Climbing a Stairway to 7, or maybe, 77?

They take their maths seriously in Germany. They have monuments to mathematicians. They name streets after mathematicians. They take maths into shopping malls.

They think maths is so important they even put maths on stairs. Here is some times tables art from Germany.

 

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Learning Jump Strategy from a Young Mathematician

Mathpig just learnt this from a young Mathematician age 9.

It is a great way to do maths because you are thinking ‘Mmmm! How can I work these numbers.’

Getting maths students to think about what they are doing is so much better than just having them guess ‘ Arrrr!  Whatever. Click B.’

More jump strategy information here.

This will be very useful later when it comes to a similar method used to simplify long division:

Trick 5: Cool Math Trick

Requirements: A Pack of Cards and a willing assistant.

Take 10 cards from pack including the 10 Diamonds.

Lay out card in 3 columns in a pattern of 4 down, 2 down, 4 down.

Put the 10 Diamonds at the top of the  left hand column.

Group students around. You turn your head away and ask a student to point to a card.

You carry on, think allowed and then ask your assistant to point to cards asking:

Is it this one?

No.

Is it this one?

No.…………………………………………………………………………………

When your assistant points to the 10 Diamonds he will show you the position using the diamonds. The cards are laid out on the table in the pattern of the diamonds on the 10 Diamonds.

Whenever your assistant asks is it this one? You will know.

See Mentalism Card Trick:

Trick 6: Freaky Math Medium

Write the word carrot inside your math text book. Do not show students.

When Mathspig was a mathspiglet we used to play this trick. It doesn’t work on everyone, but it works  often enough.

Ask a student to say 15 times 15 fifteen times.

Then ask them to name a vegetable. Students say carrot 90% (I’m guessing) of the time.

To make this trick more dramatic send 10 students out of the class before you begin and tell the other half what you are about to do. Students return one at a time. How often do they say ‘carrot’? What % of students say carrot? 

Trick 7: My Math Teacher is Psycho … Psychic!

Math Teacher Goes Psycho  ….  Psychic!

Requirements: Pack of cards and a little practise.

Watch this video to learn the trick. Then try it out on the class.

Beginner Math Prediction Card Trick

Maths News: Volcano Survivor 1

Kilauea erupts in Hawaii MAY 2018.

The amazing maths of volcano eruptions.

Can you out run a lava flow?

In every volcano disaster movie from Volcano (1997) with Tommy Lee Jones to Dante’s Peak (1997) with Pierce Brosnan someone somewhere tries to out run a lava flow.

Is this possible? (See movie cliché busted by maths here.)

Now a lava flow from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is threatening tiny town of Pahoa, Hawaii again. (below).

You will find excellent information about the Kilauea and other volcanoes at the

US Geological Survey here.

How to stop lava?

As the temperature of lava exceeds 1000⁰ C there are very few ways to stop lava. According to the Taylor Kate Brown SMH (10 SEPT 2014) options include:

Bombing

Blasting (it with cold water)

Barricading it

Or adding concrete.

What if you are on your own.

Can you out run lava?

Lets do the maths.

Lava from Kilauea travels 17 yards per hour so the lava velocity is:

V_L =   17 yds/hour = 15.5 metres /hour

(See Vox.com)

Trick 8: Spooky Maths Magic

Spooky Maths Magic

Requirements; Smart board/data projector.

 This is mental maths, but not hard maths. You can play this video by Marco Frezza  directly to the class.

It may not work on everybody, but it would be very interesting to see how many students are fooled by this spooky magic man.