5 FUN WAYS TO PRACTICE MATHS

1. Roll the dice
Dice can be used in so many different ways when it comes to math. Whether you’re practicing multiplication facts or fractions, try having students create their own math problems with the roll of the dice. They can create fractions, simple multiplication problems or even word problems using dice. This can also be a fun way to put together a homework assignment: Students roll the dice during class, then take the problems home to solve.

2. Play math bingo 

Bingo is always a class favorite, and you can play it with any number of students. You can buy math bingo kits online . You can also make up your own. The way it works is students have to solve math problems in order to know what number to mark off of their sheet.

3. Play war
The classic card game War is always a good way to reward students when they have a few extra minutes here and there. Have several decks of cards in your classroom and use this as an incentive, either when they finish assignments or just as “bonus” time that they can earn. Make sure they are solving math problems when they lay their cards out, though.

4.Borrow or buy an adding machine.Do you remember the simple joy you had when playing around with an adding machine? If not, go to your nearest thrift store to find one! Students will love being able to punch in numbers and have the math problems come out on real paper. It’s a simple yet awesome way to get them excited about practicing math.

5.Create a math Concentration game.You know the classic game Concentration? Create your own version using math problems or cutting up old flash cards. Here’s how: Have the math problem on one card and then the answer on another. So you might have 4 x 5 on one card, and then another card would have 20. Have the students find each answer for a correct match. You could even color-code the cards to make it easy to distinguish questions vs. answers.

IMPORTANCE OF MATHS LIBRARY AND LABORATORY

In any scheme of education, mathematics library plays a key role.Class room teaching has its limitations.It is difficult for teachers to go beyond the prescribed text book.Class room teachings may leave gaps and doubts.A good library provides opportunities for leaving the gaps.The curious students get facilities for quenching their first thirst of knowledge through library.A well organised library is a source of attraction for its students.A mathematics library is the birth place of future mathematicians.It inspires, stimulates ans equips them to follow the footprints of great mathematicians.

A mathematics library,besides being a source of learning and inspiration to pits students,also serves the interest and needs of teachers.Knowledge has no boundaries.A teacher has to keep himself abreast of the latest knowledge and skills in his subject.He has to learn most effective methods and devices for teaching. A good library in this sense,serves the role of a burning lamp.It sets burning the ambitions of learning more and more in teachers and inspires the students to imitate the ideals of their teachers.

In many schools laboratories are generally established for science subjects.Therefore for a number of persons the  idea of setting mathematics laboratory in the school sounds quiet unusual and unpractical. Laboratory is a place which serves two fold purposes.Firstly it provides safe and proper place for placing all the essential material and equipment's concerning the learning activities in a subject.Secondly it gives proper facilities and opportunities for  essential practical work and lively learning experiences.Apart from this, setting of mathematics library will prove useful to a mathematics  teacher in many different ways.The mathematics knowledge which cannot be translated into practice is a useless burden and therefore students of mathematics should be given proper opportunities for the integration of theory with practice.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF MATHEMATICS LIBRARY

Having realized the need and importance of library in teaching of mathematics it is now to be thought whether to have a separate mathematics library or not.Generally in schools,there happens to be ageneral library where all sorts of general books andbooks related to different subjects and activities are placed in different almirahs at different places.On big table or tables,newspapers,magazines,periodicals and journals are placed.This place also seves as areading room.

           There should be a period for library reading in the time table for enebling the students of every section and class to have an easy access to such library.The teacher may take the help of monitor or some interested student of the class in the management of the affairs.Thw establishment of mathematics library in separate room or as part of general library may be supported on the following grounds:

1.     The separate arrangement brings fficiency in the organization.

2.      Mathematics teacher remains in touch with the volumes and literature available in library.

3.     It gives a sense of separate identity and inculcates interest in the subject mathematics.

4.     The student get better facilities for reading the books and literature.

5.     It helps in the activities of mathematics club.

6.     It may help in nurturing gifted and potentials students in mathematics.

Therefore,in every school attempts should be made to have a mathematical library with the cooperation of authorities and the students.

WHAT IS TO BE KEPT IN MATHEMATICS LIBRARY

Mathematics library should be made an attractive place.It should have useful information on its walls in in the form of writings, charts and posters about mathematicians,their contributions, the facts and principles of mathematics and the historical development of the subject mathematics.A library is known through its contents, therefore there should be a wise collection of useful books and literature in the mathematics library.For this purpose a mathematics teacher should spare no efforts for the judicious selection of books and literature.This collection then needs a proper categorization or classification.

      NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF MATHEMATICS LABORATORY

Advantages:

Some of the advantages of a mathematics laboratory may summerised as follows:

1.    It will help in creating interest of the students in the learning of mathematicians.

2.    It will help in making use of all the progressive methods like inductive,analytic, laboratory,heuristic and project methods in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

3.    It will help in the inculcation of scientific,problem solving and heuristic attitude among the students.

4.    The theoretical  concepts may be easily clarified through practical demonstration.In this way the laboratory should would definitely save the time and energy of the teachers as well as students.

5.    It will help in training the students for the practical application of mathematical facts and principles in their life.

6.    It will help in satisfying the creative and constructive urges of the students

WHAT SHOULD BE THERE IN A MATHEMATICS LABORATORY?

A mathematics laboratory may contain the following types of material and equipments:

1.     Different types of pictures and charts: Pictures  and charts makes the learning of mathematics interesting and useful.A mathematics laboratory should contain different types of charts and pictures concerning various topics and sub-topics of mathematics.A few pictures and photographs of mathematicians may also be hung on on the walls of the laboratory to make it as mathematical as possible.

2.     Models: In mathematics education models prove a very effective source of teaching and learning.

3.     Weighing and measuring instruments: These are two important aspects of mathematics.A mathematics laboratory should, therefore, have all the essential equipment for weighing and measuring purposes like different types of balances,weights,measuring tapes and graduated cylinders.

4.     Drawing instruments: For drawing and sketching of various figures and diagrams there should bedrawing instruments in mathematics laboratory.

5.     The useful material concerning other subjects:modern teaching follows the principle of integration and correlation.In mathematics text concepts and problems are sometimes very much linked with the experience areas of other subjects.

6.     Surveying instruments: Surveying is an important phenomenon concerning mathematics.For surveying purposes besides various types of measuring tapes the following types of special instruments should be kept in a mathematics laboratory.

Ø Angle mirror: It is used for laying out right angles in the field.

Ø Hypsometer and clinometers: Used in combination, the apparatus a simple device for measuring distance and heights of objects.

Ø Sextent: It is a sophisticated instrument for measuring the angular distance.It is used to find out angles of elevation and depression.

Ø Plane table:It is used for elementary mapping and surveying.

Ø Level:It is used in leveling the surfaces by finding differences in elevation.

Ø Transit: It is used in the measurement of angular distance and leveling.

7.     Other useful materials: The useful concrete material like beads, balls, sticks, match boxes, pebbles, seeds, didactic apparatus, different types of coins, different types of wooden or card board pieces etc. may be kept in mathematics library.

8.     Some other modern equipment: Under this category the following types of instruments may be kept in the mathematics laboratory:

Ø Proportional Dividers: This apparatus is based on the principle of proportionality in similar triangles and used for enlarging or reducing the pictures, maps or diagrams.

Ø Slide Rule: In principle it consists of two or more logarithmic scales sliding on each other.

Ø Calculating Machines: It is a sophisticated device for making the computation work a joy.It can also do all sorts of calculations in no time with great precision and accuracy.

   

HOW TO USE MATHS TO FLY ROCKETS TO SPACE

What's the math that powers rockets? How does it help us get them to space? And how do we use that math to put a satellite or person in orbit around the Earth? Let's find out.

The Mathematics of Getting to Space

When people think about going to space, they usually think about going up. And that’s certainly true, but it’s only part of the story. It’s sort of hard to define exactly where the atmosphere ends and outer space begins (since the atmosphere gradually falls off as you go up in altitude), but one popular choice is the so-called “Karman line” at a height of 100 km (or around 62 miles) above sea level. A lot of people are surprised to find that space begins only 100 km up … since that’s really not that far. But the problem with getting there is that it’s “uphill” the whole way, which means you have to fight gravity the whole way.

A rocket traveling at 8 km/s completes one orbit every 90 minutes.

But getting up that high is only half the battle of getting into orbit around the Earth. Because if you fly a spacecraft 100 km straight up and then turn off the engines, it will simply come right back down to the ground (this is called a sub-orbital flight). If your goal is to get a satellite into orbit around the Earth or to deliver a person to the International Space Station, the rocket doesn’t just need to get into space, it needs to stay there. And that means it needs to end up flying sideways really, really fast—around 8 km/s or almost 18,000 miles per hour!

