Fun Maths
While I was studying at Queen Mary, I did quite a lot of work with school students in the area. The files below are mostly things I used while I was doing this.
While I was studying at Queen Mary, I did quite a lot of work with school students in the area. The files below are mostly things I used while I was doing this.
| fourpoints.pdf |
This is really just a simple puzzle - I've used it at Maths Jams, and I think we might have used it as warm-up exercise in one of the Art of Maths classes. It's probably sadistic to post this here without a solution, but I can't find the solution right now, so it's going to have to do.
| fifteengame.pdf |
This is a very simple game for the students. It serves as an interesting introduction to one of the basic ideas of Combinatorial Game Theory - the idea of two games being isomorphic. I haven't actually written up a solution to the exercises in this game, but it's not that difficult, and I'm sure if you're thinking of using it then you're more than capable of figuring it out for yourself. If not, feel free to email me. I've also taken it to several Maths Jams, where it went down well.
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Cake Cutting is the mathematical study of fair division. It is a very rich area for recreational mathematics, which has obvious real-world applications. And this makes it really good for outreach. The two files above formed the basis for a 1 hour session that I used to do with students from ages about 12 to 17. Those sessions worked really well, and were probably my most successful attempts at mathematics outreach.
