Missed American Pi!

Apparently, our fair country hit a population milestone yesterday that should appeal to all math and science nerds and geeks out there. We achieved π x 10^8 people in the US. (That's 314,159,265 Americans.)

What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Probably very little. But there's your fun fact for the day. And I missed being on top of this news by one day! Oh well.

"y = mx + b" and teaching

I've been trying to brush up on some algebra from years past. It's amazing, the little things you forget when you don't use them on a daily basis. For example, the equation to determine the slope of a line? I remembered y = mx + b, but that doesn't necessarily help, especially if you don't know what in the world b is. (The y-intercept...where a line crosses the y axis.) Suddenly, upon hearing "rise over run," it all came back. It would be amusing to be a tutor for algebra and not know basics like this. Then again, who knows? Students might actually benefit from having to explain things to me. Teaching a topic really requires that you know exactly what you're talking about.