Since I was a kid, I loved seeing the patterns cre...

2011-01-13T10:38:37.251-05:00

Since I was a kid, I loved seeing the patterns created by math. I remember a teacher testing me once: add up all the numbers between 1 and 100. I did so the old-fashioned way.

He then told me about some Greek or Roman or someone from long ago who had been asked to do this, and he answered really quickly because he thought about it differently:

1+99=100
2+98=100
3+97=100

And so on. So you have 1-49, each with their counterparts, totaling 4900. Now just add 100 and 50 and you have the answer of 5050.

So I like what you're doing here. I think math can be made so much more interesting for kids.

WNYC Radiolab: Numbers

Captivating hour-long discussion about numbers: do we need them and why. How babies perceive them, whether it is natural to count by one, how one can use numbers to detect a fraud on a tax return, degrees of separation and more.

Comments on The Math Mom: Math Kabbalah

Since I was a kid, I loved seeing the patterns cre...

WNYC Radiolab: NumbersCaptivating hour-long discussion about numbers: do we need them and why. How babies perceive them, whether it is natural to count by one, how one can use numbers to detect a fraud on a tax return, degrees of separation and more.

WNYC Radiolab: Numbers

Captivating hour-long discussion about numbers: do we need them and why. How babies perceive them, whether it is natural to count by one, how one can use numbers to detect a fraud on a tax return, degrees of separation and more.