Color Switcher If you read the last newsletter from Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids, you’ll recall that it announced an online version of Peg Solitaire. You’ll recall that I had actually planned to make a different game, but realised I could hit two birds with one stone, as it were.
Continue reading Newsletter #43 : Color Switcher Puzzle Game
For those of you who don’t know what a bagel is, it’s a bun with a hole in the middle. A doughnut made out of bread dough. If you can’t get hold of a bagel for the puzzle on this page, use a doughnut instead.
A long time ago, when I was just starting Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids, my wife bought two puzzle games for our eldest child, then still in kindergarten. One of them was the Traffic Jam Game. I quickly made an online traffic jam game, and it’s become one of the most popular games on the website. (There’s also a printable version). The other was a game called ‘Flip-It’, but somehow, until today, I never got around to making an online ‘Flip-It’ Game.
I learned a new word the other day. “Extelligence”. If intelligence is the ability to use the knowledge inside our minds, then extelligence is the ability to use the knowledge that resides outside individual human minds. I’ll give some examples of extelligence below.
Measuring Water
There’s a classic puzzle where you have to measure out a given volume of water – say 3 oz. To do this, you are given two cups. Unfortunately, the cups have no markings, and they measure 4 oz and 5 oz! How can you make 3 oz? The solution is to pour water from cup to cup, and to and from a source of water, so as to eventually have 3 oz in one of the cups.
On the very latest page from Dr Mike’s Math games for Kids, I’ve put a version of this puzzle you can play online. Two versions, in fact – one with two cups, and one with three. There’s also some brief tips for how to use this puzzle offline.
So have fun measuring water!
Wikipedia
Last month, I mentioned that Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids had gained a little press coverage. In fact, the website has been in the newspapers enough so that it meets – just – Wikipedia’s criteria for “notability”. Perhaps it’s time for Wikipedia to have an article on Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids? If you’re a Wikipediam, and you’d like to be the one to start the article, hop over to this blog post to see how!
Blog Posts
Some other blog posts in the past month :
I don’t usually announce blog posts to this newsletter. If you are keen to follow the Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids Blog, you can subscribe to the RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or join this site’s Facebook Page.
Well, that’s all for today! Have a great week ahead!
Are you a Wikipedian? Then you may like to know that Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids (this website) is now “notable” according to Wikipedia’s standards.
Benoît Mandelbrot has passed away.
Mandelbrot is one of the few mathematicians whose contributions – at least some of them – can be immediately recognised and appreciated by a number of non-mathematicians. His name is attached to the now famous Mandelbrot set, beautiful pictures of which are immediately recognizable, and stunningly beautiful.
At lunch the other day, there were some magazines on the table. I picked one up, turned to a random page, and a particular phrase caught my eye – in essence, the writer was saying that they don’t believe we should give scientists a blank check, and a carte blanche to do whatever research takes their fancy. He seemed to imply that some scientists say that we should. I don’t know if any scientists actually do say that, however, it raises an important question. Who, ideally, should decide what scientists should work on, and how much money they should get?
Continue reading Science Education And Political Choices
Someone asked me recently if I had any tips on teaching “estimation with friendly numbers”. I had to admit that I don’t have a magical tip that would instantly help – I’ve struggled to get the same concept through to my own son, after all! However, while framing my reply, it occurred to me why estimation might be difficult for a child who is otherwise good at math.
[This is a back-issue of this website’s newsletter]
Welcome to the 40th email from Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids, announcing the 84th of the free math games and resources on the site : Mancala!