October 2009
4 posts
Can You Say Really Big Numbers? →
We learned about some astronomically big numbers today - numbers that ancient Hindu mathematicians used to think about. Check out this web site and learn how to say really, really, really big numbers. (I just learned how to say a number that is approximately eight septendecillion places long. That means it’s an 8 with 54 zeros behind it!)
September 2009
11 posts
HowStuffWorks Video "What the Ancients Knew:... →
From The Science Channel’s series, “What the Ancients Knew,” comes this short video about the origin of zero. (The video is one minute and 46 seconds long. I said it was short!)
“That was like math recess!”
– Aubree, commenting on our first class together
Wow, did we enjoy our first math meeting today. Since this was our first class, we spent a bit of time on logistics such as:
Making sure our pencils were sharpened BEFORE we left the fourth grade classroom because Tammy burned up the motor in the...
WatchBBC Video: The Story of One
After 40 years spent making a career from the completely different, Monty Python star Terry Jones has gone back to basics.
The writer and historian, best known for his work with the surreal comedy troupe, presents The Story of 1, a one-off BBC One documentary on the history of numbers in which he merges slapstick, quirky humour and learning.
This is a great video...
Beats & Breaths Calculator : Discovery Health →
How many heartbeats and breaths have you experienced since you were born?
The MegaPenny Project →
Have you ever wondered what a billion - or even a trillion - pennies looks like? Click on the link above to go to The MegaPenny Project and find out!
How much would you like to be paid?
I hope everyone is thinking about the challenge that I presented at our first meeting last week. As a reminder, here it is:
You have been hired to perform a job that lasts for 30 days, and you get to decide how much you would like to be paid by selecting one of the following two options:
You will be given a check for $1,000 as the complete payment for 30 days of work.
You will be given $.01...
3 tags
WatchWhen we begin studying place value, we’ll “officially” explore numbers through the millions. But why stop there? How far should we go? Just imagine the number one with a hundred zeroes behind it. Did you know that would be called a googol? And then if you have a one with a googol zeroes behind it, it’s a googolplex?
Don’t confuse a googolplex with the Googleplex,...
Fourth Grade Math Totally Rocks
Fourth grade math totally rocks and to prove it a group of students and a sponsoring faculty member meet for thirty minutes every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to explore the world of mathematics together, taking learning and conceptual understanding to new levels.
At our first meeting together we will jump into place value. We’ll move from there to addition and subtraction with...