Mathematics Symposium

Maths Magic
shirley.collins@clear.net.nz
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Amaze your students and bring some mathemagical fun into your maths class. The exploration and use of patterns in mathematics can be used to achieve magic. Challenge your students to think creatively, critically, strategically and logically.
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Enter the Mathemagic class by cutting a piece of A4 paper so you can step through the hole.

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Choose a number less than 20 Double your number Add 8 Divide the result by 2 Subtract your original number Convert this to a letter of the alphabet: 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc Think of a country which starts with this letter Think of an animal which starts with the countrys second letter Think of the colour of that animal

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Stand if you are thinking of:

A GREY ELEPHANT IN DENMARK

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The Five Card Trick

How quickly can you find the sum of all five cards (without even looking!)?

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Predictor Cards
Select a number between 1 - 16. Stack the cards with this number the right way up on each card with the Master card on top. Turn the stack over to see the selected number in the window!
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Mind Reading

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Calendar Trick
Draw a 3 x 3 box around any nine numbers on a calendar. Find the sum of these nine numbers.
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The Trick
Multiply the middle number by 9 to quickly find the total. (hint multiply by 10 and subtract the number) Try this trick using a hundreds board. Why does this work? 16 x 9 = 160 16 = 144

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nx-1

n-x

nx+1

n-1

n+1

n+x-1

n+x

n+x+1

The sum of the nine boxes is 9n

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Magic Square
4 7 6 5 3

11 2 6 4 8 9 13

13 8 10 15

12 7 9 14

10 5 7 12

Copy the number square. Circle a number from the top row. Cross out remaining numbers in this row and column. Circle a number in the second row that is not crossed out. Cross out remaining numbers in this row and column. Repeat for rows three and four. Add the circled numbers.

40
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Magic Tables Cards

Choose a times table (eg x8) Place the cards in a 3 by 3 array so the multiples (of 8) are at the top: 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72
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NIM
Use 19 sticks. Players take turns to remove 1, 2 or 3 sticks. The player who takes the last stick wins.

Challenge: The player who takes the last stick loses.

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Pick a 3-digit number where the first and last digits differ by 2 or more.

Write the "reverse" number, obtained by writing the first number backwards.
Subtract the smaller of these two numbers from the larger one. Add this result to its own reverse.
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All answers should be 1089. Why is this?

Using abc for the digits: (100a+10b+c)-(100c+10b+a)=99(a-c) 3 digit multiples of 99 are: 198,297,396,495,594,693,792,891 adding any of these and their reverse gives 1089.
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Mind Reader Cards

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Mathemagic Minds
Find the cube root of any 2 digit number in your head!
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Write 2 digit numbers and their cubes look for patterns.

Ones digit of number: Ones digit of its cube:

Tens digit of number:

Thousands of its cube:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 8 7 4 5 6 3 2 9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1-7 8 - 26 27 - 63 64 - 124 125 - 215 216 - 342 343 - 511 512 - 728 729 - 999
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Frog Trick

Make the three brown frogs and three green frogs swap places: Each frog can only move towards the other end of the lily pads (no going back). A frog can hop onto the next empty lily pad. A frog can jump over a neighbouring frog onto an empty lily pad. Only one frog can occupy a single lily pad.

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The Impossible Drawing

Draw this shape without taking your pen off the paper or going over the same line twice.
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Reflection
What did I find interesting? What will I use with my students? What will I use with other teachers? What do I want to know more about?

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