They poured my new driveway yesterday. We ate breakfast and watched as they worked.
And we witnessed an amazing feat of engineering.
A tiny twist is all it takes!
I was watching one of the workers smooth the concrete. He was using a bull float:
I noticed he was twisting the handle as he worked. On closer inspection, I saw the engineering of the device:
And here’s the other side:
As the worker twisted the handle, it would change the angle of the surface of the bull float. This prevented him from having to change the angle of the handle. Like this:
Watch it in action:
Oh, yeah — those angles and changing the of length of the chain… That’s Math!
My best friend used to buy $1 lipstick when we were in high school. I think she still does.
Her logic: “If I only pay a dollar for it, I can have lots of different ones. And I don’t have to fret about losing it or having it melt in the car.”
Like a good friend, I went along with this logic.
For years.
Is expensive lipstick really expensive?
I’m not here to convince you of the quality of expensive lipstick. There are blogs out there dedicated to lipstick. I’m merely a serious lipstick user.
I will, however, attempt to convince you of the math (economics?) in lipstick.
There’s some psychology in this.
Suppose you buy your own lipstick (which you probably do). If you pay $1 for it, the perceived value is quite low – regardless of the actual quality. And you treat it like that — leaving it in the car to melt, forgetting it in a public restroom, etc.
Just like my friend does.
Now let’s assume that you pay $10 for a tube of lipstick. That’s ten times what you’ve been paying.
All of a sudden the perceived value is huge!
The loss factor is indirectly proportional to the price of the lipstick!
If you pay ten times as much for a tube of lipstick, you’re 1/10 as likely to lose it. Okay, I have no empirical evidence to confirm this, merely empirical experience.
But it’s true!
As soon as I started buying expensive lipsticks, I quit losing them. And I quit leaving them in the car to be melted by the Houston heat!
Note for my mathematician friends — the constant of proportionality is affected by the lipstick wearer and that crazy butterfly down in South America. There’s not strict math here. Yet. 😀
The finish-factor is directly proportional to the price of the lipstick.
Not only do I keep an expensive tube much longer, but I tend to finish it. In fact, the more expensive it is, the more likely I’ll use a lip brush to dig out the stuff crammed deep in the tube!
My current favorite, Chanel Allure Rouge, is a shocking $30 per tube. I keep the old broken tube in the Math Shack so I can dig lip color out of the bottom of it when it’s time to video or do a daily mug shot.
Lipstick Math applies to everything!
If your child uses his own allowance to buy a new toy, he really knows the value. Furthermore, if he spends more, he’s more likely to care for it.
When you notice this, point it out. Make sure to note how it’s math – and that your kiddo is doing it effortlessly!
it is now 7:00am + 30 minutes drive time + 1 hour get dressed time + 9 minutes for the snooze button I really want to hit – x (approximately 9 or 10 minutes of something like washing hair, eating yogurt instead of eggs or shaving legs) = be there at 8:30am
Notice this is also substitution!
Use this to positively influence your children.
The next time someone says, “I haven’t done math in years,” point out to them they do math all the time. In fact, they likely did math to get there on time!
Especially point this out if you’re in earshot of a child.
When kids hear how math is used effortlessly and frequently, it helps to demystify it. And when it’s demystified – they become more familiar and comfortable with it.
And you know what that means? They’re more engaged!
This year K8 is turning 3, a Fibonacci number. So we’re having a Fibonacci Birthday Party!
Her birthday parties the previous two years have been non-math. And I’m fairly certain at some point she’ll want to choose her own birthday party theme. So this might be my last chance to do a Fibonacci birthday party.
Fibonacci Birthday Party Decorations
Spiral streamers, pinecones, whole pineapples and sunflowers will adorn the house.
We’ll have blue painter’s tape outlining the spiral on the tiles of the floor. And we’ll each wear a fun Fibonacci t-shirt!
Birthday Party Foods
We’ll have bananas, apples and pineapples as healthy snacks for the kids. And I’ll likely do an arrangement of Cheez-its glued down with peanut butter. Of course there’ll be plenty of free floating Cheez-its too!
For the grownups, we’ll have broccoli and cauliflower along with cucumbers.
