Category: Math Around Us

I'm Throwing Out Fifty Things!
I bought the book Throw Out Fifty Things a few weeks ago and it’s changed my life.

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!

Related Articles:
May 15, 2012
Everyday Math Exposure: Just Saying It Helps
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.

Share your thoughts on this in the comments and tweet it out, too!

Related Articles:
May 7, 2012
Addition with Tattoos
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?

Let me know in the comments – and don’t forget to tweet out this article.

Related articles
March 26, 2012
Palindromes – What's Your Palindrome Number?
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.

Your turn!

What’s the PALN of your name? Share it in the comments or on Twitter/X.

Related articles
March 21, 2012
Hockey Game Expenses – Doing the Math
When I returned from the Houston Aeros Breast Cancer Awareness Hockey Game, I dug out my receipts from my back pocket. It made me think about 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:
1. What’s the value of the tickets?
2. 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.
1. Would these tickets have been sold to someone else at full price? And would those people have also spent $67.50?
2. 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.

Lots of it.

Thoughts? Share them in the comments!

Related articles
March 15, 2012
Multiplication & Your Breast Exam
Do you do your breast exam every month?

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!

Feature image by glokbell | Flickr.com | CC BY

Related articles
March 11, 2012
Happy Meal Coupon Reveals Lack of Thinking at McDonald's
It was Monday. My “day off” from my diet. So Daughter and I decided to use the McDonald’s coupon we got in the mail yesterday.

$1.99 for a Happy Meal for her if I buy a grownup value meal.

Easy enough, right?

I informed the speaker: “I have a coupon for a $1.99 Happy Meal with value meal. I’d like a #2 and a Cheeseburger Happy Meal.”

The voice said great and gave me my total: $9.97.

Something didn’t add up.

As I drove around, I couldn’t help thinking my $5.50 value meal, plus her $2 happy meal, plus tax shouldn’t get me all the way to $10.

So I asked about it when I got to the first window.

“Well,” she started, “We don’t have a button for that.”

“I’m sorry…?”

“Those coupons got sent out and they never put a button on our register for it. So I can’t give you the $1.99 Happy Meal. Sorry.”

I was stunned.

“So you’re telling me you sent me this coupon and I can’t use it because there’s no button for it?”

She smiled and shrugged cheerily, “Right. When they sent out the coupons, they didn’t put a button on here for it. If you want to use the coupon later, they might give us a button for it in the next couple of days.”

“Can I talk to a manager?”

The manager was equally unhelpful.

The conversation was similar. With a lot of “there’s no button for it.”

She told me they would be happy to take down my name. Later I could come back for “a small fry or something.” And she tried to keep my coupon.

I was totally confused.

The obvious solution was, well… not obvious.

“There’s no button for it.”

But they have a $.99 menu. And two $.99 menu items is pretty close to $1.99. So why didn’t they merely charge me for two of those?

I have been frustrated many times at the inability of clerks to do simple arithmetic (and to be fair, I’ve also been pleased).

But this was more than arithmetic.

This was thinking.

They were both paralyzed by the fact that there was no button for it. They couldn’t see past that.

Their lack of thinking created a terrible lack of customer service.

I took my coupon back and said that I would be happy to patronize the McDonald’s down the road from now on.

“Oh,” she said, “So you don’t want anything?”

Really, lady?

Can anything be done?

Can we fix the lack of thinking ability in normal people?

I don’t know the answer to that. And I don’t know the cause.

Sometimes I think that early calculator use caused this. But there are lots of parents who allow calculator use early on and raise brilliant, thinking kids.

Sometimes I think it’s the education system.

And sometimes I think it’s society.

What I do know is that my Grams had a 6th grade education and more thinking power than many high school graduates.

Don’t raise blind button pushers.

However you can. Whatever method you find.

We need our kids to learn: If there’s no button for it, you can make it work another way.

Raise them to be thinkers.

Comments?

Related articles
February 28, 2012
The Math of Weight Watchers Points Plus
Laura over at Math For Grownups wrote an article on the math behind the points system that Weight Watchers uses.

It was interesting. But since I didn’t do Weight Watchers, I merely found it a fun novelty. Until…

I joined Weight Watchers last week.

