by MathPickle | Feb 6, 2017 |
The crow took pebbles and dropped them into an urn so that the water level rose until the crow could drink. What a smart crow! That’s as much as Aesop wrote, but afterwards he witnessed a peculiar algorithm that the crow devised… The crow started with a...
by MathPickle | Jan 11, 2017 |
King Kong rearranges the city skyline. The skyscrapers create interesting patterns even though they are generated by a simple algorithm. Let’s look at an example if he starts with 5:2 skyscrapers. The algorithm: King Kong removes the top floor from every...
by MathPickle | Nov 22, 2016 |
The Broken Sword (MathPickle, 2016) Broken Swords may be used for students using only addition, but older students can employ both multiplication and division to make the exploration more efficient. For other ideas about how to introduce Broken Swords, see my blog...
by MathPickle | Nov 16, 2016 |
Before our myths of democracy were inked – Cleisthenes tossed and turned in bed: “All Men Are Created Equal?” “One Man, One Vote?” “Virtuous Man, Multiple Votes!” “That’s it!” he thought. And here is how it...
by MathPickle | Nov 14, 2016 |
Hex (Piet Hein, 1942) I’ve been using a small variant of hex in the age 5 to 7 classroom for several years. Apart from the smaller size, the only other innovation is to insist that the first player plays on the perimeter on their first move. Without a rule like...
