Back to Articles Index
An Introduction to Magic Squares
Find out about Magic Squares in this article written for students. Why are they magic?!
Clever Carl
What would you do if your teacher asked you add all the numbers from 1 to 100? Find out how Carl Gauss responded when he was asked to do just that.
The Moving Planets
Mathematics has always been a powerful tool for studying, measuring and calculating the movements of the planets, and this article gives several examples.
Calendars
Calendars were one of the earliest calculating devices developed by civilisations. Find out about the Mayan calendar in this article.
April Fool Is Past and Gone, You're the Fool for Carrying On!
Read about the history behind April Fool's Day.
Numbers and Notation - Ambiguities and Confusions
While musing about the difficulties children face in comprehending number structure, notation, etc., it occured to the author that there is a vast array of occasions when numbers and signs are used in anomalous ways; often these are at the earliest stages, when they must be enormously confusing. However, they also frequently happen in adult situations.
A Maths Afternoon
This article describes no ordinary maths lesson. There were 24 children, mostly Years 3 and 4, and there were 17 adults working with them - mothers, fathers, one grandmother and two grandfathers, a classroom assistant and their regular teacher. Every child was working with an adult, and no two adults sat together.
Parents, Children and Maths
Jenny Murray writes about the sessions she leads in schools for parents to work alongside children on mathematical problems, puzzles and games.
On Time?
This article explains how Greenwich Mean Time was established and in fact, why Greenwich in London was chosen as the standard.
Calculating the Difference: A Discussion of the Use of Calculators in the English Primary Classroom.
Clare Green looks at the role of the calculator in the teaching and learning of primary mathematics.
History of Money
If you would like a new CD you would probably go into a shop and buy one using coins or notes. (You might need to do a bit of saving first!) However, this way of paying for the things you want did not always exist. Find out more ...
Adding with the Abacus
Nowadays the calculator is very familiar to many of us. What did people do to save time working out more difficult problems before the calculator existed?
Back to Articles Index
Copyright © 2007. University of Cambridge. All rights reserved.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project, which also includes the Plus and Motivate sites.
email: nrich@damtp.cam.ac.uk
