My introduction to surds this year was by setting a problem to my class:
Calculate the exact value of the length of each missing side:
Initially the class knew exactly where to start. Pythagoras. Great. The problem arose when calculating the length of the hypotenuse of the red triangle. The class wanted a calculator. This led to a discussion about exact values and accuracy.
Then I set the class the challenge of drawing the Spiral of Theodorus and to calculate the hypotenuse of each triangle and also to calculate the area of each triangle. Continue reading
fractionfanatic 