a. In your opinion, what are the strong features of the metric system, compared with the English system?

b. What are the disadvantages of the metric system, compared with the English system?

c. If you were designing a system of measurement units, what features would you build in?

What is a group of raccoons called?

A regular square pyramid has a base with edges 10 cm long and with its other edges 12 cm long. Show that its volume and surface area are, respectively, 323.3 cm cubed and 318 cm squared. (Hint: Find y first, then x.)

In this essay, written more than half a century ago. White suggests that there is a "strong, indestructible chain" linking the generations. Do you believe such a chain exists today? Explain your opinion.

Vacation Essay Draft an essay that White's son might have written in school when asked to describe his summer vacation. Make sure to include the son's observations of his father.

You may have heard the following questions, which are given as "trick" questions:

a. Which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of iron?

b. Which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?

What are the units for values for the following quantities? (Hint: Look up carat and karat.)

a. the size of a diamond in a ring

b. the purity of the gold in a ring

c. the purity of the water you drink

d. the popularity of television shows

e. the amount of nutrition in a food

f. the healthiness of your gums

g. the chances of winning a lottery

a. A student has 112 honor points for her first 36 units, giving a grade point average (GPA) of 3.1. She then takes 6 units in summer school and gets a 3.5 GPA for the summer. Is her GPA on all her work now 3.3? Explain.

b. You go 100 miles in 2 hours and then go 120 more miles in 3 more hours. What was your average speed for the whole trip? (Hint: It is not 45 mph.)

c. In summer school, a student earned a C in a 3-unit course and an A in a 1-unit course. She thought her average grade was B or a GPA of 3.0, but a friend said that her GPA for the summer was 2.5. Who is correct? (The school operates on a system in which A is 4 honor points per unit, Bis 3, etc.)

How might the key ideas of measurement be used with the quantity of calories in a particular kind of breakfast cereal?

Discussion 3 deals with standard units.

What does the Pythagorean theorem assert about each triangle?

What insights about "Once More to the Lake" do you gain from reading ${ }^{" A}$ Letter from E. B. White"?

Trace the lettered regions in the given diagram, cut them out, and reassemble them to match the square region drawn on the hypotenuse.

If you know someone from a culture quite different from that of the United States, ask her or him whether she or he used measurements units in the other culture that are not used in the United States ( and, if so, tell what the units are used for).

Find the perimeter of each right triangle described.

a. legs 9 cm and 40 cm

b. legs 10 cm and 8 cm

c. hypotenuse 50 m, one leg 14 m

d. hypotenuse 18 cm, one leg IO cm