finding it very difficult to concentrate. I’m trying to stay optimistic and am really hoping Week 29’s post will have some positive news.