If we serve a meal, we’ll do lasagna with Fibonacci rectangles outlined in spinach fettuccine noodles!
Party Favors
I’ll buy a bunch of Fibonacci paperback children’s books, including Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere and Wild Fibonacci. I’ll print some fun stickers to put on them that read
And those will be the party favors!
Fibonacci Birthday Party Gimmicks
We’ll play some games, including Fibonacci Hopscotch (as suggested by @mathhombre). The adults can play, “What is My Fibonacci Number?” based on the popular party game, Who Am I?
And the best part – we’ll have live rabbits for the kids to pet!
What do you think?
Have you ever given a Fibonacci Birthday Party? or a math party? Do you have any other ideas to make this awesome?
My latest accomplishment – getting rid of 50 things from this (now neat) bookshelf!
Of course, I haven’t read it – inspirational books like this only need me to purchase them to apply their basic principles.
But I have thrown out multiples of 50 things in the past few weeks. All because of this book!
“What’s that got to do with math?”
Great question; I’m glad you asked.
Well, for starters, “fifty” is a number. In particular a positive integer.
And if you buy this book (adding one more thing to your pile of stuff, as Husband points out), then you probably have at least 50 things you can throw out.
Which means you have way more than 50 things.
How many things do you have?
Take a quick inventory. No – not of everything. But just of what you see right in front of you at this very moment.
Chances are you stopped counting and started estimating at around 50. Then you stopped altogether at around a few hundred.
Even if you divide this by two (if you’re married or partnered) that’s still a ton of stuff.
“Things” are more than what you see.
Now take a quick peek at your email. How many things are clogging your inbox?
If you’re online, I’ll bet you have a plethora of people you’re friends with and following.
And if you write a blog… look at how many drafts you have.
So throw out fifty things.
Well, make sure to recycle them or donate them. But get them out of your world.
If it helps, think of how many thousands of things you have. If you have 500 things in each room and you have ten rooms, that’s 5000 things.
Throwing out 50 of those is 1% of your stuff. That’s practically nothing. And you’ll feel great!
I’m throwing out 70 things in the next three weeks!
I’ve pitched books, sold cloth diapers and donated socks – at least 50 pair of the cutest 1980’s socks you’ve ever seen!
Shirts, pants and shoes… if I didn’t love them, I gave them to someone who would.
And now it’s time for the e-throw-out.
I have 70 articles on this site – in draft mode! So for the next three weeks, every one of them is getting published or pitched.
Many will be conversation starters, as my twitter friend Miles MacFarlane suggested. Some might turn into full articles.
And some drafts will meet their fate with the “File 13” button of death.
And I’ll be free!
Okay, there’ll certainly still be things that haunt me. Things I need to do, want to do and have to do.
But I won’t have a mountain of “should-haves” sitting on my shoulders.
So how about you? Share in the comments what kinds of things you’ll throw out for your first 50 things. And let others join the fun – tweet this out!
Previously in an article about math anxiety parents may feel, I mentioned how grown-ups inadvertently teach kids to be scared of certain things.
It’s not our fault. We learned it from adults when we were younger.
But we still do it.
“I hate rats.”
“Math? I’ve always had math anxiety.”
“Ew, roaches, yikes!”
“Math is hard. I don’t do math.”
What’s psychology got to do with it?
From the principles of psychology, we know that hearing other people talk about things, we adopt some of those same attitudes – especially being young and impressionable as kids.
And your kids are like that, too.
An example: Think about butterflies. They’re insects and they have erratic movement patterns. So why don’t we hate butterflies like we do roaches?
Ok, to be fair, roaches invade our living spaces given the slightest chance. And they carry diseases. But are these things the reason why we feel a shiver?
Not really – it’s seeing others freak out when they see a roach.
And seeing others say, “Ooo, how pretty!” when they see a butterfly!
And the research shows…
In the previous article, I mentioned that the reason why this is important lies in the immediate and long-term effect on children. I presented on how this impacts math anxiety recently at the Western Social Sciences Association Conference.
Research and experience show that when we display math anxiety or a negative attitude toward math, kids do to. And this causes them to have lower confidence in their math ability, higher math anxiety, and more avoidance toward doing math.
