60th Edition of Math Teachers At Play Carnival
The number sixty happens to be the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1 to 6. Also, it has the honour being a unitary perfect number, ie it can be interpreted as being the overall sum of its unitary divisors (excluding itself). Give this a try to convince yourself: 1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 12 + 15 + 20 indeed equals 60.
Students of science (in particular chemistry) would almost definitely be acquainted with the 'Buckyball', which is also known as Buckminster Fullerene - an allotrope of carbon possessing 60 carbon atoms in each molecule. It was named after the genius who had earlier designed a geodesic dome bearing an uncanny resemblance to the C60 structure. Here's a little visual feast for the eyes:
Did you know besides the widely used decimal, binary and hexadecimal systems, a sexagesimal system (employing 60 as its base of computation) also exists? Previously used in Babylonian Mathematics, it is now responsible for time and angular measurements (think seconds, minutes, arc seconds etc). How about a counting sample from the ancient times to appreciate things a wee bit more?
Without further ado, let the 60th MTAP carnival begin. Welcome.
Over at Math Mamma writes, Sue Vanhattum shares her little mulling session over the unproven Collatz Conjecture. In her personal opinion, she feels this is definitely something worth investigating and also serves as a puzzle kids can enjoy, at the same time practice multiplying by 3 / dividing by 2.
At Random Walks, John Chase reviews a presentation (by Alison Bank) on Math Is Not Linear and extrapolates things with his own set of experiences. Fractals: A Different Kind of Geometry written by Guillermo Bautista at Mathematics And Multimedia aims to reveal the intuitive notion of fractals.
Coming right up, a celebration of pedagogy.
Three Acts: Basketbola Preview at Prime Factors gives readers an extensive sneak peak of Tom Ward's blockbuster lesson plan. In his own words:
"Basketbola is an algebra II lesson in which students use graphing software to model the flight of a basketball. They use their mathematical models to predict whether or not the ball will go in - the student who is the best predictor gets to add their basketball shot to next year's contest!"
The kitchen is a great place for young kids to learn about geometry, measurements, fractions and other math related stuff as Jacquie Fisher explains in her post Great Cookbooks for Kids and Math Fun In The Kitchen at KC EDventures.
Who says charity and math don't go hand in hand? Susan Carpenter has rallied her young charges in a service project to feed hungry families in 100 Cans of Food by the 100th Day of School and therein you will discover mathematics learning is very much alive in this initiative.
If your students are extremely frustrated when dealing with fractions, Jennifer Smith's downloadable fractions flippable templates made available in her post Fractions are Fun! could possibly make understanding a whole lot easier.
At Denise Gaskin's Lets Play Math! blog, Math That Is Beautiful has posted a lovely video (by Cristóbal Vila of Inspirations From Maths ) encouraging parents to sit down alongside their children to make beautiful math together.
I reckon this is still space for one more entry, so allow me to share a guest post written for my site earlier this year by Dr Diana S.Perdue titled: A Math Class That Requires a Party Playlist For Your iPod? Yes, Please!
That's all folks for this current edition of Math Teachers At Play. Math Hombre is the destination for the upcoming April 2013 carnival, so be sure to head over there next month for more math bites.
Peace.
(PS: I would like to accord a sincere thank-you to Denise Gaskins for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this blossoming math blogging community. )
13 March 2013