The world has mostly agreed on the size of a credit card:
Credit cards today contain a microchip and aerial.
A credit card is dissolved in ACETONE (solvent found in some nail polish removers) to extract the chip & aerial in this BBC video.
OMG! It still works to pay for coffee but if you wanted cash you would still need the PIN.
As the weather improves – Spring in Melbourne, my city & Fall in USA & Autumn in the UK – it is an ideal time to take math outdoors. Here are some fab exercises for Middle School Math.
Lego Man soccer fields will vary in size depending on the height of each player picked by each student. This does your head in. It is really challenging maths!
McGill Uni link here.
Don’t forget to throw in Mathspig’s lame protractor jokes.
You’ll find full calculations at the Maths is Fun blog.
You’ll find more fab outdoor junior and middle school maths activities at the terrific Maths and Movement blog.
Some students will discover their co-ordinate point is not on the grid. Students should then work out that they will need a different scale for the y-axis. You can get more inspiration at the Stand Again blog.
It’s Autumn in UK & FALL in the USA so it’s the perfect time for a little bit of outdoor math for Grade 3-5 with AUTUMN leaves. Of course, you don’t need FALL LEAVES for this exercise, but it is colorful.
This fab idea comes from Juliet Robertson, an outdoor education consultant in Scotland. Her blog Creative star learning is one of the most inspiring outdoor maths blogs you will find.
Check out Mathpig’s protractor joke here.
Another fab idea from Juliet Robertson.
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The following maths is suitable for Year 9+
but can be presented to lower grades just to show
maths is cool!
Mathspig is in Melbourne, Australia. We’re in Lockdown. AGAIN!
And toilet paper has disappeared off the supermarket shelves. AGAIN.
So today we are doing maths based entirely on toilet paper using information from the Toilet Paper Fun Facts website. Yes! It exists here.
Toilet Paper Fun Facts Website
Protractor Wind Speed Calculator
POP UP ANS Q 1 & 2 Yr 7&8 Toilet Paper fun facts
Pythagoras Equation Diagram here
Here is the Sine Rule (Watch 1.5 mins)
Check sine curve here:
Listen to sine curve here:
Melbourne singer, songwriter, and geometrically inclined performer Gotye performing with Kimbra won 3 Grammy Awards for his song Somebody that I used to Know in 2013.
The Gotye youtube clip has had 1,535,344,012 or 1.5 Billion hits since it was first uploaded 5th July 2011.
In 111 months Somebody that I used to know has scored 1.5 Billion hits. How many hits a. per month, b. per day, c. per minute? (Round off numbers)
Ans: a. 13.5 Million per month
b. 450,000 per day (Assuming 30 days per month)
c. 37,500 per hour and 625 per minute (for over 9 years non stop!)
The Influencer Marketing Hub puts the rates an advertiser pays between $0.10 to $0.30 per view on Youtube, but averages out at $0.18 per view. Using the lower rate, how much has this song earnt in just over 7 years?
Earnings = 0.10 x 1.5 x 109 = 1.5 x 108 = $150,000,000 = $150 million*
*This calculation is based on a click per view of the video. Gotye will not receive anything like $150M, however, because advertisers pay per click on their ad.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub again ‘on average, the YouTube channel can receive $18 per 1,000 ad views. This equates to $3 – $5 per 1000 video views.’ Again, using the lower rate:
Video Hits =1.5 x 109
Divide by 1,000 = 1.5 x 109 ÷103 = 1.5 x 106
$3.00 per 1,000 video clicks earnings = 3.00 x 1.5 x 106 = 4.5 x 106
Realistic Earnings = 4.5 x 106 = $4,500,000 = $4.5 million
Here is Mathspig’s take on the song:
It’ll either help students do their exercises or work like Clockwork Orange and have them running screaming out of the room when they hear the first few notes.
The NHS reports that Australian Researchers Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh, Uni of NSW, have conducted a study into brain and neck injuries of headbangers published in the British Medical Journal.
Concerts included as part of the study included Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, The Hell City Glamours, L.A. Guns, Ozzy Osbourne, Winger, Ratt, Whitesnake, and W.A.S.P.
Here’s Motorhead with a ‘nice’ moshpit.
140 BPM for Ace of Spades. Motorhead BPM range is 91 – 203
1. Head movement of more than 75o for an average heavy metal beat will cause head and neck injuries. This movement causes headache and dizziness.
2. Beats above 130 bpm (beats per minute) cause neck injury.
The average headbanging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute (bpm).
and according to Mathspig:
3. Being punched up in the mosh pit. Do you need maths for that conclusion?
1. Reduce range of head and neck movement
2. Headbang to a slower tempo
3. Wear a neck brace. (Isn’t a bad hair cut enough?)
How many headbeats per song of 5mins would a headbanger manage for the following song tempos?
Mathspigs excited. Look there is a band called Mutemath!!!!!!!! And here they are:
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Just to show that there is something spookily primitive about headbanging here is Headbanger Baby:
According to ‘Bored Out of Their Minds’, an article by ZACHARY JASON in The Harvard Ed Magazine (2017):
Boredom accounts for nearly a third of the variation in student achievement.
Half of high school dropouts cite boredom as their primary motivator for leaving.
Boredom begins for Math students at Grade 6 when students (Common Core Standards, USA) tackle more abstract concepts such as linear eqns, exponents, probability, geometry and so on.
Math curriculums in the USA, UK & Australia all demand students solve REAL LIFE problems. Too often these are of the type:
Q. Ronaldo has tethered his goat on a 12ft rein in the corner of a 20ft square field. What area can the goat graze?
THE ANS: Who cares?
Students really don’t care about Ronaldo’s goat, but here are some questions which involve intriguing answers they might want to work out. And many of these questions involve funny or age-relevant activities, which also helps engagement.
1. Mean, Median STATS: Mean, Median and Coffee: Busting an Urban Myth
2. Parabolas: Can you beat the 12-14 yo World Record for a Watermelon Pip spit?
3. Geometry: Build a Freestanding Tower
Rates (Speed) & Units:
4a. The Terrifying Math of Running from a bear
5. Decimals, %, Volume: What Volume of alcohol is lethal for teens?
6. Decimals, Algebra, Weight Units
How much blood can a kid lose and survive?
Graph Hunger Game Math
7. GEOMETRY. Angles
Any Topic:
8. Middle School Math Photo Scavenger Hunt
Space Math Song here
EVEN TEACHERS GET BORED!!!
The average time it takes an audience at a conference to switch off is 11 minutes. Keep in mind this audience is, at least, being paid to be bored witless.
It’s Autumn in UK & FALL in the USA so it’s the perfect time for a little bit of outdoor math for Grade 3-5 with AUTUMN leaves. Of course, you don’t need FALL LEAVES for this exercise, but it is colorful.
This fab idea comes from Juliet Robertson, an outdoor education consultant in Scotland. Her blog Creative star learning is one of the most inspiring outdoor maths blogs you will find.
Check out Mathpig’s protractor joke here.
Another fab idea from Juliet Robertson.
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A raucous romp through the absurdities of American Gun Culture
10 Reasons Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons students hate maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons Why Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons to Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons to Hate Maths: BUSTED
Comic & cutting comment plus random raves.
Mathspig Blog 
