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Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This activity follows on from World of Tan 21 - Almost There Now .
Little Ming and Little Fung are slowly walking home from school. The new term is only a few days old and already the children are getting back to old ways...
LM: Why does a school day feel so much longer than a day over the weekend?
LF: It all depends on whether or not you are enjoying yourself.
LM: So, goody - two shoes... What has been so nice today? My day has not been that rosy!
LF: You should behave more in class, pay more attention and do what is asked.
LM: Perhaps, but today who could get excited by measuring things?
LF: Admittedly most of what we do at home we practised in school today.
LM: But who is to know that!
LF: I'm more interested in things that can't be measured so obviously.
LM: How do you mean?
LF: Well we have length, breadth, width....
LM: What about weight? Mass? Temperature?
LF: I know, and I have not forgotten time! Angles! Or volume!
LM: Or do you mean capacity?
LF: Look, you and I can measure most things and we can read most measuring instruments, be it ruler or micrometer. It is all those things we have not got instruments for that I want to find out about.
LM: How do you mean?
LF: Well how do you measure how clever someone is?
LM: How do you measure stubborness?
LF: You've got it!
LM: Well there is beauty? Merit? Honesty?
LF: Can you have different amounts of being scared?
LM: I suppose you can measure strength or weakness?
LF: Yep, just as you can measure speed and acceleration or density.
LM: Can you measure different degrees of wetness?
LF: I'm not sure. I know when I am damp, and I know when I am soaking wet..
LM: Yes... Last night was fun, but we should not have cooled down by standing in the fountain - someone will have seen us and they will tell Granma T!
LF: See, how do you measure nosiness!
LM: Carelessness? Clumsiness? How does a hospital measure pain?
LF: Eh, let's stop dawdling - it is almost tea time; we had better get a move on...........
In the meantime., complete the silhouette of the child dawdling on the way home from school.
More activities can be found in the notes . The story continues in World of Tan 23 - Transform This...into...that .
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.