I was inspired by a combination of Fitarella’s 12 in 12 super motivational plan, Laura’s “How Many Points Is That?” article and my Ma declaring, “This is the last diet I will ever pay for!”

The points are fun to count and add and play with. After all, it’s math.

But I’m an electronic girl. So I downloaded the Weight Watchers iPhone app and began to plug in my food numbers there.

But the math isn’t quite what the math is supposed to be.

Like Laura said:

Instead of counting just calories, we’re considering four components of our food: protein, fiber, carbohydrates and fat.

Which means that all four of these bits go into a fun (and probably secret) math formula to arrive at the final number of official POINTS for a food.

Which was good with me. Until Ma recommended a great 1-point bread.

1-point for her, that is.

Apparently the iPhone app uses the decimals! Which means…

This 1-point bread is really more than one point!

The points, according to the iPhone app, go like this:
- 1 slice = 1 point
- 2 slices = 3 points (excuse me?)
- 3 slices = 4 points
- 4 slices = 6 points (really?)
- 5 slices = 7 points
- 6 slices = 8 points
- 7 slices = 10 points (now you’re really getting on my nerves)
- 8 slices = 11 points
- 9 slices = 13 points
- 10 slices = 14 points (*sigh*)
So what’s that about?

Shafting me out of points, is what!

Clearly the iPhone app uses the decimals that the paper version rounds to.

So from the information above, can you do the math? Can you figure out exactly how many points the Weight Watchers app assigns to a slice of this so-called 1-point bread?

You could put together a fancy math formula.

But that would be painful (yup, it’s as painful for you and me as it is for the kids – remember that).

Or you could just do some trial and error.

Here’re the assumptions:
- Weight Watchers rounds like normal people. If it’s .5 or more, they round up. If it is .4 or less, they round down.
- A slice of bread is more than one point. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be so mad.
Now to go in for the guesses:

Guess #1: A slice of bread is 1.2 points.

Does this work? If so, you can stop and go have a 2-point beer*, if not, continue.

How do you check it? See if it works in the “chart” above:
- 1 slice = 1.2 point
- 2 slices = 2.4 points YIPES!
This doesn’t work. 2 slices have to round up to be 3 points. This would round down to 2 points.

So on to the next guess:

Guess #2: A slice of bread is 1.3 points.

Check it in the “chart”:
- 1 slice = 1.3 points
- 2 slices = 2.6 points (good to go! this rounds up to 3 points)
- 3 slices = 3.9 points (sweet! 3.9 rounds to 4 points)
- 4 slices = 5.2 points (ARG! this shuts it down)
4 slices is supposed to be 6 points. So it needs to be at least 5.5 points.

Again…

Guess #3: A slice of bread is 1.4 points.

Check it in the “chart”:
- 1 slice = 1.4 points ~ 1 point
- 2 slices = 2.8 points ~ 3 points
- 3 slices = 4.2 points ~ 4 points
- 4 slices = 5.6 points ~ 6 points
- 5 slices = 7.0 points = 7 points
- 6 slices = 8.4 points ~ 8 points
- 7 slices = 9.8 points ~ 10 points
- 8 slices = 11.2 points ~ 11 points
- 9 slices = 12.6 points ~ 13 points
- 10 slices = 14.0 points = 14 points
Woohoo!

You can use this with your kids!

Okay, you might not want to share dieting things with kids. But you can share the “Dirty is better than pain” philosophy:

Why go through the pain of variables and formulas, when you can get your hands dirty with trial and error?

And guess what – if the kids are confident with the trial and error, they might someday see if they can generalize it themselves. Which means they could come up with a formula – on their own!

What do you think? Do you use formulas for your everyday math? Or do you “dirty>pain” it? Can you teach this to your kids?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

*Note that the 2-point beer is also more than 2 points! #ARG

Feature image by dno1967b | Flickr.com | CC BY

Related articles
February 14, 2012
Chuck E. Cheese & Math
This is a feature article by “K8” Crowder. She is the Daughter of Bon, the publisher of MathFour.com.

