In recent years, the term "quantitative literacy" has become a buzzword in the mathematics community. But what does it mean, and is it something that should be incorporated into the high school mathematics classroom? In this article, the authors will define quantitative literacy (QL), discuss how teaching for QL differs from teaching a traditional…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), through its Connections Standard, highlights the importance of "the opportunity for students to experience mathematics in a context." Seeing how mathematics can be used to describe real-world phenomena can motivate students to learn more mathematics. Connecting mathematics to the real world…

Exploring and deriving proofs of closed-form expressions for series can be fun for students. However, for some students, a physical representation of such problems is more meaningful. Various approaches have been designed to help students visualize squares of sums and sums of squares; these approaches may be arithmetic-algebraic or combinatorial…

The notion that the area of an inscribed n-sided polygon approaches the area of a circle as n approaches infinity leads to some interesting limits involving trigonometric functions. (MP)

A common misconception, f(x+y) = f(x)+f(y), is used to prove theorems such as: 2=1; n=o for all positive integers n; and tan x=1 for all x. (MP)

An investigation is given of exceptions to the rule for adding fractions. The use of such exceptions in instruction is discussed. (MP)

The contributions of American mathematicians are briefly discussed, and the contents of some early mathematics textbooks are described. (DT)

A seemingly paradoxical situation is explained which tells of one baseball player having a higher batting average than a second player for two seasons, yet having a lower overall average. (MP)

A proof is given of a construction axiom, involving the use of a Mira used to construct a segment of a length cube root of K when segments of lengths 1 and k are given. (MP)

Student errors led to this exploration of the conditions under which log of x base a = x. The discussion requires only techniques contained in a first-year calculus course. (MP)

Solutions to systems of linear equations with coefficients related to each other by an arithmetic progression are discussed. (SD)

The graph of this function is analyzed by using calculus methods and the computer. The graph in most texts is shown to be misleading. (MP)

The mathematics involved in a computer solution of a well-known board puzzle is discussed. The BASIC program is given. (MP)

Discussed is the problem of finding the volume common to two intersecting right circular cylinders. (MP)