Zemanski Report post Posted November 13, 2005 Com has just spent the last half hour in hysterics trying to get me to read a number with 81 digits I'm dyslexic absolutely no way I can even attempt it why does he find it so funny? Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Malika Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Hi Zemanski Well mine does that all the time and even worse he get a calculator and start asking me how much is 5843X82 and giggle like mad when I can't find the right answer I think they have a fascination for number and enjoy the magic of it, as well mine probably enjoyes that I get it wrong. Sometimes I turn it into a game I think it is good for him if he learns to like maths game my daughter is absolutly scared of any numbers over the 10.000. Good luck with it. Malika. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted November 14, 2005 we've always had that but not usually with such hysteria bed time story when he is stressed is usually a maths paper - last night's was about archimedes sun cows and dudeney's battle of hastings problems both of which have solutions running to over 200,000 digits - bliss may be it was the stress - he was informally excluded on Friday so we're a bit on edge this morning Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barefoot wend Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Zemanski Sorry. have I missed a post somewhere? Why was Com informally excluded on Friday? Hope things are alright. Barefoot Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lil_me Report post Posted November 14, 2005 I was thinking the same as Barefoot, hope everythings ok On the laughing, my son finds anything he can do better than me hilarious, usually involved some kids of computer game Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted November 14, 2005 he had a couple of meltdowns (not even particularly bad ones) so they sent him home - thought he'd recover better at home! Nemo took the call - if I had taken it I would have insisted he stayed, Com cannot learn that meltdowns get him out of school or he will use them and see no point in trying to control them. If he doesn't see the point he just doesn't bother. one good thing though - his EP was there when the first one happened, how often do people who actually do our children's assessments see this? Com's EP is very supportive, but even so it's good to think he has seen what can really happen. had a meeting this morning - quite a good one actually, covered lots of issues including homework (which triggered the second meltdown) and school agree not to use informal exclusion again have 2 more meetings this week, the first is maths - I think I'm going to take in Com's bedtime reading to illustrate the sort of things he likes exploring (Maths hysteria - maybe the title explains his reaction but he hasn't done it before - by Ian Stewart, definitely post GCSE but Com seems to like it) - then the biggy on Friday; Annual Review. On the laughing, my son finds anything he can do better than me hilarious, usually involved some kids of computer game wacko.gif - Com finds being better at something than an adult, particularly a teacher, far too satisfying for anyone else's comfort Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hectorshouse Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Z I'm so sorry that comm was sent home on Friday, but it was good news that the EP witnessed some of it. Good luck for the AR, you know your stuff and I am sure you will handle the meeting well. HHxxx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tylers-mum Report post Posted November 14, 2005 I couldn't even do that one and I'm quite good at Maths!!! LOL Did you ask him if he knew the answer??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canopus Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Com has just spent the last half hour in hysterics trying to get me to read a number with 81 digits What was the significance of the number? Was it pi to 80 decimal places or was it an 81 digit prime like those used in encryption? Where did he get an 81 digit number from? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littlenemo Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Nemo took the call - if I had taken it I would have insisted he stayed, There were extenuating circumstances (briefly the call came from the one member of staff we trust to do the right thing but who normally has no contact with Com). Oh yes, and I'm a soft touch As for the numbers there's a wonderful site for serious maths fans -mathematical photography. My favourite is the A4 page with every possible 2d shape on it (for proving the 4 colour theorem) 81 digits? That's nothing. There are more variations than that in a 10 x 10 celtic knot Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barefoot wend Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Hope today went better for Com. Thanks for posting about the maths book - on order - and the Maths site - looks interesting. Barefoot Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted November 14, 2005 (edited) Canopus, you definitely have AS - we're all talking about the humour and situation and you focus on the numbers there wasn't any real significance in the number itself, it just happened to have 81 digits - actually, it may not have done, I had difficulty counting them in the first place. if you search the net for Dudeney; battle of hastings and Archimedes; cattle of the sun you should find the problems we were looking at have fun Com was fine today - things really are much better for him these days Zemanski Edited November 14, 2005 by Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DAS999 Report post Posted November 14, 2005 My girlfriend loves numbers but struggles with big ones. She is obsessed with even numbers and hates odd numbers but it's not that simple. For example if the time is 11:32 she will do 1+1+3+2=7 (bad number) 11:33 will do 1+1+3+3=8 (good number) but she will still not like 11:33 much as all the numbers start off odd. Best numbers are ones like 22:22 2+2+2+2=8 where all the numbers start and finish even. On a bad day this is a nightmare as she will only eat / drink / get out of bed or in to bed on "good" numbers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canopus Report post Posted November 14, 2005 Canopus, you definitely have AS - we're all talking about the humour and situation and you focus on the numbers The numbers were at the root of the problem. there wasn't any real significance in the number itself, it just happened to have 81 digits - actually, it may not have done, I had difficulty counting them in the first place. if you search the net for Dudeney; battle of hastings and Archimedes; cattle of the sun you should find the problems we were looking at Diophantine equations. I used to program computers to solve these maths puzzles but the programs often crashed because numbers were too big for integer variable types. Floating point variable types couldn't hold enough decimal places. Did Com write some code to come up with 81 digit integers? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted November 14, 2005 (edited) it really was just a number on a page, not even in the bit we were reading at the time the main equation he was playing with was y squared = Dx squared + 1 (sorry I tried to insert the equation but it wouldn't go - not even as an image ) and this was all in his head - Com doesn't record any thing but answers unless he has to Zemanski Edited November 14, 2005 by Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canopus Report post Posted November 16, 2005 the main equation he was playing with was y squared = Dx squared + 1 Often called a Pell equation although they were known about centuries before Pell existed. They have multiple integer solutions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zemanski Report post Posted November 16, 2005 that's the one Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canopus Report post Posted November 16, 2005 If Com is interested in big numbers then perhaps he can use his computer to find Mersenne primes. He might even win some money if he finds a prime that is more than 10 million digits long. http://www.mersenne.org Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littlenemo Report post Posted November 17, 2005 he might be interested but if it's a long boring process I don't think he's quite ready as his frustration levels are a bit high just now I'll keep it in mind though - it is the sort of thing he might well focus on later our house is a 'prime property' - number 521 - he spotted that when we moved here when he was 8! Zemanski Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Canopus Report post Posted November 17, 2005 our house is a 'prime property' - number 521 - he spotted that when we moved here when he was 8! How did he determine that 521 is prime? Did he look it up on a list or did he try factoring it? I can vaguely remember a time in reception class when I was discussing numbers and came up with the term undividable number for primes. Next thing I worked out a method to determine if a number is prime and started making a list. I got nearly as far as 100 but the teacher wiped the blackboard. When I was 8, I wrote a computer program to generate primes and output them as a list until an overflow error occured. Other terminology I invented included reverse squares for square roots and pyramid numbers for a sum of squares of integers from 1 to n. I was only about 4 at the time and neither of my parents are good mathematicians. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
