To create your own Happy Mathematics Day sign, see yesterday’s post.
Happy Math Equation Day!
Every Day Is Mathematics Day!
I’m still having fun with David Coffey’s meme, which started a couple of years ago with this blog post:
Make Your Own
Would you like to create a math holiday, too? Try one of these sign generators:
- Roosevelt Middle School Sign Generator
- Raceland Elementary School Sign Generator
- Custom Road Sign
- University of Texas Stadium Scoreboard (Godzillatron) Sign Generator
- And plenty more to choose from
What kind of math will you celebrate? Leave a link to your Happy Math Day post in the comments below!
Math Teachers at Play #87 via CavMaths
Puzzles, comics, problem-solving, and mathy conversations with kids—you’ll find all this and more at the new math education blog carnival. Check it out, click some links, and enjoy!
“Hello, and welcome to the 87th Edition of the monthly blog carnival “Math(s) Teachers at Play”. For those of you unaware, a blog carnival is a periodic post that travels from blog to blog. They take the form of a compilation post and contain links to current and recent posts on a similar topic. This is one of two English language blog carnivals around mathematics…
This month has been fairly busy in the way of maths blogs and we have a treat for you, so to start the carnival here are the submissions we received…”
Infinite Cake: Don Cohen’s Infinite Series for Kids
Math Concepts: division as equal sharing, naming fractions, adding fractions, infinitesimals, iteration, limits
Prerequisite: able to identify fractions as part of a whole
This is how I tell the story:
- We have a cake to share, just the two of us. It’s not TOO big a cake, ‘cuz we don’t want to get sick. An 8 × 8 or 16 × 16 square on the graph paper should be just right. Can you cut the cake so we each get a fair share? Color in your part.
- How big is your piece compared to the whole, original cake?
- But you know, I’m on a diet, and I just don’t think I can eat my whole piece. Half the cake is too much for me. Is it okay if I share my piece with you? How can we divide it evenly, so we each get a fair share? How big is your new piece? Color it in.
- How much of the whole, original cake do you have now? How can you tell?
- I keep thinking of my diet, and I really don’t want all my piece of cake. It looks good, but it’s still just a bit too big for me. Will you take half of it? How big is that piece?
- Now how much of the whole, original cake do you have? How could we figure it out?
[Teaching tip: Don’t make kids do the calculation on paper. In the early stages, they can visualize and count up the fourths or maybe the eighths. As the pieces get smaller, the easiest way to find the sum is what Cohen does in the video below—identify how much of the cake is left out.]
- Even for being on a diet, I still don’t feel very hungry…
Continue reading Infinite Cake: Don Cohen’s Infinite Series for Kids
A Review for my Daughter’s Novel
“… a captivating fantasy story with a well-thought-out plot … people who like medieval-style fantasies with wraiths, spirits, and even an attacking swamp tree will enjoy the story. I certainly did, and the excitement, adventure, and suspense will easily keep the reader’s attention …”
— Wayne S. Walker
Home School Book Review
Thank you, Mr. Walker!
As a fantasy fan myself, I agree that Teresa did a great job on this book. She improved in every way from Book #1 — more world building, more complex plotting, and a deeper emotional identification with the characters. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
Check it out for yourself:
- Read an excerpt: the first five chapters of Hunted.
- Buy the ebook:
- Hunted ebook at Amazon worldwide
[Members of Kindle Unlimited can read for free.] - Or pick up the paperback at:
- Amazon worldwide
- Book Depository
- Barnes & Noble
- CreateSpace
Find out how the adventure began:
- Read an excerpt: the first four chapters of Banished.
- Buy the ebook:
- Banished ebook at Amazon worldwide
[Members of Kindle Unlimited can read for free.] - Or pick up the paperback at:
- Amazon worldwide
- Book Depository
- Barnes & Noble
- CreateSpace
Socks Are Like Pants, Cats Are Like Dogs
Support This New Book from Natural Math
Socks Are Like Pants, Cats Are Like Dogs by Malke Rosenfeld and Gordon Hamilton is filled with a diverse collection of math games, puzzles, and activities exploring the mathematics of choosing, identifying and sorting. The activities are easy to start and require little preparation.
The publisher’s crowdfunding goal is $4,000. The book is almost ready to go to press, and I can hardly wait to see it!
