I Am A Math Freak

One of the reasons I went into teaching was because I love math.  I'm one of those people who would likely enjoy sitting around on a rainy day solving algebraic equations, simplifying trigonometric equations, finding derivatives and integrals...but like I said, I AM A MATH FREAK!  I wanted to have a career that involved math on a daily basis but didn't know what else to do other than to teach it.  A career in teaching, if you know much about me, what not one of my best decisions.  There were some aspects I really enjoyed about teaching, but the aspects I hated about teaching out weighed all those I liked. 

One thing I loved about teaching was "The Problem of the Week" I had.  I would put up a new problem each week for each subject I taught. At Kingsway Christian I had 7th grade math, 8th grade math, Geometry, and Pre-calculus.  So I had four "subjects".  Each week I planned out four of these problems for my students and I loved every minute of it.  (As an interesting side note, the janitor who cleaned my room always left her answers on my desk and asked me to check them for her.  She enjoyed the problems and wanted to know if she had the right answer.)  I was sad to pack up my teaching stuff and all of the fun problems with it.

So today, I have decided to use my blog to post a problem of the week every Friday for all of you out there in cyberspace.  Maybe, over time, those of you who never liked math will see its fun side, or maybe you'll just think I'm crazy (which is fine too).  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  You can post your answers in the comments section if you like.  I will post the answer to each problem on Sunday.  Here is today's problem.

One Through Nine

Can you use all nine digits from 1 through 9, along with any available mathematical operation*, to represent 100?

Here are two examples:

1 +2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6+ 7 + (8 x 9) = 100

123 + 45 - 67 + 8 - 9 = 100

*These include, but are not limited to:  addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, exponents, etc.

**There is no one right solution to this problem.  It has an infinite number of solutions.  Can you find one of them?  Enjoy!

Sincerely,

The Math Freak