Sharp Shooter Maths …. METRIC

Mathspig grew up on a police station in the small Australian country town of Kyneton, Victoria in the 1960s. Australia has a very strict gun laws today. But such laws didn’t exist in the sixties. My Dad’s .22 rifle rested against our fridge. He pocketed the magazine.

A .22 means a bullet calibre of .22 inches.

My Dad the Sharp Shooter stopped a stolen car with one bullet. This was considered legendary by his fellow cops. He didn’t shoot the tyres. He managed, by accident and possibly even though he was aiming at the tyres, to hit the electrical lead into the car’s  distributor cap. Phht! Car go no more. More on my childhood here.

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Sharp Shooter Maths

One measure of the accuracy of rifles, riflescopes but also the sharpshooter is the MOA or Minute of Angle.  The MOA can also be used to define the target zone (circle).

I cannot show you a triangle with an angle of 1′ because it would have to be 100m long on one side and only 3cm tall.

Needless to say, drawings are NOT to scale.

A sharpshooter can put 5 out of 6 bullets in a target zone drawn at 1′ angle around centre of target at any distance.

As the distance away from the target increases the target zone circle area increases.

A sharp shooter would be considered very skilled if they can shoot within a target zone (circle) of 10.5 inch radius at 1000 yds. Hitting a bull’s eye at this distance is down to luck.

Medals, Meglomaniacs and Sharp Shooters…….. The Maths METRIC

When Mathspig recently saw images of some Russian soldiers covered in medals it prompted the question

‘Could medals protect the wearer from a sharpshooter?’ 

Mathspig was interested in this question because megalomaniac military dictators who take over countries by force tend to award themselves lots of medals. But they are also likely to be the target of sharpshooters from a liberation movement.

 

The target zone (circle) had a diameter of 1.9cm. This is smaller than the diameter of an American Quarter, an Australian 10c and a UK pound all of which have a diameter of appro 2.4 cm.

So the megolmaniac military dictator wins!!! He IS protected – on his chest – by his medals!!!!!! Unless the sharpshooter manages a ‘lucky’ shot.

Sharp Shooter Math …. USA units

Mathspig grew up on a police station in the small Australian country town of Kyneton, Victoria in the 1960s. Australia has a very strict gun laws today. But such laws didn’t exist in the sixties. My Dad’s .22 rifle rested against our fridge. He pocketed the magazine.

A .22 means a bullet calibre of .22 inches.

My Dad the Sharp Shooter stopped a stolen car with one bullet. This was considered legendary by his fellow cops. He didn’t shoot the tyres. He managed, by accident and possibly even though he was aiming at the tyres, to hit the electrical lead into the car’s  distributor cap. Phht! Car go no more. More on my childhood here.

cc

cc

Sharp Shooter Maths

One measure of the accuracy of rifles, riflescopes but also the sharpshooter is the MOA or Minute of Angle.  TheMOA can also be used to define the target zone (circle).

I cannot show you a triangle with an angle of 1′ because it would have to be 100 yds long on one side and only 1 inch tall.

Needless to say, drawings are NOT to scale.

A sharpshooter can put 5 out of 6 bullets in a target zone drawn at 1′ angle around centre of target at any distance.

As the distance away from the target increases the target zone circle area increases.

A sharp shooter would be considered very skilled if they can shoot within a target zone (circle) of 10.5 inch radius at 1000 yds. Hitting a bull’s eye at this distance is down to luck.

Medals, Meglomaniacs and Sharp Shooters…….. The Math USA units

When Mathspig recently saw images of some Russian soldiers covered in medals it prompted the question

‘Could medals protect the wearer from a sharpshooter?’ 

Mathspig was interested in this question because megalomaniac military dictators who take over countries by force tend to award themselves lots of medals. But they are also likely to be the target of sharpshooters from a liberation movement.

The target zone (circle) had a diameter of 0.7 inches. This is smaller than the diameter of an American Quarter, an Australian 10c and a UK pound all of which have a diameter of approx 0.96 inches.

So the megolmaniac military dictator wins!!! He IS protected – on his chest – by his medals!!!!!! Unless the sharpshooter manages a ‘lucky’ shot.

April Fool Math TEST USA

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 or just read out the answers.

Mathspig April Fools Math Test 1 USA

Mathspig April Fools Math Test 2 USA

Mathspig April Fools Math Test ANSWER USA

April Fool Maths Test

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.

Mathspig April Fools Maths Test 1

Mathspig April Fools Maths Test 2

Mathspig April Fools Maths Test ANSWER

Happy Pi Day! Ooops! Not you Germany!

There is a fab article on the History of calculating pi in the New York Times today.

Now to THE FUNNY SIDE OF PI DAY

In Australia we don’t get too carried away with 14 March aka Pi Day aka 3.14.19 because, unlike Americans,  we do not write the date as 3/14/19. We prefer 14/3/19.

No problem.

Meanwhile Mathspig called her  talk for the International Congress of Mathematical Education 2016 in Hamburg:

How many m&ms would kill a 14-year-old? Making middle-school maths real, relevant, deadly serious and π-in-your-face funny!

Then  odd emails arrived relabelling my talk  ‘…….. p-in-your-face funny!’

I thought it was a typo. Not so! The Germans, the Dutch and other European countries do not call π ‘Pi’, they call it ‘P’ or ‘Pee’ because ‘i’ is pronounced ‘ee’, for instance, in German. So I had called my great international maths talk Pee-in-your-face funny! And the German organising committee seemed happy enough with the title.

To be diplomatic and to avoid the attracting the wrong type of audience I’ve retitled my talk:

How many m&ms would kill a 14-year-old? Making middle-school maths real, relevant, deadly serious and ha^2 funny!

So Happy π Day English speakers and now, for a laugh, look at some of our Pi or Pee jokes through the eyes of, say, a German.

That’s because of the beer.

One whole day dedicated to pi.

It’s epic!

Mathematicians in love .., awwww!

So cute or they’re pissed.

………………………………………..

OK. ‘I 8 sum pi’ but adding the ‘delicous’ makes this weird for a German. D’Oh!

Very expensive bottle of pi.

Mmmm! Pecan pi.

Rabbit Pi must be a problem.

Dessert wine, maybe?

That’s, like, every day after a night out on the ‘piss’ as we so delicately call it in Australia.

You too can have tasty pi. I don’t know how and frankly, I don’t want to know.