# Tag Info

### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

I remember being excited about the following at a young age. If you add consecutive numbers you get triangle numbers. Triangle numbers are fun. If you put two consecutive triangle numbers together ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

How about: Numbers go the other way, too (negative) You can cut numbers in half, forever What if you cut a number into three pieces? 1 million is a thousand thousands (100 is ten tens) If you don't ...
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### Mnemonics for some properties in mathematics

Recently, a student in my beginning algebra course offered the following to the class, regarding signed number multiplication: Assuming positivity is like love, and negativity is like hate, then... "...
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### Mnemonics for some properties in mathematics

The minimax theorem states the following: Let $X\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$ and $Y\subset \mathbb {R} ^{m}$ be compact convex sets. If $f:X\times Y\rightarrow \mathbb {R}$ is a continuous ...
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### Mnemonics for some properties in mathematics

I tell students to visualize $<$ and $>$ as mouths. They always want to eat the bigger number.
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### What are some great books for exploring mathematics? (not kids' books and not textbooks)

I highly recommend Paul Lockhart's Measurement
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### Mnemonics for some properties in mathematics

Fatou's Lemma states: for nonnegative measurable functions $f_n$, $$\int_E \liminf_{n\to\infty} f_n\;d\mu \le \liminf_{n \to \infty}\int_E f_n\;d\mu$$ The mnemonic is $$\text{ILLLLLI},$$ meaning "...
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### The impact of dyslexia on learning mathematics, and available resources

I think the short answer to your question is that you are (like many people) confusing the arithmetic that you called 'mathematics' at school with the mathematics that mathematicians do. I very rarely ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

There is a great old Disney short called Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. As well as being delightfully drawn in the traditional Disney style, it contains lots of useful and occasionally surprising ...

### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Below are some great and inspiring books by an excellent mathematician. (In the Really Big Numbers book, on the page where counting by tens is discussed there is an inspiring error (?)…Big Bird is ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

The earlier question, "Teaching a very enthusiastic and bright 5 year old" could help. Building and manipulating shapes enhances geometric imagination. Consider polydrons, or snap-cubes:   ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Arranging counters into groups (multiplication and division), so arranging 12 counters into 6x2, 3x4 etc, and realising that there are some numbers that cant' be arranged, no matter how hard you try (...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Another book, to add to @Jon Bannon's list, that my 4 year old daughter and I can recommend is Introductory Calculus For Infants. We also seem to discuss Graham's number a bit after watching the ...
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### What are some great books for exploring mathematics? (not kids' books and not textbooks)

For more mathematical philosophy try: "Godel, Escher Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter This is a great book for exploring mindset when approaching natural mathematical problems. Many problems are entirely ...

### Entertaining and fun books about mathematics for (basically) liberal arts students

I'll suggest the book Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. It's an interesting read about geometry and thinking in a higher dimension. The downside is that this book is, well, antiquated to put it nicely. ...
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### What are some great books for inspiring children to explore mathematics?

In addition to your excellent list on your own site, I would add: The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang and illustrated by Harry Briggs Each page has a picture puzzle described in rhyme, where the goal is ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Just to complete the list of books. Some time ago I read The Number Devil and liked very much. I think it is the proper book for your needs as the argument shows how a "math devil" shows math concepts ...

### What are some great books for exploring mathematics? (not kids' books and not textbooks)

How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff. Pictures by Irving Geis. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0393310728/ The World of Mathematics. I have Volume Four, which was edited by James R. ...
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### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Base 2 counting on fingers - gets you up to 1023. Base 12 counting - need two more numbers flip & flap. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, flip, flap, flap-one, flap-2, flap-3, flap-4, flap-5, flap-6, ...

### Imbuing a six year old with a sense of mathematical wonder

Try folding a piece of paper in half, then in half again and see how many times you can do it. start with A4 then find larger pieces-newspaper then wallpaper perhaps.
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### Entertaining and fun books about mathematics for (basically) liberal arts students

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Journey by Hans Magnus Enzensberger is an essential in the "fun math book" category. Very accessible, great illustrations and actually touches on pretty sophisticated ...
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### Mnemonics for some properties in mathematics

Here is my way of memorizing the three main trigonometric functions. An angle $\theta$ is in standard position locating a point $(x,y)$ on a circle with a radius $r$ centered at the origin. There is ...
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