2020 passed in a blur. Now we need to grab the student’s attention. This April Fool Maths Test should do it.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below. You can put the answers up later on the smartboard or just read out the answers.
2020 passed in a blur. Now we need to grab the student’s attention. This April Fool Maths Test should do it.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below. You can put the answers up later on the smartboard.
2020 passed in a blur. Now we need to grab the student’s attention. This April Fool Maths Test should do it.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below. You can put the answers up later on the smartboard or just read out the answers.
Tell your year 8 or 9 students this test is designed to test their ability to concentrate and use logic while doing a challenging test under pressure.
Tell students to circle the ‘correct’ answer. Then wait to see how long it takes them to think you have totally lost the plot! You can make copies of the test using the PDF links below. You can put the answers up later on the smart board.
Tell your students you will beat them adding up 5 x 5 digit numbers in your head when they are using calculators.
Method:
1. Ask a student to write down 2 x 5-digit numbers on the board.
2. You rapidly write a 5-digit number underneath.
3. Ask another student to write another 5-digit number.
4. You write another 5-digit number quickly.
5. You have 5 by 5 digit numbers. Say ‘Go’. You instantly write down the answer.
Stand back.
This is how it works:
N1 = 97413
N2 = 28619
N3 = 71380 (Each digit in N3 that you write down must add up to 9 with digits in No. above)
N4 = 64231
N5 = 35768 (Once again each digit in N5 must add up to 9 with digits above)
Now you will instantly write down the sum of these five numbers as
297411
Da! DA!
The trick is to subtract 2 from N1 and put it in front:
N1 = 97413
N1 -2 = 97411
Sum of 5 numbers = 297411
This is why it works:
Hint: When you get your students to add up the five 5-digit numbers on a calculator you will beat them, but they will also get many different answers as a number of students will key incorrect numbers.
Requirements: A coin for each student & smart board or data projector.
First ask your students to toss a coin 10 times each.
Ask each student how many heads in a row they threw.
Now ask students ‘Do you think it is possible to throw 10 heads in a row?
It can be done. Here is how you do it.
Derren Brown is a UK mentalist, magician, hypnotist and maths guru. He’s awesome. He shows audiences how a lack of understanding maths, especially probability, leads to misinterpreting the facts.
This is the most awesome way to introduce probability.
Mentalist Derren Brown devises a foolproof gambling system. He sends a girl , Kadisha, the number of a winning horse in race to be run the next day. It wins. He sends her the winning horse and race number 4 more times. She ends up with winnings close to £ 1000 before the final race. Derren convinces her to borrow money for the last bet. She does. She places £4,000 on a horse. Did it win?????
Watch Part 5 of The System
If you are not convinced Derren Brown can come up with a foolproof system for horse race tipping, let me explain The System. He took 7,776 e-mail addresses, divided them into 6 equal groups and sent each group a different number for a horse in a 6 horse race to be run the next day. Naturally, one group of 1296 had been given the winning horse number. This group was divided into 6 again and given the number of the ‘winning’ in a six horse race the next day and so on.
Race 1: 7776
Race 2: 1296
Race 3: 216
Race 4: 36
Race 5: 6
Out of 7776 punters, only one punter was given in advance five horse race winners in a row. Was it Kadisha. You will have to watch the Youtube above.
You can watch THE SYSTEM in full here. It takes 47 mins.
This is mental maths, but not hard maths. You can play this video by 
Derren Brown is a UK mentalist, magician, hypnotist and maths guru. He’s awesome. He shows audiences how a lack of understanding maths, especially probability, leads to misinterpreting the facts.
Mentalist Derren Brown devises a foolproof gambling system. He sends a girl , Kadisha, the number of a winning horse in race to be run the next day. It wins. He sends her the winning horse and race number 4 more times. She ends up with winnings close to £ 1000 before the final race. Derren convinces her to borrow money for the last bet. She does. She places £4,000 on a horse. Did it win?????
Mathspig Blog 