I hope it is obvious that Alexandria Jones and her family are fictional. Their stories will appear sporadically, as I find time to transcribe them from the back-issues of my old math newsletter. I am trying to keep the months lined up, since some of the content is seasonal.
In case you missed any of them, here are all the Alexandria Jones stories so far, plus a peek into the future. I hope you will have as much fun reading Alex’s adventures as I had writing them.
“Table of Contents” Quicklinks
- Introducing Alexandria Jones
- The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure
- The Mysterious Temporal Freeze
- The Thief in the Night
- The Christmas Present Quandary
- The Secret of the Egyptian Fractions
- The Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles
- The Mosaic Tile Mystery
- The Birthday Surprise
- The Mathematical Carnival
- The 80-Yard Drive
- The Strange Attractor
- The Mathematical Monsters
- The Uncommon Logarithms
- The Summer of “Slavery”
- The Case of the Pillow Problems
- The Magic Christmas Cards
- The Mid-Winter Doldrums
- The Island of Knights and Knaves
- Return to Ipet-Isut
- The Secret of False Position
Introducing Alexandria Jones
The story behind Alex’s story, how it all started with a few homeschooling friends who played around with math.
May/June 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure
In this issue, we play the Pharaoh’s Pyramid game (a 2-D version of Nim), learn a little about surveying, and meet four mathematicians from history: Diophantus, Pappus of Alexandria, Leonardo Fibonacci, and Srinavasa Ayengar Ramanujan.
- The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 1
- The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 2
- The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 3
- Historical Tidbits: The Pharaoh’s treasure
- Historical Tidbits: Alexandria Jones
- Historical Tidbits: Alexandria Jones Answers
July/August 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mysterious Temporal Freeze
Time stops for Alex and friends, and we calculate how long it would take a cat to eat a lasagna the size of Illinois.
September/October 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Thief in the Night
We learn to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs, discover how the Egyptian scribes multiplied numbers, and play around with function machines. Then we try our hands at story problems and geometry challenges from the Rhind and Moscow mathematical papyri.
- The Thief in the Night
- Egyptian Math in Hieroglyphs
- Alex’s Puzzling Papyrus
- Egyptian Math Puzzles
- Another Egyptian Math Puzzle
- Egyptian Geometry and Other Challenges
- Egyptian Math: The Answers
November/December 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Christmas Present Quandary
Alex designs tessellation wrapping paper, hunts for the perfect Christmas tree, and comes up with a lively present for her brother. We meet the rest of Alex’s family, along with historical figures Maria Agnesi and Leonhard Euler, and we take a brief glance at mathematics from China.
- The Christmas Present Quandary
- A-Hunting They Will Go
- The Golden Christmas Tree
- Leon’s Christmas Gift
- Magic Square Puzzles
- Christmas Puzzle Answers
- Historical Tidbits: Agnesi, Euler, and China
January/February 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Secret of the Egyptian Fractions
Dr. Jones teaches Alex and Leon to work with fractions, Egyptian-style, and Leon paints a wooden block puzzle. For history, we explore the mathematicians of Napoleon Bonaparte: Gaspard Monge, Fourier, and LaPlace.
- The Secret of Egyptian Fractions
- Egyptian Fractions: The Answer Sheet
- Leonhard’s Block Puzzles
- Alex & Leon’s Homeschool Puzzle
- Answers to Alex’s and Leon’s Puzzles
- Historical Tidbits: Math and the Emperor Napoleon
March/April 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles
The Jones family flies to Italy for spring break and visits the ruins of the Pythagorean school. Leon learns to make pebble numbers, and Alex challenges him to a strategy game. For history, we learn about the great crisis of ancient Greek mathematics.
- The Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles
- Puzzle: Figuring Out Figurate Numbers
- Answers to Leon’s Figurate Number Puzzles
- Game: Avoid Three, or Tic-Tac-No!
- An Ancient Mathematical Crisis
- Historical Tidbits: The Pythagorean Brotherhood
May/June 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mosaic Tile Mystery
Alex receives a letter from Dr. Theano, asking for help in solving an archaeological puzzle. Leon learns the Pythagorean Theorem, and we try our hands at geometric algebra. A politician makes mathematical history.
- The Mosaic Tile Mystery
- The Pythagorean Proof
- Euclid’s Geometric Algebra
- Answers: Euclid’s Geometric Algebra
- A Mathematician for President
- Historical Tidbits:Euclid and the Presidents
July/August 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Birthday Surprise
Alex has a birthday, and the Jones family explores some problems about probability. My math club students treat us to their story problem challenges, and for history, we meet the battling Bernoulli brothers.
