Math Facts for Kids
Mathematics contains patterns across its spectrum, from simple addition to geometry. Teaching these patterns and concepts to kids will help them understand math problems and find them more enjoyable. Even at the most basic level, certain math tricks will help beginner math students.
The Square
The square is the most versatile shape in all of geometry. Cut in half diagonally, it becomes two triangles. Cut in half vertically or horizontally, it becomes two rectangles. Turned on one of its point, it becomes a diamond. Slanted to one side makes it a parallelogram, while narrowing it at the top makes it a trapezoid.
The saying goes that you can't fit a square peg into a round hole, but both a circle and a square contain 360 degrees. A circle has a natural 360 degrees, but a square has four 90-degree angles---4x90=360.
Shapes
Shapes, the key to geometry, are everywhere. Artists use basic shapes when painting, covering them over in the finished product. To demonstrate this to students, draw a circle. Inside the circle, near the top, draw two more circles. Again, inside the circle, but near the bottom, draw a crescent. In the middle, draw a triangle. A face has taken shape. Use this idea to help students look for geometrical shapes in pictures, paintings, books.
Distance
The word perimeter contains the word rim in the middle. Remember that a rim goes all the way around the edge, thus perimeter becomes synonymous with the distance around an object.
Names for Numbers
Certain numbers are also referred to by common words. A couple is 2. Six make a half-dozen, 12 make a dozen, and 13 make a baker's dozen. A baker's dozen is easy to remember if thought of as a regular dozen donuts plus one more donut of your choice. Twenty is a score, and 144 may have the funniest name of all---a gross.
Numbers 1 to 9
Multiply any number 1 to 9 by 9. The digits of the product will then equal 9. For instance, 2x9=18, split 18 into 1+8=9. The same is true for 3x9=27, where 2+7=9.
Divide any number 1 to 9 by 9. The quotient will always be repeated infinitely as a decimal. For example, 1/9=.1111111, and 2/9= .2222222.
Breaking up Problems
Break up units when adding, subtracting or multiplying. A two-digit addition problem looks like this: 21+19=40, but can also look like this: 20+10=30 and 1+9=10, 30+10=40.
For subtraction, try 106-79=27 broken down this way: 106-70=36, 36-9=27.
The same process works when multiplication gets more complicated than memorizing the times table. For instance, 3x16=48 can be reworked as 3x10=30, 3x6=18, 30+18=48.
Fun Facts
A prime number is any number that can only be reached by multiplying 1 by the number itself, that is, 3 is a prime number because no other numbers multiplied together equal three except 1x3=3. The same is true of the number 7. All prime numbers are odd because all even numbers are divisible by 2.
While the number 0 is common now, that was not always the case. For a long time, the ancient Greeks had no number 0, because 0 means nothing, while a number means something. They could not believe that nothing could be something.
Adding infinity to infinity doesn't create a bigger number. Infinity is a number without end, so when added to another number without end, it creates the same unending number. Thus infinity+infinity=infinity.
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