How fast is that? Well, a rocket or satellite traveling at 8 km/s completes one orbit every 90 minutes. Which is amazingly fast considering it takes 5 hours to fly across the United States in an airplane. For comparison, a rocket in orbit crosses the US in about 10 minutes.

The Mathematics of Orbiting the Earth

But why does a rocket or satellite or space station need to be moving sideways so fast to stay in orbit? The answer is mainly geometry (and a healthy dose of physics). As you know, the Earth is roughly spherical. While it’s possible to go around the Earth (or anything else) in an elliptical orbit (which looks like a squashed circle), we’re going to think about the simple case of a perfectly circular orbit. If you think about it, you’ll see that a rocket going around the spherical Earth in a circular orbit some height above the ground will stay at that height above the ground the entire orbit. This is kind of obvious, but it really is the key to understanding the mathematics of being in orbit.

Orbits come down to geometry and traveling sideways really fast.

To see how this works, imagine standing at the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the ocean. If you drop a ball, the ball will fall straight down into the water. If you throw the ball with a bit of sideways speed, the ball will travel in a parabolic arc and land a bit further away from the cliff. Now imagine throwing the ball harder and harder with more sideways speed. Each increase in horizontal speed means the ball lands in the water farther from the cliff than before. If you throw the ball hard enough (and we’re talking really hard), something weird happens: the amount the ball falls towards the Earth is exactly matched by the amount the spherical Earth curves away from the ball. The net result is that the height of the ball above the water doesn't change—and it will just keep going and going.

Keep in mind that even though it doesn't hit the ground, the ball is actually falling towards the Earth the whole time—it simply never gets closer to the ground since its curved trajectory matches the curvature of the Earth. In other words, the ball is in orbit. As I said, orbits come down to geometry and traveling sideways really fast. Of course, you can’t actually get a ball into orbit by throwing it off a cliff like this since air molecules in Earth’s atmosphere will slow it down and eventually make it fall to the ground. Which is exactly why rockets also have to travel upwards into space before they can orbit the Earth.

The Rocket Equation

Now that we know what it means to get a satellite into orbit, let’s think about how we get it there. In other words, let’s think about what determines how big a rocket needs to be to lift a satellite into space and get it moving sideways fast enough to orbit the Earth. To begin with, let’s contemplate what we have to do to put a person (and their toothbrush) or a satellite into orbit. The answer is that we need to attach a rocket underneath this payload that has enough fuel and power to lift the required mass into orbit. But, the rocket we just attached to the payload also has some mass (mostly its fuel), which means we need another rocket under the first that has enough fuel and power to lift it. But, this second rocket we just attached also has some mass (again, mostly its fuel), so we once again need another rocket to lift it! And on, and on, and on. Even if a rocket's payload is small, it needs a lot of fuel to lift it … and it needs fuel to lift the fuel … and so on. As I said earlier, space is only 100 km away, but it’s 100 km straight up … which makes it hard to get to.

Space is only 100 km away, but it’s 100 km straight up … which makes it hard to get to.

There’s an equation that summarizes this whole situation and tells us roughly how much fuel is needed to lift a given amount of mass into orbit by a particular rocket. It’s called, logically, the rocket equation. We’re not going to go into all the details of this equation, but the gist is that it tells engineers how to calculate the speed gained by a rocket as it burns its fuel. In particular, the equation says that the speed increase is proportional to the logarithm of the initial mass of the rocket (including the rocket itself, the payload, and all of its fuel) divided by the final mass of the rocket (once all the fuel is burned). This ultimately tells us that adding more and more fuel to a rocket offers diminishing returns in terms of speed gained since, as we’ve seen, all of that fuel requires even more fuel. Which is exactly why rockets have to be such enormous, magnificent, and beautiful machines.

Wrap Up

MATHS PUZZLE

10 MATHS RIDDLES

Q. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
A. 9

Q. If there are four apples and you take away three, how many do you have?
A. You took three apples so obviously you have three.

Q. Where do fish keep their money?
A. In the river bank.

Q. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each of them catches one fish. So why do they bring home only three fish?
A. Because the fishing group comprises a grandfather, his son, and his son's son - hence just three people.

