"robert casey" wrote in message
nk.net...

Teaching vectors to people who have had no math higher than basic algebra
was quite a challenge.


I can remember the first time vectors and such came up in math class. I
got hung up with the names they gave numbers that had "i (square root
of -1)" in them. "imaginary". To me "imaginary" = "fake", so why would
you talk about fake numbers in a math class? If this was English Lit
class, then sure, anything goes there, but not in math class.... You'll
probably run into things like this, and have no idea what the problem is
when you do the teaching.

Actually wasn't too hard. I told them that mathematicians needed "imaginary
playmates"!

From the practical point of view, I simply showed them how to work the
problems with "triangles". The real number was the horizontal and the
imaginary the vertical. This cuts it down to something they have seen
before even if a long time ago. No sweat.

Dee, N8UZE