And when we (or our children) don’t engage in something, we don’t have an opportunity to learn.
But noticing everyday math gives them more confidence – and more opportunity!
Is it up to parents?
You might have heard (or even said), “That’s the teachers job.” Well, they can only do so much. The best prescription for helping kids to learn is to make it enjoyable. Or at very least, neutral so they don’t avoid it.
The less avoidant (and more engaging) they are on their own, the more they take it upon themselves to do math things. They’ll see the everyday math. And they’ll do it without having someone over their shoulder all the time.
Learning then happens even outside the math class.
They’ll do math on their own?
Yes.
Learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. It occurs when we explore, follow our curiosity, ask questions, and think about why something is the way it is.
Math is no different.
Ever wonder how many packs of taco shells you need for everyone to have two?
Math.
Or how long it will take to wash and dry all the laundry?
Yup – everyday math again.
Confidence in doing math make these things more palatable, and more likely to be thought of as math.
We don’t need an “answer” for there to be math.
We’re a bit trained (brainwashed may be a little harsh, but accurate) to think that doing math is sitting with a pencil and paper, and with numbers, letters, lines and answers.
If you think about it, it’s like saying reading only happens in the library or bookstore. The idea of doing math has a fairly limited scope.
Because of this, we don’t realize how much we really do it.
So what can WE do.
Say it when it happens. Say it when you recognize it. Say it when you see someone else doing it.
Tacos in the grocery store? Yep, there it is again. Say it out loud to your kid.
How about how long it takes to get somewhere walking vs. driving in a car.
“Hey, little Billy, it takes us longer to walk to the store than to drive. That’s math.”
Any time we compare two things and decide one is larger than the other, we’re doing math.
If we count items to determine how many we have, we’re doing math there, too.
When you recognize everyday math, just say whatever you’re thinking out loud. And watch as the “Ew, roach!” avoidance turns into the “Ooo, butterfly!” interest.
Seems that I’m learning something called “addition” these days. My parents say things like “two bottles of vitamins plus one bottle of vitamins equals four bottles of vitamins. That’s addition!”
I’ve figured out that “addition” means you use the words “plus” and “equals” in the same sentence.
You can do addition with counting too!
I’m into tattoos. I have kitten tattoos and Spider Man ones. To put them on, we have to use a wet rag and count – first to 20 and then to 10. My mom says that “twenty plus ten equals thirty.”
That sentence has both of the important words: “plus” and “equals.”
So doing tattoos is not just counting, but addition too!
So tattoos are math!
My dad doesn’t like me to have so many tattoos. He prefers I use the fun band-aids. Band-aids are okay, but you don’t have to count or add to put them on.
The more tattoos I put on, the more counting and addition practice I can get. So he should be happy I’m getting lots of tattoos!
Tattoos and counting teach other stuff also.
I’m learning “patience.” That means waiting without whining or screaming.
I don’t mind “patience” when I’m counting. Because I’m doing something fun.
Do you have a 2 year old like me, that can count? Are you teaching him or her addition too? And what kinds of tattoos do y’all have?
A palindrome is a word or phrase (or string of numbers) that reads the same front-to-back and back-to-front.
Wil, the research guy, in mirror image
There’re the little ones, like Wow, Mom, Dad and Hannah.
Then there are big ones, like this one from Jon Agee:
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.
But there are also words, phrases and names that are almost palindromes.
But how “almost” is an almost palindrome?
You can measure the “almost” of a palindrome with a palindrome number (or PALN for short). Here are the rules:
Adjust the word or name using any of these:
Switch any two adjacent letters.
Insert a letter anywhere in the word.
Remove any letter from the word.
For each of these increase the PALN by one. The smallest numer of these adjustments that can be made and still have an intelligible sounding “word,” is the palindrome number or PALN.
Watch how it works…
Start with something that is an “almost palindrome” – something that has a palindrome in it or lots of the same letters. The go crazy, like this:
William – the bold part is a palindrome
We can remove three letters to be left with “illi.” Or we can add A, M and W to the word to get “Mawilliwam.” Either is pronounceable and yields the PALN=3.
mathchat – the bold part is a palindrome and the parts in italics are the same letters
Remove the M and then switch the first A and T. So the resulting palindrome is “tahchat.” PALN=2.