Review Game: Once Through the Deck
Math Concepts: basic facts of addition, multiplication.
Players: one.
Equipment: one deck of math cards (poker- or bridge-style playing cards with the face cards and jokers removed).
The best way to practice the math facts is through the give-and-take of conversation, orally quizzing each other and talking about how you might figure the answers out. But occasionally your child may want a simple, solitaire method for review.
New Internet Math Reference Pages
The Internet boasts a wide-ranging assortment of math websites, and for years I maintained (or mostly neglected) a huge page of reference links. This spring I’ve been working on the paperback edition of my book—with its appendix of favorite books and internet sites—and I decided to revise my blog links to match.
So this week, I’m in Jeju, South Korea, visiting my daughter who teaches English there. In between seeing touristy sites and gorging ourselves on amazingly delicious food, she took me to a beautiful coffee shop that overlooks the beach in Aewol.
Great place to work on my blog!
The long monster list morphed into eight topical pages. I hope you find something useful.
- Internet Math Resources Home Page—with tips for viewing Java and Flash websites
- Math Adventures for All Ages
- Elementary and Middle School Fun Stuff
- Playing with Algebra and Beyond
- Links for Parents and Other Teachers
- Worksheets, Lessons, and Full Curriculum
- Math Contests, Grades 4–12
- Forums Where You Can Ask for Help
- Math History on the Internet
I will try to keep these pages up to date, but the Internet is volatile. If you find a broken link, you can search for the website by name or enter the defunct URL into the Internet Wayback Machine at Archive.org.
And if you know of a fantastic website I’ve missed, please send me an email (LetsPlayMath@gmail.com, or use the comment form on my “About” page). I appreciate your help.
Feature photo above by Fractal Ken via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Korea photos ©2015 Denise Gaskins, all rights reserved. For more math resource suggestions, check out my Math with Living Books pages. They’re not finished yet, but I’ll be working on them next.
Math Teachers at Play #85 via ZenoMath
There’s a feast of mathematical games and activities at this month’s Math Teachers at Play blog carnival Enjoy!
“Math Teachers at Play is a monthly blog carnival that compiles posts from several blogs under the theme of teaching math in unique and innovative ways. We’re thrilled to partner with them this edition and couldn’t help ourselves from including some interesting trivia and riddles centered on our edition number – Happy Number 86!
Happy Numbers are numbers whose digits are such that – when squared and added iteratively, the number 1 is reached. For example,
82 + 62 = 100
12 + 02 + 02 = 1
So 86 is a happy number!…”
Puzzle: Crystal Ball Connection Patterns
In the land of Fantasia, where people communicate by crystal ball, Wizard Mathys has been placed in charge of keeping the crystal connections clean and clear. He decides to figure out how many different ways people might talk to each other, assuming there’s no such thing as a crystal conference call.
Mathys sketches a diagram of four Fantasian friends and their crystal balls. At the top, you can see all the possible connections, but no one is talking to anyone else because it’s naptime. Fantasians take their siesta very seriously. That’s one possible state of the 4-crystal system.
On the second line of the diagram, Joe (in the middle) wakes up from siesta and calls each of his friends in turn. Then the friends take turns calling each other, bringing the total number of possible connection-states up to seven.
Finally, Wizard Mathys imagines what would happen if one friend calls Joe at the same time as the other two are talking to each other. That’s the last line of the diagram: three more possible states. Therefore, the total number of conceivable communication configurations for a 4-crystal system is 10.
For some reason Mathys can’t figure out, mathematicians call the numbers that describe the connection pattern states in his crystal ball communication system Telephone numbers.
- Can you help Wizard Mathys figure out the Telephone numbers for different numbers of people?
T(0) = ?
T(1) = ?
T(2) = ?
T(3) = ?
T(4) = 10 connection patterns (as above)
T(5) = ?
T(6) = ?
and so on.
Hint: Don’t forget to count the state of the system when no one is on the phone crystal ball.
- Printable version: Crystal Ball Connection Patterns.
Feature photo at top of post by Christian Schnettelker (web designer) and wizard photo by Sean McGrath via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). This puzzle was originally featured in the Math Teachers At Play (MTaP) math education blog carnival: MTaP #76.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 