STEP
INTO THE GED
MATH PRACTICE: Poetry
RETURN TO: Poetry Passage
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Another one of the keys to poetry is its use of sounds and rhythms. Think of music. Most music has a background (accompaniment) that follow a rhythm. Its also has a melody. The rhythm gives us the beat; the melody is what we can hum or sing. Click on each file, or sound clip, below to listen to the rhythm behind the music. Keep counting, even if you don't hear a note play on each beat. Sometimes the beat is silent. Sometimes the notes sound off the beat, but the beat is there, just like your heart keeps beating no matter what you are doing. (Each sound will play on your computer's sound player. Give it time to load.)
The sounds you heard have differences. Some are faster than others. But the rhythm is the same: 1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4; on and on. Count the four beats in each clip. Play them again to hear the beat. Many poems have lines with the same number of beats. Count the beats in this poem. How many beats does each line have?
Let's change to another beat. A waltz is one of the oldest and easiest beats to follow. Waltzes have three beats. The first beat is the strongest or heaviest. 1,2,3; 1,2,3; 1,2,3 Click below to hear the dreamy waltz rhythm. Count with the beat. If you want to "see" the rhythm of your thoughts, you write sentences and use punctuation. A poem has lines. If you try to “see” the accompaniment in a waltz, you could imagine it this way. Each box is a “measure,” like a sentence is one full thought. A box is like a line in a poem. Each box, or measure, shows the time it takes to play one set of three beats; 1,2,3 – the usual number for a waltz.
When the melody also has three notes, both the beat and the melody run along without a problem. Here’s a picture of that kind of regular measure.
When the melody has more than 3 notes, the melody notes need to be shared among the 3 accompaniment notes. Below, the numbers are small, so this is easy to figure out.
Musicians might say, "Play two notes to each beat." When you are talking about two things in relation to each other, you have a ratio. "Play two notes to each beat." That is one way of expressing a ratio: two notes to a beat. RATIOS A ratio compares two things in relation to each other. In the box above, 2 to 1 is the ratio. That means two faster notes for each slower accompaniment note or beat. With our boxes, you can see that each long section (1/3 of the box) has 2 smaller sections, each 1/6 of the box. Oom pah pah
Each accompaniment note (1/3) holds two melody notes (each 1/6, both melody notes = 2/6). In numbers, this would look like this 1/3 = 2/6 In math, this is called a proportion. A proportion is a set of numbers that means the same thing, the same amount. That is, 1/3 of the box is the same as 2/6 of the box. ____________________________________________ Check the Math Tutor to review the method for working with ratios and solving proportions. When you finish, return to this page and complete the exercises. Complete the proportions. Do the multiplication for x first. Remember, your answer tells you what x is, the unknown number. 1. ½ = 4/x
2. 1/3 = x/15
3. 1/6 = 12/x
4. ½ = 5/x
5. 3/8 = x/24
6. 3/7 = x/14 7. 1/3 = x/9 8. 2/5 = x/10
Exercise 2: Word Problems You may want to review the Tips for Solving Word Problems in the Math Tutor.
1. Three friends buy a package of cookies. There are 12 cookies in the package. How many cookies should each friend get?
2. You want to make a banner for a party. You figure out that you need 24 inches of material. You have found some very nice, but expensive material. The clerk told you she will sell you thirds of a yard or fourths of a yard, but she won’t sell you inches. She doesn’t want to have to divide a price by 36 since there are 36 inches in a yard. Reduce your ratio to its lowest terms to get to the closest third or fourth. You may have to reduce the numbers more than once. 24/36 = ?
3. A restaurant owner wants a tiled wall to have a row of smaller tiles as a decorative detail. The contractor figures out that four small tiles fit over one large tile’s space. The length of the wall will have 65 tiles in it. How many small tiles does the contractor need?
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