by MathPickle | Oct 12, 2015 |
A set of plastic circle fractions got me thinking. How many ways can a circle be constructed if your smallest piece is 1/6? If your smallest piece is 1/6, there are six ways to complete the circle. Here we see the front and back view of one proposed solution. Is it...
by MathPickle | Sep 19, 2015 |
Zome Zome is a manipulative that is excellent for the upper grades – however it takes time to put away and is fragile. Nevertheless, there is no manipulative so versatile on the market, so it should be considered. I am now equally in favour (especially for...
by MathPickle | Sep 19, 2015 |
64 = 65 Mathemagical Proof (Martin Gardner) Get your older students to break apart a convincing mathemagical trick by linking it to the Fibonacci sequence and calculating the slopes of some line segments. Younger students derive a lot of pleasure by figuring out that...
by MathPickle | Sep 19, 2015 |
Taxi Cab Squares (inspired by the Inscribed square problem of Otto Toeplitz, 1911) Give your students practice with Cartesian coordinates as they explore a new variant of a famous, unsolved problem of Otto Toeplitz (1911). This problem has a very wide spectrum of...
by MathPickle | Sep 18, 2015 |
Rainbow Squares is a challenge inspired by Henri Picciotto. Each rainbow arc needs to be anchored at two integers that sum to a square. Here we have tried to find a solution for 1-10, but have failed because the last two numbers, 2 and 3, do not sum to a square. Is...
