Movie Time! Fractions of Whole Numbers

        Hi, I’m Michael. I’m teaching about fractions of whole numbers. I made a power point and turned it into a movie. The reason I chose to make a power point was because I thought it would be easier to learn with each step on a different slide. I had trouble getting music for my video. Katie showed me how to fix it. I liked this project, because I liked the fact that I‘m teaching.            

Another Logic Puzzle

Everybody-

Remember the other logic puzzle I made? Well, here’s a new one. Your mission is to figure out what Laurie, Bill, Joseph, and Anna’s favorite flavors of ice cream are. (Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint chocolate chip.) Here are your clues:
Laurie likes something with chocolate IN it.
Joseph’s favorite flavor is fruit flavored.
Bill’s preferred ice cream is usually white.

NOTE: Last time I forgot to tell you that each person can only have one favorite.

             -Justin

Mmmm...Popcorn, Mini M&Ms, and Marshmallows

Sorry, you're not eating!

There are 35 pieces of popcorn in 1 cup of popcorn, and 210 mini M&Ms in 1/4 cup. Using this information, solve the following problem.

Amy made trail mix for her class. Say you were one of her students and you could choose a bag of trail mix with 1 cup popcorn, 4 tablespoons of M&M's and 30 little marshmallows OR 16 tablespoons popcorn, 1/4 cup M&M's and 30 little marshmallows. Which bag has more pieces of food and how much?   

Thanks!

Albert

Challenging Pet Problem

I'm Will and here is a challenging math problem that I came up with.

Justin and Cal were trying to decide what kind of pet they wanted. They looked at a lot of animals at Petsmart. They looked at 3 more fish than frogs. They saw one half as many frogs as snakes. There were one third as many snakes as lizards. They took a long look at the 36 awesome lizards. How many animals did they look at all together?

Quick Subtraction Fact

Solve 321 - 123.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
You should end up with 198.

Here is another problem with a number where each digit decreases by one minus the same three numbers in reverse order. 876 - 678. Try it!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
You get 198 again!

Try to solve a 4-digit problem using the same pattern as above. What is your problem, and what do you get for your answer?

Then try it with 2, 5, 6, or even 7 digit numbers. After your solve the problems, comment below with what you find out.

                                                                      --Sydney

How old are fractions?

Hi. I'm Caroline. We've been studying fractions lately. I wonder how old fractions are. Maybe you know, what year were fractions first used?

Challenge: So how old are fractions? (How many years have we been using them?)

Challenge Challenge: Who created them or where were they first used?

Thoughts About A Squashed Fly

On Ivan's Number Blog, I really liked the squashed fly problem, so I told it to my dad, but instead of saying "Oh, that's cool," he started trying to explain to me how that's not possible and how it wouldn't work. Then my brother got into the conversation. I didn't know what they were talking about (something about lunar and curves) so I left. Check out the squashed fly problem and then leave a comment if you understand and try to explain it.

-Alana

Logic Puzzle

Hi everyone-

I'm Justin and I was wondering do you know what logic puzzles are?

Well, whether or not you do, here is an easy example for you to look at:

Alex, Maya, and Tom all like sports. It’s your job to find out who likes basketball the most, who likes soccer the most, and who likes volleyball the most.

Clues:
Alex and Tom both like sports where you have to get the ball into a net to score.
In Tom’s favorite sport you’re not allowed to kick the ball.

                 To solve this problem, you can copy it onto a piece of paper or print this out, so you can write on it. Then, you put an X in the boxes that people’s favorite sports can’t be, and a check in what you think their favorite sport is. Please reply with a sentence that has what you think Alex, Maya, and Tom’s favorite sports are.

Shopping Spree Challenge Problem

Mary walks out of a store with 0 cents left. She had been to 4 stores and each time she walked in she payed 1 cent. Each time she walked out of a store she payed 1 cent. She spent 5 cents ON THINGS IN THE STORE in the last store, twice that much in the second to last store and so on. How much money did Mary start with?

Good luck!
Michael

A Multiplication Trick

I'm Cal and here's a multiplication trick.

You can make a multiplication problem like 900 X 600 really easy. All you have to do is look at the first numbers in the problem, in this case, 9 and 6. Then multiply them together, which is 54. Then take all the zeros and put them behind the 54, which makes 540,000.

Division Trivia

Hi! I’m Ana. Today I wanted to give a trivia on division.

Here are my questions.

What is?

1.   144 ÷ 21 =?

2.   253 ÷ 31 =?

3.   358 ÷ 18 =?

4.   586 ÷ 6 =?

5.   619 ÷ 38 =?

Try them and post up your answers below. Soon we will post up the answers.

                Thanks,

                     Ana

Square Root Trivia

Hi! I'm Ariana and I wanted to share some square root trivia. First of all, did you know the root in root is spelled r-o-o-t? I didn't know that until today. I thought it was r-o-u-t-e, but now I know better. Anyway, here is some trivia:

1. (An easy one) What is the square root of 1?
2. What is the square root of 256?
3. What is the square root of 144?
4. What is the square root of 400?
5. What is the square root of 81?

I know what a square root is, but do you? Along with your answers, post a definition of what a square root is. I'm looking for the very best definition. I'll be back in a few days with the answers.

Thanks,
Ariana

Beating Stick Math?

Surprisingly, we have not had any comments about the name of our blog. We do want to assure you that no math was harmed in the process of creating this blog. Also, the math in this blog will not harm you. :)

So without getting too crazy, what do you think our name could mean? Any ideas? We'd love to hear them. And, in time, we'll share with you the history of our name.

--The Beating Stick Math team

Screen Casting: Lattice

This is a screen casting video that we made to teach others how to solve multiplication using the lattice method. Enjoy!

                                            -Justin and Alex



Screen Casting: Math Rhymes

This is a screen casting video that I made with Sydney. It includes different tricks you can use to help you solve multiplication and division problems. These tricks are easy to remember and can help you solve some short multiplication and division problems that you can't quite remember. This video gives you helpful tricks for: 8 x 8, 6 x 6, and 56 / 7.

Thanks for watching!

--Angelina