Tutoring physics or chemistry, significant figures are part of the landscape. Knowing when zero is significant can be tricky. In this, our second installment on significant figures (see the first one here), we start on the practical question, “What digits are significant?” …
When you tutor chemistry or physics, significant figures are a constant theme. Some people call them significant digits. We’ll start our explanation today. Bill: How heavy is that boat? Joe: Maybe 30 tons, give or take a couple. Bill: Then …
Tutoring Biology 12, you sometimes talk about recombinant DNA. We’ll briefly look at what it is and why it’s used. Recombinant DNA (rDNA) contains DNA from more than one organism. The industrial uses I know of involve inserting specific genes from one species into …
Tutoring math, you often get asked about sets of numbers. Let’s sort out what belongs where. We’ll make this story as short as possible: Naturals (N): {1,2,3,4…..} These might be referred to as counting numbers. Wholes (W): {0,1,2,3,4…..} These include all the naturals, plus zero. Integers (Z): {….-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3….} …
Tutoring math, the FOIL method is used daily. We’ll explain it here. In math, the distributive property is used constantly. An illustration: 3(5x-7)=15x-21 To see what’s really happening here, look to the following: We see that we take the outer number (in this case, …
Tutoring high school physics, you get the privilege of retelling Newton’s three Laws. They can’t be discussed too often. Newton’s First Law: If no unbalanced force acts on an object, it either continues moving in a straight line at constant speed, or else remains in its …
When you tutor high school chemistry, writing chemical formulas comes up every year. Having investigated ionic compounds, let’s sort out covalent ones. If you look in the Chemistry category, you’ll see various posts about writing chemical formulas for ionic compounds. Those …
When you tutor high school biology, cell biology is a mainstay. The particular role of the cell membrane sometimes gets neglected. Membranes are very important in the construction of organisms. Every membrane has the basic function of keeping materials separate or else keeping …
One issue in English tutoring is apostrophes. We’ll sort out when to use them – and when not to. In everyday English, you commonly see apostrophes misused. There are only two cases in which you do use them: 1) In contractions, such as can’t …
Tutoring high school science, you might be asked about plate tectonics at any time. Here is the most condensed, pragmatic explanation you’ll likely find. To believe in plate tectonics – which, by the way, is true beyond any doubt – you need …