Susannah – bold part is a palindrome and so is the italics part
As nice as this looks, its PALN is much larger than the other two. Removing the H is helpful, and then adding an extra SUS at the end gives a PALN=4. The result is “Susannasus.”
Hanna – SO close!
PALN=1. Simply remove the H or add an H for Hannah or Anna.
You can use this to teach math!
Math is about patterns as much as it is about numbers. Recognizing those almost palindromes and playing with them improves cognitive thinking.
Keep your eyes peeled everyday for almost-palindromes. Use the opportunities to teach math in a way that doesn’t even seem like math.
That was a pretty expensive trip to a hockey game. Especially since the tickets were free!
In the spirit of Dan Meyer‘s Any Questions? style of learning, my question arose:
Was it worth it for the Aeros to give me tickets to the hockey game?
Here are some things I need to know before I can arrive at the answer:
What’s the value of the tickets?
How much did I spend?
Answer 1. The tickets we got were $26 each. So my ticket, along with Daughter’s ticket, was $52.
Answer 2. Here’s the total of what she and I “consumed” on non-ticket items:
Two beers ($13.50) (that was me, not us together)
One stuffed animal (the mascot Chilly) $12.50
A cowbell (I’m from the country, I couldn’t resist) $25
One hotdog $6.50
Parking $10
So we spent $67.50 at the hockey game. That’s $15.50 more than the cost of the tickets. Seems like it was worth it for them to give me the tickets.
But did they make money off me?
Just because they got their money back, plus some, doesn’t mean they made money.
Would these tickets have been sold to someone else at full price? And would those people have also spent $67.50?
What was the cost of us being there? And what was the cost of the stuffed animal, the cowbell, the hotdog and the beer?
Answer 1. There were lots of empty seats, so I’m thinking they were leftover seats. Nobody was going to buy them.
Answer 2. Supposing we took up $.05 of air conditioning and maybe $.05 in water (we also washed our hands), it cost them ten cents to have us around. For the things we bought:
Stuffed animal – $1
Cowbell – $1
Hotdog – $.25
Beer – $4 (there’s serious tax in this, I think)
So they spent about $6.35 having us there and paying for the products we bought. So yes, they definitely made money.
I’ve known enough women, both young and “old,” who have joined the horribly unfortunate club of breast cancer survivors. And I sometimes wonder how it is that I still forget every month to do my breast exam.
Especially when you look at the math!
5 seconds of breast exam per breast/month x 2 breasts = 10 seconds/month
10 seconds/month x 12 months = 120 seconds/year or 2 minutes/year on your breast exam
TWO MINUTES PER YEAR!
2 minutes/year x 90 years = 180 minutes or 3 hours
Can you use 3 hours of your life to do your breast exam?
And what does 3 hours of time gain you?
If you feel that tiny pebble when you do your short breast exam you can get to the doc quick. Which means nabbing that bundle of evil cells before they go any further.
Taking 10 seconds to do your breast exam means having a lumpectomy instead of a mastecomy – and possibly lymphadenectomy along with it.
Spending merely two minutes each year on your breast exams means surgeons can get that nice margin around the lump. It means preventing those damaged, multiplying cells from cruising your system and getting into other parts of you.
It means living longer. For you. For your partner and friends.
For your kids.
Cancer is the only place where muliplication sucks for everyone.
Multiplication is normally the bomb. It rocks. It’s cool.
Even if someone’s not good at it, multiplication give you the ability to triple your income. It lets you be ten times smarter than you were three years ago.
With multiplication you can love someone twice as much tomorrow.
But the multiplication that cancer cells do, destroy all of this.
So do your part.
Donate to the cause or attend a special event that supports breast cancer awareness.
And do your breast exam every month. Let your kids keep their mom.
The math shows that it only takes a little while to gain you a long while.
Do it!
I’m heading to the Houston Aeros Breast Cancer Awareness Hockey Game today. They were sweet enough to send me a bundle of tickets and I’m honored to help them raise money for the Young Survival Coalition. Tomorrow I’ll write about the math in hockey!
