Exemplification Essay, Kozol, Zinsser, and MacFarquhar Essay

Exemplification , Kozol, Zinsser, and MacFarquhar - Essay Example In my teens, I helped unearth mysteries and solve crimes with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Later on, I sat in the courtroom and watched Atticus Finch deliver a riveting closing argument in defense of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Recently, through Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, I learned that what passes for conventional wisdom in the society is not necessarily truth. This reading albeit for fun was quite instrumental in laying a foundation for more serious academic work as well as arming me with knowledge that helped me make sense of the various issues I encountered in life. Having profited from the knowledge I gained, I second Mark Twain in his classic assertion that he who cannot read good books has no advantage over him who cannot read at all. College students today are more concerned with grades than they are with acquiring knowledge. Students have realized the importance of having good papers in order to succeed in the outside world. They therefore endeavor to ensure that the grades they get are spick and span, which is often in great detriment to the knowledge gained in the courses that they pursue. As a result, untold hundreds of students roll out of campus half-baked but with excellent grades at which most employers cannot help but marvel. Zinssner quotes a fellow professor who bemoaned that in previous years, the key question he would get from students was on how they could make a difference in the world. However, over the years, this question changed to the kind of subject combinations that would be favorable to enable one to pursue a particular kind of course. Such students almost certainly end up not benefiting the society one single bit since all they did was to cram for the sake of passing an exam. He further highlights such problems by pointing out to students pursuing reputable courses such as

Solving Equations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Solving Equations - Assignment Example In this project, Bluman (2004, p. 331) challenged students to examine an equation, x2 – x + 41, which purportedly yields prime numbers. Students choose numbers to substitute to x in the formula and observe if prime numbers occur. An added challenge was to venture into finding a number, which when substituted in the given equation, will result in a composite number. It is presupposed that a prime number is one whose factors are itself and 1, is common knowledge. On the other hand, a composite number may not be that much of a common knowledge. A definition is thus, provided: a composite number is â€Å"any whole number greater than one that is not a prime number †¦ [it] always has at least one divisor other than itself and 1† (p. 175). Based on the instructor’s specifications, numbers to be substituted should include zero (0), any two even numbers and any two odd numbers. The numbers chosen for substitution aside from 0 were: 10 and 16; and 9 and 11. Table 1 presents the computations involved in this project in five columns: the given equation, the number substituted, the computation, the result and an indicator of whether the result is a prime or a composite number. As shown in Table 1, all the five numbers substituted to the equation yielded all prime numbers. However, the greater challenge in this project was to find if the equation could also yield composite numbers. For this purpose, an attempt was made to find results which are composite number using the first 201 integers from 0 -200, which should serve as the delimitation for the scope of the substitutions. This mini-experiment revealed that the equation x2 – x + 41 does not result in all prime numbers. Substituting 0 – 40 yielded all prime numbers. From 41 onwards, many composite number outcomes were found. Table 2 shows the numbers substituted which came out with non-prime or composite results, together with the factors of the composite number other than one and itself. The substituted