Re: FHSST-Maths: solving updated

[Sam Halliday]

On 29 Jun 2005, at 17:15, Riana Meyer wrote:
> Please find attached the solving chapter with my additions.

excellent!

> 1.  Sub subsections - I want the rules headings to be bigger than  
> the example headings

don't worry about formatting. that is all defined elsewhere in LaTeX  
and will look different when the book is published. the beauty of  
LaTeX is that you define sections and then the typesetter decides  
what it looks like.

in fact... i don't think there is any need to title all the examples  
anyway! :-)

> 2. Rule 2 - It is the last two lines of page two and looks odd. it  
> should be the beginning of page 3, how do I do that?

again, don't worry about how it looks. that's the typesetter's job.

> 3. TIPS - I cant figure out a way for them to stand out more like  
> in the word document. What environments do you suggest I use , the  
> frame box doesn't seem to work?

don't worry about that. as long as you make it clear something is to  
be in a tip box, then we will get around to making a correct  
environment one day.

> 4.  eqn line 1.19 - is that the right way to do it or should I use  
> \div ?

\frac{}{} is definitely best

a few general LaTeX comments:
----------------------------
- do not try to force it to look a certain way. just type it and keep  
things simple (sections/subsections for ordering). as i've already  
said, it is the typesetter's job to make it *look* right. and it will  
if it has been set out logically :-)

- you cannot use & in an equation. only in multi-line equations like  
eqnarray. your file gave a lot of errors i had to fix.

- please "wrap" your lines at 80 characters or so :-)

- i think you can safely remove all the titles for the examples. just  
incorporate them to flow with the text instead.

- you keep using the Rightarrow (implies) symbol. i don't think it is  
necessary. and using it also means we have to explain what it means.  
it can be safely removed too

a few content related comments:
------------------------------
- in the intro to the whole chapter you should explain the thought  
process which goes behind solving a problem. identifying the problem,  
what you are supposed to do, breaking big problems into lots of small  
ones... etc etc. the physics guys have done a lot of work on this.  
maybe you'll want to read the physics stuff about this. mark will  
know more, so email him about it :-)

- the joseph example is good, but is there maybe an example more  
"relevant". something that might actually show up in the real  
world... preferably SA "outcomes based" examples like the syllabus  
asks for. it'd be good to have something which kids read and think  
"wow, i never realised that important question is a maths one"  
instead of them thinking "that is never gonna happen! joseph is such  
a nerd"

- it might be useful to explain what "linear" means in the  
introduction. the Functions chapter already shows what a straight  
line looks like algebraically (have a quick read) and points out the  
graph features. but it might be good just to restate what a linear  
problem is.

- please be very careful that content you are adding does not already  
exist in the book. please have a quick read over the first "numbers"  
chapter. especially the "algebra of the real numbers" bit  
(rearranging equations). i am editing this file at the moment (with  
pen and paper, no LaTeX) and i have a few more simple rules to add  
regarding adding/subtracting and using more "numbers" to the inline  
examples.
  most of the "tools" already exist in the rest of the book (your  
rules 1-3), this solving section is more about combining them and  
using them to solve real problems. sorry if i didn't tell you about  
"Numbers" before! *ducks*

- give more examples which look like the equation of a straight line

- there are perhaps too many examples in the main text. i was  
thinking the whole section should be about 2 or 3 pages (intro &  
motivation, few basic flowing examples). at this stage, the reader  
should really be able to solve linear equations. "linear" is just  
sorta here because it is logical to have it grouped with the  
quadratic/etc solving sections. as a nice intro to "how to solve a  
problem".
  start-up an "Exercises" section at the end and just put all the  
redundant examples in there as questions and answers (no need for  
working). we will also have "worked examples", but i'm hoping to only  
put real SA exam questions in there.

i hope that's enough food for thought :-) its was a good contribution  
and i'm happy to give the file back to you for july editing! feel  
free to move onto quadratic after these edits, or tackle the chapter  
intro.

don't worry that there is so much criticism... that's what its like.  
i don't think anything has ever ended up looking anything like the  
initial commit. what we have now is a strong base to build on

cheers,
Sam
--
Free High School Science Texts
  http://www.nongnu.org/fhsst/
Sam's Homepages
  http://fommil.homeunix.org/~samuel/
  http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~samuel/

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