Happy New Year!
Because of the world we are living in, at the moment, is surreal I have decided that the normal format of newsletter will not follow. I do have some interesting material on teaching methods so they will appear in future newsletters when life is more settled.
Over the last 9 months most people can visualise a two-metre length and there have been some interesting illustrations: two sheep or one cow or a bed length or three Chows or one reindeer.
100 000 is a different cup of tea. Very few can visualise or understand a statement such as “250 in 100 000 people”. I suppose one can think of large stadia which hold about 50 000. Sadly, the press has not tried to simplify the ratio because the values make ‘spectacular’ reading. “2.5 people in 1000” does not have the same impact. Many a time the maths abilities of reporters have been tested!
Puzzles of the month (H.E. Dudeney)
Speed of the car
"I was walking along the road at three and a half miles an hour," said Mr Pipkins, "when the car dashed past me and only missed me by a few inches."
"Do you know at what speed it was going?" asked his friend.
"Well, from the moment it passed me to its disappearance round a corner took twenty-seven steps and walking on reached that corner with one hundred and thirty-five steps more."
"Then, assuming that you walked (3½mph), and the car ran, each at a uniform rate, we can easily work out the speed."
A walking puzzle
A man set out at noon to walk from Appleminster to Boneyham, and a friend of his started at 2:00pm on the same day to walk from Boneyham to Appleminster. They met on the road at five minutes past four o’clock, and each man reached his destination at exactly the same time. Can you say at what time they both arrived?
Welcome to 2021
Interesting facts:
2021 reversed is 1202
…and…
2021
2 reversed is1202
2
DCBEAGLE challenges
This term I am holding a series of ZOOM presentations during the week beginning Monday 22 February. The 50-minute live presentations, via ZOOM, are interactive with several puzzles to solve and also surprising outcomes to tasks which are presented to the young mathematicians. There will also be material for teachers to follow-up in future lessons.
THERE IS NO CHARGE TO TAKE PART. From a GDPR view I do not have to see the pupils so consent forms are not required because your video does not have to be on.
MATHS IS A SURPRISE! - Ireland
Monday 8 February 9:30 Third Class 11:00 Fourth Class
Tuesday 9 February 9:30 Fifth Class
Thursday 11 February 9:30 Third Class 11:00 Fourth Class
Friday 12 February 9:30 Fifth Clas
s
Maximum number of ZOOM links per year group is four. Click
here to register
N.B. For those schools who participated in the Year 5 and 6 Maths Week England sessions this term’s presentations will be similar, repeating some of the material.
This month’s resources
Rich Resources (click
here)
There is a vast array of material mainly for 10 – 15 year olds but younger mathematicians will be able to cope with many of the materials, especially the puzzles. The folders have come from Mr Barton’s
website and they can be downloaded directly without having a DropBox facility.
Entertaining podcasts
Andrew Jeffrey and Rob Eastaway have now produced six maths podcasts. In these lively and laughter-filled podcasts they set puzzles and talk about the quirky ways in which maths crops up in their everyday lives – with occasional special guests for good measure:
https://puzzlingmaths1.podbean.com. Andrew also has some new resources on his website:
https://andrewjeffrey.co.uk.
Puzzle Solutions
Timing the car
As the man can walk 27 steps while the car goes 162, the car is clearly going six times as fast as the man. The man walks 3½ miles an hour: therefore the car was going at 21 miles an hour.
A walking puzzle
It will be found (and it is the key to the solution) that the man from B. can walk 7 miles while the man from A. can walk 5 miles. Say the distance
between the towns is 24 miles, then the point of meeting would be 14 miles from A. and the man from A. walked
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miles per hour, while the man from
B. walked
![]()
miles per hour. They both arrived at 7 P.M. exactly.
Final words
I do hope that January is not too much of a burden. We all need to be strong.
