Math Teachers at Play #73 via Singapore Maths Tuition

Maze photo by woodleywonderworks (CC BY 2.0)
woodleywonderworks (CC BY 2.0)

The monthly math education blog carnival Math Teachers at Play features games, lessons, puzzles, activities, and teaching tips from classroom teachers, homeschoolers, and self-educated learners around the Internet world. Check out the 15 posts of mathematical fun in April’s edition:

Here’s a peek at a few of the entries:

Check out the following awesome blogs!

Math Strategies
There is such an emphasis on learning math facts that our children do not spend enough time learning strategies that will help them solve math problems. Read about two types of strategies for solving math problems—working left to right and regrouping into what you know.
– Crystal Wagner

Nim Games
This is a game that is generally used to show how math can be involved in game play. I explain the rules of the game as well as the mathematical strategy involved. There is also a script where users can compete against the computer
– Aftermath

Day 85 – Related Rates
Two separate trucks carrying a very long wind turbine blade need to turn the corner. Describe how their speeds vary throughout the turn. The blog is dedicated to these types of discussion starters, at all levels.
– Curmudgeon

Click here to go read the entire blog carnival!

Would You Like to Host the Carnival?

Hosting the blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s fun to “meet” new bloggers through their submissions. And there’s a side-benefit: The carnival usually brings a nice little spike in traffic to your blog. If you think you’d like to join in the fun, read the instructions on our Math Teachers at Play page. Then leave a comment or email me to let me know which month you’d like to take.

Reblog: Putting Bill Gates in Proportion

[Feature photo above by Baluart.net.]

Seven years ago, one of my math club students was preparing for a speech contest. His mother emailed me to check some figures, which led to a couple of blog posts on solving proportion problems.

I hope you enjoy this “Throw-back Thursday” blast from the Let’s Play Math! blog archives:


Putting Bill Gates in Proportion

A friend gave me permission to turn our email discussion into an article…

Can you help us figure out how to figure out this problem? I think we have all the information we need, but I’m not sure:

The average household income in the United States is $60,000/year. And a man’s annual income is $56 billion. Is there a way to figure out what this man’s value of $1mil is, compared to the person who earns $60,000/year? In other words, I would like to say — $1,000,000 to us is like 10 cents to Bill Gates.

Let the Reader Beware

When I looked up Bill Gates at Wikipedia, I found out that $56 billion is his net worth, not his income. His salary is $966,667. Even assuming he has significant investment income, as he surely does, that is still a difference of several orders of magnitude.

But I didn’t research the details before answering my email — and besides, it is a lot more fun to play with the really big numbers. Therefore, the following discussion will assume my friend’s data are accurate…

[Click here to go read Putting Bill Gates in Proportion.]


Bill Gates Proportions II

Another look at the Bill Gates proportion… Even though I couldn’t find any data on his real income, I did discover that the median American family’s net worth was $93,100 in 2004 (most of that is home equity) and that the figure has gone up a bit since then. This gives me another chance to play around with proportions.

So I wrote a sample problem for my Advanced Math Monsters workshop at the APACHE homeschool conference:

The median American family has a net worth of about $100 thousand. Bill Gates has a net worth of $56 billion. If Average Jane Homeschooler spends $100 in the vendor hall, what would be the equivalent expense for Gates?

Continue reading Reblog: Putting Bill Gates in Proportion

Reblog: The Handshake Problem

[Feature photo above by Tobias Wolter (CC-BY-SA-3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.]

Seven years ago, our homeschool co-op held an end-of-semester assembly. Each class was supposed to demonstrate something they had learned. I threatened to hand out a ten question pop quiz on integer arithmetic, but instead my pre-algebra students voted to perform a skit.

I hope you enjoy this “Throw-back Thursday” blast from the Let’s Play Math! blog archives:


If seven people meet at a party, and each person shakes the hand of everyone else exactly once, how many handshakes are there in all?

In general, if n people meet and shake hands all around, how many handshakes will there be?

Cast

1-3 narrators
7 friends (non-speaking parts, adjust to fit your group)

Props

Each friend will need a sheet of paper with a number written on it big and bold enough to be read by the audience. The numbers needed are 0, 1, 2, 3, … up to one less than the number of friends. Each friend keeps his paper in a pocket until needed.

[Click here to go read Skit: The Handshake Problem.]