Q. I add five to nine, and get two. The answer is correct, but how?
A. When it is 9am, add 5 hours to it and you will get 2pm.

Q. The ages of a father and son add up to 66. The father's age is the son's age reversed. How old could they be?
A. There are three possible solutions for this: the father-son duo could be 51 and 15 years old, 42 and 24 years old or 60 and 06 years old.

Q. What weighs more - a pound of iron or a pound of feathers?
A. Both would weigh the same - come on, a pound remains a pound, irrespective of the object!

Q. If a rooster laid 13 eggs and the farmer took eight of them and then another rooster laid 12 eggs and four of them were rotten, how many of the eggs were left?
A. Roosters don't lay eggs!

Q. I am an odd number; take away an alphabet and I become even. What number am I?
A. Seven (SEVEN-S=EVEN)

Q. Using only addition, how can you add eight 8's to get the number 1,000?
A. 888 +88 +8 +8 +8 =1,000

GEOMETRIC CONCEPTS FOUND IN BRIDGES

Different bridge designs can be found throughout the world. You can find truss, arch, cable, beam, suspension and cantilever bridges in different areas. The type of bridge used largely depends on the distance it must cover and the amount of load it must bear. Geometric design is important in bridge design. Properly used, geometric figures can create extremely strong bridges. Though some bridges may use more geometric concepts than others, all bridge designs evenly distribute weight for proper bearing.

Triangles

Truss bridges rely heavily on triangles. Used properly, triangles evenly distribute weight throughout the bridge. Triangles are used on the sides and sometimes even the top of the bridge. The top of a truss bridge may have an "x" design, where four triangles create enough support to bear a great deal of weight. Students can use simple wooden craft sticks to create a truss bridge strong enough for the teacher to stand on. A well-designed bridge is less about the materials and more about the design.

Arches

Arches are used to create arch bridges. According to PBS.org, "Arch bridges are one of the oldest types of bridges and have great natural strength. Instead of pushing straight down, the weight of an arch bridge is carried outward along the curve of the arch to the supports at each end." It may be a one-arch bridge, or there may be several arches side by side to create the support needed.

Connector Plates

Connector plates are used to help strengthen connecting points on bridges. A connector plate is most commonly shaped as either a square or a triangle. They are made of steel and bolted onto intersecting points on a bridge. The shape of the plate adds strength to these areas of the bridge. When pressure is added to the point of intersecting, the connector plate distributes the pressure. There are different-sized plates and most have a galvanized coating to help prevent rust corrosion.

Symmetry

Symmetry is a geometric concept that is used in bridge design. Symmetry is where one half of a figure is the mirror image of its other half. Symmetry is important in bridge design because the entire length of the bridge must be able to bear weight. An asymmetrical bridge can cause the bridge to collapse. Each arch on an arch bridge must be symmetrical. The triangles on a truss bridge must be symmetrical. Even the spacing on cable and suspension bridges must be even and symmetrical.

MATH POEM

THE SKIP COUNT POEM

Skip count, skip count, count by 2's
Skip count, skip count, count by 2's
Skip count, skip count, count by 2's
We can count to 20.
2, 4, 6, 8, 10,12,14,16, 18, 20 (chant this line)


Skip count, skip count, count by 5's
Skip count, skip count, count by 5's
Skip count, skip count, count by 5's
We can count to 50.
5, 10, 15, 20, (up to 50)

Skip count, skip count, count by 10's
Skip count, skip count, count by 10's
Skip count, skip count, count by 10's
We can count to 100.
10, 20, 30, 40, (up to 100)

ODD - EVEN POEM

Zero, two, four, six, eight

Being even is just great.

One, three, five, seven, nine

Being odd is just fine.

Zero the hero came to school.

Zero the hero knows a rule:

Zero the hero stays in a space,

So all the other numbers get in the right place!

Zero the Hero came to school,

Zero the Hero, he's no fool

Zero the Hero keeps his place

so all the other numbers stay in their place

 Yeah!

CLOCK  SONG

(tune Wheels on the Bus)
The hands on the clock go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The hands on the clock go round and round.
To tell us the time.

The short hand on the clock
Goes from number to number,
Number to number, number to number.
The short hand on the clock
Goes from number to number.
To tell us the time.

The long hand on the clock
Goes around by fives,
Around by fives, around by fives.
The long hand on the clock
Goes around by fives.
To tell us the minutes.