- The Birthday Surprise
- Introduction to Probability
- Quotations XXIV: Probability
- Probability and Baby Blues
- How to Start an Argument: The Monty Hall Problem
- Story Problem Challenges
- Probability Issue: Hints and Answers
- Math History Tidbits: The Battling Bernoullis
September/October 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mathematical Carnival
Maria Jones suffers from Can’t-Say-No Syndrome, and the Jones children plan a mathematics carnival for their homeschool group. We learn several math and logic games and meet a few mathematical puzzlers from history: Claude Bachet, Charles Dodgson, and Sam Loyd.
- The Mathematical Carnival
Includes “How to Plan Your Own Math Carnival” - Cousin Sam’s 15 Challenge
- Alex Deals out Equations
- Lewis Carroll’s Logic Challenges
- Quotations: Math is a Game
- A Couple of Chess Puzzles
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits and Puzzles
November/December 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the 80-Yard Drive
The Jones family meet Uncle Will and cousin Sam for a tailgate picnic before the big football game, and someone else tries to crash the party. Alex plays with Platonic solids, and Alex and Leon trade story problems. For history, we meet René Descartes.
- The 80-Yard Drive
- And the Baby Is…
- A Football Puzzle
- Renee’s Platonic Mobile
- The Graph-It Game
- A New Graph-It Puzzle (non-religious)
- The Grandfather of Computer Graphics
- Babymath: Story Problem Challenge III
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: Rene Descartes
January/February 2000 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Strange Attractor
Alex gets distracted from cleaning her room by a lesson about chaos theory and fractals. For history, we meet Benoit Mandelbrot and learn how to draw cartoony winter trees.
- The Strange Attractor: Alex’s Problem with Chaos
- Glossary of Fractal Terms
- Koch’s Fractal Snowflake
- Pythagorean Fractal Trees
- Everybody Talks About the Weather…
- Quotations: Fractals and Chaos
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: Benoit Mandelbrot and Fractals
March/April 2000 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mathematical Monsters
Alex continues to learn about fractals when Simon Skulk threatens to hold the world for ransom. Our math history tidbits feature Blaise Pascal, Georg Cantor, Giuseppe Peano, and Waclaw Sierpinski.
- The Mathematical Monsters
- More Mathematical Monsters
- Blaise Pascal’s Triangle
- More Triangular Patterns
- The Jurassic Park Dragon
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: Pascal, Cantor, Peano, and Sierpinski
May/June 2000 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Uncommon Logarithms
Leon discovers a slide rule, and Maria Jones teaches her children about logarithms. In math history, we meet Baron John Napier.
- The Uncommon Logarithms
- Make a Very Simple Slide Rule
- Make a Logarithmic Slide Rule
- Make a Chessboard Computer
- Multiplication on Your Chessboard Computer
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: John Napier
July/August 2000 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Summer of “Slavery”
Alex works as a digger’s assistant in her summer internship at an archaeological dig with Dr. Sofia Theano, learning a bit about Greek geometry along the way. Math history tidbits focus on Thales of Miletus.
- The Summer of “Slavery”: Alex’s Archaeology Report
- The Five Theorems of Thales
- The Tools of Greek Geometry
- Geometric Constructions
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: Thales of Miletus
September/October/November 2000 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Case of the Pillow Problems
Alex celebrates her return home with a slumber party, and the girls make up puzzles to stump each other. Can you figure them out? For math history, we meet Lewis Carroll.
- The Case of the Pillow Problems
- Lewis Carroll’s Pillow Problems
- The Scrambled Slumber Party
- More Problems by Kids
- Hints and Solutions
- Lewis Carroll: Puzzler to the Queen
December 2000/January 2001 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Magic Christmas Cards
Dr. Jones suggests a way to make the “best Christmas cards ever” (according to Alex), and the Jones children create geometric gifts to celebrate the holiday. Our math history tidbits feature Arthur Stone and Plato.
- The Magic Christmas Cards
- How to Make a Flexagon
- A Polyhedra Construction Kit
- The Mysterious Block Puzzle
- Hints and Solutions
- Historical Tidbits: Plato, and Flexagons
February/March 2001 Issue:
Alexandria Jones Fights the Mid-Winter Doldrums
The Jones children take an experimental approach to learning about game theory. In our math history tidbits, we find out who George Polya called “the only student I was ever afraid of.”
- Fighting the Mid-Winter Doldrums
- The Most Basic of Games: China’s Classic Nim
- Out to Lunch? Egyptian Workmen Played Games
- How to Ruin a Game
- The Prisoner’s Dilemma, or Did Game Theory Save the World?
- Fences: A Strategy Challenge
- Historical Tidbits: The Student Who Scared George Polya