Catriona Agg posted this geometry puzzle on Twitter this morning:
I had the boys work on the problem on their own and then talk through their progress.
My older son went first – his solution is along the same lines as most of the solutions in Catriona’s twitter thread, though is reasoning is pretty interesting to hear:
My younger son went next. He wasn’t able to find the solution on his own, but was able to get there while we talked about his work. I’m sorry that I forgot the camera was zoomed in on the paper here. I do zoom out a little over half way through. Hopefully the words are clear even if some of the work is off screen:
At the end of the last video my son had worked through the main idea of the problem. Here he finishes the solution and talks about what he liked about the problem:
As usual, having the boys work through one of Catriona’s puzzles made for a great project. I really liked the algebra / geometry combo that this problem had as I think that was great practice for my younger son. I also think the more intuitive solution my older son had shows how mathematical intuition develops as kids get older.
Mike's Math Page 