Today I am going to talk about my biggest challenge in math that I have ever had.  I am also going to explain how I figured it out and what I did to get help.  Well, to start off, the most challenging topic in math that I have learned would probably have to be finding x and y with the graph AND equation.  Now I didn't really struggle with anything in math because math is my best subject, so I don't really have a topic that I didn't understand, but this one was the most difficult to learn and succeed in.
     Okay, well for algebra, we take mini quizzes every week to see if we are understanding a topic, and I didn't do so well on the test.  This was because the quizzes were reworded and that confused me a little bit.  However, the next day, we went over the quiz, and I had found my mistakes.  Now, almost everyone failed this quiz, but we always get three to four tries on the quizzes.  I was also planning to ask for help, but it was just a coincidence  that Mr. Erickson was going over it.
     It really helped that we went over the quiz in class because that night, I took the quiz b, and I earned a 100%.  So, moral of this post, if you EVER need help, you should just ask.  After all, you ARE smart, and I will bet that if you ask a question, you will be helping others too.  Some people are too afraid to ask, but I'm sure you are not the only one that doesn't understand it.

Today I am going to explain the Pythagorean theorem and how it works.  This method was actually created by a Greek man named Pythagoras.  When you are trying to find the area of a triangle, you can use this method to solve it.  Here is the Pythagorean equation and three other ways to write it. 

These are the four most common forms of the Pythagorean equation.

     Hmm. Square roots, or you might know them exponents.  Why are they called that?  That's a very good question.  Well, I think that they are called square roots because you are squaring the root.  I know that sounds stupid, so let me explain.  Say you are given the problem 5^2+30.  You would start solving that problem by multiplying 5x5 then adding 30.  See, the root number is 5, and you are squaring it which mean multiplying it by itself one time.  That is what the ^2 stands for.
     Now, you might be thinking "aren't they called exponents?".  Yes they are, that is another name for them.  Exponents are anything from 5^2, 5^3, 5^4, etc.  I am sure you have learned about them by now.  Exponents are very useful.  I'm sure you are probably saying to yourself "how?".  Well instead of writing out, say 5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5+18, you would write 5^10+18.  This makes it a lot simpler, and it takes a lot less time.