Overview of Week of Inspirational Math
In this week of inspirational math, we solved problems and watched videos to inspire us to think about math differently. The first problem required us to divide a 11x13 rectangle into as few squares as possible (pictured below). This was much more challenging than I would have anticipated. The second was interpreting a pattern of squares that grew into a staircase-like shape. The third was creating our own patterns using a sequence given to us. The fourth was painting the side of a 3x3 cube. These problems didn't require a lot of direct math, but they made our brains struggle. We also watched a series of videos on how struggling in math makes your brain grow, and that everyone has the potential to be good at math. We learned the science in brain cells making connections are growing, and we learned that believing in yourself causes your brain to grow more.
Explanation
In this problem, we were given a sequence of numbers. They were 20, 10, 5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. We then learned what the rule behind this pattern was; If the number was even, divide it by two, and if it was odd, multiply it by three and add one. This makes sense with the numbers we were given because 20 divided by 2 is 10, 10 divided by 2 is 5, and 5 times 3 plus 1 is 16. We could use this rule to create our own patterns, and we could also create our own similar rules to make patterns of our own. Here are some examples with different rules.
If even, add 3
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If even, divide by 2
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