Yesterday James Tanton posted a fun video about an infinite series on Twitter:
In this video he presents a fun way to understand an infinite geometric series. I’d not seen this approach before and thought it would be great to run through with the boys. It is always nice to see a new (and relatively straightforward!) way to introduce an advanced mathematical concept to kids. Here’s what we did:
Definitely a fun exercise to start the day.
For another fun math and paper exercise for kids try paper folding. Naturally, James Tanton has set the bar high here, too:
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/cambridge/2011/12/toilet_paper_used_to_break_pap.html
Learning about that record attempt actually inspired our first Family Math video:
For another fun post about infinite series, check out Patrick Honner’s blog here:
http://mrhonner.com/archives/10239
Mr. Honner’s blog has quite a bit about paper folding exercises, too, of course. A long list of fun activities is here, including one based on a really cool problem from the 2011 AIME!!
Mike's Math Page 