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2013
Sat
25
May

# It’s Raining Benefactors In June

(7)
Tuition given in the topic of Miss Loi the Tutor from the desk of at 3:58 pm (Singapore time)

Another update:

Apparently, our in-house ‘chef’ is proving to be a hit among our participants!

Update:

Seems like many 小强s, 小明s and 小亮s have drawn the 上上签 this June 😀

Time to roll up the sleeves and 开工咯!

With an abrupt thud, she fell to her knees in front of the altar, oblivious to the choking joss sticks smoke swirling around her.

Mustering an immense focus that would triumph any muggertoad student’s, she began shaking the bamboo container of sticks in her hands while she uttered,

[translated from Cantonese]

Oh my divine deity. Please bless and advise me. My son 小强 will be taking his O Levels this year. But he just failed his Maths mid-year exam and from his exam script he doesn’t even know how to solve 1n+1!

Surely and surely, the shaking caused one of the sticks to emerge from the pile and drop to the floor.

Astonished, she quickly returned the stick into the container and began shaking it again.

Oh thank you my divine deity!

By the way, my 小强 also failed his Chemistry. And he still thinks that Mole Concept has something to do with cosmetic surgery!

Another stick left the container and dropped to the floor.

Oh thank you thank you my divine deity!

Actually hor, my 小强 failed his Physics as well. Until now he still thinks that sea breeze occurs at night since his BBQ pit at East Coast Beach was disrupted by strong winds before a thunderstorm!

Another stick dropped to the floor.

Oh thank you so much my divine deity!

Not trying to be greedy har … but my 小强 also failed his Social Studies. Errr … what is SBQ and SEQ har???

Can advise me one more time?

With everything “dropped and done”, she gathered the sticks and rushed excitedly to the temple’s fortune sticks interpreter.

Sifu! The sticks I’ve gotten all contain a φ symbol in place of the usual number. And all of them say I’ll “meet my Benefactor in June”. What does this mean?

The Interpreter took a cursory glance at the sticks.

Ah … another Last-Minute Buddha Foot Hugging case.

This φ symbol belongs to a newly-constructed Temple in the central part of Singapore, wherein reside the Benefactors who will be able to save the grades of your son.

June is the period when this Temple holds its June Holiday intensive joss sticks sessions for the subjects you have prayed for your child.

You may find more details at this Temple’s official internet website.

You better hurry, as June is just a week away and their joss sticks tend to go out of stock really fast – this is exactly the same thing I told the mothers of 小华, 小明 and 小亮 last week!

### Revision Exercise

To show that you have understood what Miss Loi just taught you from the centre, you must:

1. Cynthia commented in tuition class

2013
Aug
25
Sun
12:56am

1

Hi Miss Loi,

For Kinematics question, if the equation of the acceleration is given, how do we find out the constants for integration ?
Is it when t=0, we can assume that displacement and velocity = 0 ?

Hope you can advise me on this question.

A particle passes a fixed point O with a velocity of 7 ms-1 and moves in a straight line with an acceleration of (6-2t) ms-2.
(a) the value of t when the velocity is again 7 ms-1.

Thank you 🙂

• 2013
Aug
26
Mon
12:59am

1.1

@Cynthia:

A particle passes a fixed point O with a velocity of 7 ms−1

Umm ... assuming t = 0 when the particle is at O (usually there should be a "... after t seconds ..." somewhere within the question just to be sure), the above statement means that when t = 0, its velocity v = 7 ms−1

First we obtain the general expression for the velocity. Since acceleration, a = 6 − 2t,

v = ∫ a dt
= 6tt² + c

When t = 0, v = 7, so ...
7 = 6(0) − (0)² + c
c = 7
v = 6tt² + 7

Sub v = 7:
7 = 6tt² + 7
t(6 − t) = 0
t = 0, 6

∴ The value of t = 6 when the velocity is again 7 ms-1

2. Cynthia commented in tuition class

2013
Sep
4
Wed
7:14pm

2

Miss Loi, thank you for your detailed explanations.
Hope you allow me to ask another question.

What is stationary point and why is d2y/dx2 < 0 a maximum point ?
Is it just a formula ?

• 2013
Sep
10
Tue
7:17pm

2.1

@Cynthia: Eh ... o.O ... to put it simply, a stationary point of a curve y = f(x) is a point on the curve where its gradient is zero i.e.

As to why when stationary point is a maximum point, you may

1. treat it as just a "formula" as part of the Second Derivative Test
or
2. observe the corresponding graphs from the Maximan & Minima chapter in your A-Maths textbook
or
3. refer to the following diagram as an alternative (albeit simplistic) way of looking at the Second Derivative Test 😉

3. Alice commented in tuition class

2013
Sep
15
Sun
1:33pm

3

Hi Miss Loi,
What if I don't take amath at O levels, but I want to go JC. And I need the amath foundation for my H1/2 Math, can I still join Jossticks for the JC Math tuition?

• 2013
Oct
13
Sun
7:33pm

3.1

@Alice: Sure you can 😀

Before that though, we'll need to understand a bit more of your foundational background and the topics that you'll need to brush up on before school commences next year.

Please call 9795 3323 who will be happy to assist you with more information on The Temple's upcoming JC bridging courses 🙂

4. Cynthia commented in tuition class

2013
Sep
28
Sat
9:20pm

4

Thank you, Miss Loi.
Just didn't want to memorise, as it's better to learn through concepts.

Does that imply that stationary point is the tangent line ?