MawMaw & Pawpaw take my cousins and me to Chuck E. Cheese every month. We have a great time running around, playing games and riding rides. There’s not any math lessons there, per se. But Taica (my mom) always manages to get some math in there somewhere.

Every so often Chuck E. Cheese himself will come out and do a dance with a bunch of kids. Sometimes I go dance too, and sometimes I just hang back and watch.

Mawmaw says that other people “paid for” Chuck E. Cheese to come out and play. This means I shouldn’t muscle my way in and dance too. I’m not sure what that means. But it seems important to her.

Grownups “pay for” things.

Grownups get stuff from other people if they give them stuff. Taica says that’s what Mawmaw means when she says other people paid for Chuck E. Cheese.

Someone else gave Chuck E. Cheese something so he would dance with their kids. Not with me.

I got a Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt today – just like my cousin’s. Taica gave the man a bunch of pieces of paper and he gave me the shirt. Taica pointed out to me the sign on the shirts. She said it was math.

This was it:

See those numbers on the yellow sign at the bottom? They represent what one grownup has to give another grownup in order for me (or another kid) to score that shirt.

Taica said that she gave 1000 tickets for the shirt. And then she said, “That means that each ticket is the same as one penny.”

Tickets are the same as pennies? Really?

I’ve seen pennies. I like to put them in my mouth. And they do not look like tickets.

She rambled on about 9 dollars and 99 cents being mostly 10 dollars. And then if you divide 10 dollars by 1000 tickets, you get one penny per ticket.

I know that dividing means sharing your cookies with your friend. In particular, sharing so that nobody gets mad because the other kid got more. And since dividing is math, cookies are math.

I’m good with that.

But I’m not sure how sharing cookies has anything to do with tickets, pennies and shirts.

But in the end, I got my Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt.

But I still don’t believe a ticket is the same as a penny!

What do you think about this tickets and pennies thing? Do you like to give people stuff to get other stuff? Do you use tickets, pennies or something else?

Write about it below in the comments.

K8 is a full time kid who can count to 20 and only miss the number 15. Her favorite songs are “A-B-C-D” and “Had a very shiny nose.” Connect with her in the comments or on Twitter at @KateCrowder.

Related articles
February 12, 2012
FIAR: Snowy Evening Math Photos

This post originally appeared on The HSBA Post on January 26, 2012.

Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a curious poem – challenging for grownups and particularly interesting for kids.

I’m keen on looking for math in our FIAR books, but this time I’m thinking about doing some math in a new way. There’s math in poetry – tons of patterns with the iambic pentameter and such. But this picture book took a short poem (it’s only 16 lines) and added illustrations to give it that extra touch.

Illustrations… hmm…

There’s a classroom teacher who created a math assignment around photography. What a cool project for homeschool families; you can make it as strict or as loose as you want.

He blogged all about the process, including the challenges and results,which makes modifying it for homeschool super easy and fun!

Snowy Evening Math Photos

If you have snow around, use the beautiful images in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to inspire a photo field trip in the neighborhood. Use the assignment and rubric from the above links or just go with the flow. Encourage your children to look at the world with math eyes!

I live in Houston, where it snows once every nine years. So I had to depend on Flickr for these examples.

Abstract, curious, math-y!

There’s some fun math in the angle of the snow, and also in the shadow in this pictures. It makes me wonder if the camera is tilted or if the snow is on a hill. Click on the image to get some math thoughts from the photographer.

by windiepink | Flickr.com | CC BY

Mr. Rene’ Descartes would love this one!

Lots of snow, but also some coordinate plane stuff here:

by Jan Tik | Flickr.com | CC BY

Blocks and smiley faces!

These look like snow covered blocks – big ones! Fancy math term: rectangular parallelepiped. (Get your two year old to say that – it’s SO cute!)

by plizzba | Flickr.com | CC BY

Graphing animal tracks is fun!

You know how you put a bunch of dots on a grid and then connect them? That’s graphing in math. That’s what these animal tracks look like! Incidentally, this photo is from my favorite Flickr person who has a great collection of math photos!

by woodleywonderworks | Flickr.com | CC BY

What do your photos look like?

What kinds of math do your kids see in the snow or other weather you might have? Share the links and their thoughts in the comments!

January 26, 2012