Late Night Breakthrough?

Question

I'm just wondering if this ever happens/happened to anyone else. Students and parents alike may answer this one.

I was doing an SAT practice math test last night as I had nothing else to do at the time and knew it would be better to do it then than to wait until this morning (monday) when I'd be tired and have interuptions and probably not do as well. I came to a particular question about perpendicular sloping lines and choosing an equation that fits for a line (not shown) perpendicular to the line given. I couldn't remember a formula for this, but as i looked at the xy plane I could clearly picture the imaginary line i had to find the equation for. My brain must have done something with that information because I just KNEW what the answer was then. I looked at the choices and, while I couldn't explain what was going through my brain at the time, I KNEW the equation HAD to be m = -1/2x.

Answer 1

I've heard of that happening. Specifically in terms of math/science equations. Some people just "see" the result better than being able to sequentially work their way through. It's a global, intuitive way rather than analytical. There's nothing wrong with it--it's just against the traditional school's analytical, sequential approach to most things. And I've also heard of mathematicians/scientists getting a "Eureka!" as the result of a dream. Seems to me there have been some famous scientists who have had that happen, but it was a loooong time ago when I read this stuff, so the names are gone.

Answer 2

wish that happen to me