So much good mathematics begins with play … with arranging, manipulating, folding, cutting, and drawing objects and shapes. Except for the drawing, there need be no pens or pencils in sight!
Even the abstract thinker draws on his/her experiences with manipulating objects. They have sorted them, placed them in groups, stacked them, compared them, arranged them in patterns, etc. All our fundamental abstract concepts are learned in this way. We even develop different problem-solving strategies, extrapolate and interpolate results, discover and analyse patterns, and make inferences and generalisations about the objects that we play with. Even older children (and adults) can benefit from such play, although it is of fundamental importance for the developing child.
Having been inspired by W W Sawyer’s book, The Search for Pattern, as a teenager I must admit to the belief that all mathematics is based upon pattern and our search for it. I also believe that it is important that we manipulate shapes and objects because the same part of our brain that controls our fingers is involved in our calculating with numbers and discerning the patterns that they make. In other words, we are training that part of the brain.
It will take time to populate this part of my site with ideas and puzzles/problems that you can use and solve, but that does not diminish their importance!
I enjoyed your presentation and no it wasn’t too long. Each subtraction algorithm has its merit as you demostrated, but after learning the “one up and one down” method, I’m employing it because of its speed and ease of usage. Even my wife, who hates mathematics with a passion, thinks it’s too easy. I look forward to your future presentations on both multiplication and number theory. I read an introduction text book some twenty five years ago on number theory by Oystein Ore who taught at Yale for better than twenty years. So in closing, please produce these lectures and the longer the better. Thanks.
Dennis Bell (on a CCM YouTube video about How to Subtract (Large) Numbers Easily)
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