What did one math book say to the other?

Terrible math jokes for Pi Day. And, a Pi Pie. (It’s cranberry-apple.)

Q: What did one math book say to the other?

A: Don’t bother me. I’ve got my own problems.

Q: Why should you never mention the number 288?

A: Because it’s two gross.

Q: Why do plants hate math?

A: It gives them square roots.

Q: Why did the student get upset when the teacher called her average?

A: It was a mean thing to say.

Q: How do you stay warm in a cold room?

A: Go to a corner. It’s always 90 degrees.

Q: What did the zero say to the eight?

A: Nice belt!

Q: Why did pi get its driver’s license revoked?

A: Because it didn’t know when to stop.

Q: What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?

A: Pi in the sky.

Q: What is a math teacher’s favorite vacation destination?

A: Times Square.

Q: Have you heard the latest statistics joke?

A: Probably.

Q: Why is it sad that parallel lines have so much in common?

A: Because they’ll never meet.

Q: Why is the obtuse angle upset?

A: Because it is never right.

Q: Why does no one ever speak to circles?

A: Because there’s no point.

Q: What do you call friends who love math?

A: Algebros.

Q: Why do atheists have trouble with exponents?

A: They don’t believe in higher powers.

Ten/Ten/Ten

Ten

Somewhere in the world there must be a person turning ten years old on this day, perhaps even someone actually born at 10:10 in the morning. Happy Birthday to you! It’s a special one.

In honor of this day, here is a page from my daughter’s first grade homeschooling main lesson book, Numbers. I don’t know about you, but I am perfectly content to be living in a base-ten number world, with the ten represented by a one followed by a zero. And it was not a foregone conclusion. We could be living in a base-twenty world, like the ancient Mayan, Aztec, Celtic, and Germanic peoples (remnants of which groupings by twenty survive in some modern European counting systems). Or a base-sixty world, like the Babylonians. Or, we could be using base ten but still be lumbering along in lengthy strings of Roman numerals, with nary a zero to be seen. And the computer would never have been born.

CakeGreenPeter

Crazy for Math

This is a page of the Improper Fractions lesson from our homeschooling Fractions block. I hope to get the entire book up on the Homeschooling page eventually. For now it serves as an introduction for what I am about to tell you.

ImproperFractions

Recently a big group of us had dinner at the home of our friends Lynn and Giovanni. The meal ended with everyone playing with math puzzles and games around the dining room table. Lynn, a Math Whiz, owns hundreds of them. For years she was a math instructor and tutor. Then in 1999 she developed a summer Math Camp called “MathTree.” It’s not only for kids struggling with math, but also for kids who can’t get enough and want it included in their summers. (I understand that there actually ARE such children, although none has shown up in my family.)

MathTree has taken off—that first summer there were two locations, and now there are 26 of them (!!!), for kids ages five to teens, all over the Washington metropolitan area. Lynn has developed a hands-on approach using objects, games, puzzles, and real-life experiences. (I was reading the fliers for the camp choices and thinking I might like to sign up myself! except they don’t have my age group.) If you are looking for an unusual kids’ math camp, MathTree might be just the ticket. So I’m putting a link to the website and brochure here. As my husband and I frequently remind each other, Someday Our Children Will Thank Us.