Yesterday we did a fun project on the Cantor set inspired by an amazing tweet from Zachary Schutzman:
That project is here:
https://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/a-fun-fact-about-the-cantor-set-and-a-great-arithmetic-exercise-for-kids/
Today we extended some of the ideas from that project by showing that the number 1/40 is in the Cantor set. Here’s how my son approached the problem – the idea he uses builds on the idea we talked about with the number 1/10 in yesterday’s project. I was happy to see that those ideas had stuck with him!
Now that we knew 1/40 was in the Cantor set, we talked about what other numbers of the same form must be in it. Although we don’t prove it (that’s what the paper in Schutzman’s tweet does), he’s now found all of the numbers with finite decimal expansions that are in the Cantor set
Finally, I wanted to go down a path relating these base 3 expansions to infinite series, but my son’s ideas took this last part in a slightly different direction. Which was fine and also fun. It really shows that kids can have fun exploring – and also have the capacity to have some great ideas about – infinite series.
These two projects have been really fun. I think the ideas about the Cantor set are great for kids to play around with!
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