Product Description

Here is a stimulating guide to the wonders of mathematics, packed with enlightening experiments for the whole family. Provides brain-teasing puzzles and tricks as well as educa-tional experiments that are fun to do. For ages 8-14.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85719 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Booklist
Gr. 5^-8. With a book jacket statement, "100 Ways Parents and Kids Can Share the Wonders of Mathematics," this large-format compendium offers many activities as well as brief discussions of math concepts and history. Projects include creating a hopscotch game to demonstrate positive and negative numbers, comparing the ratios of objects with their shadows, and making a spirit level. Sometimes an activity's connection to mathematics seems tenuous (making a magic wallet or a pinhole camera). Each double-page spread focuses on a particular subject within one of the seven broad headings: numbers, proportions, algebra, statistics, measurement, shape, and thinking. The pages' bright, crisp colors are crowded with many small, white-background photos as well as experiments, projects, and sidebars. The approach may be scattershot, but some of the projects will hit the target, providing ideas that parents and teachers can use in teaching math to children. Carolyn Phelan

Customer Reviews

What a fantastic summer occupation!!
"How Math Works" could be subtitled "How to keep your kids occupied for many hours this summer in a productive, educational, and fun way." Instead, the subtitle is "100 ways parents and kids can share the wonders of mathematics." Close. Either one will work.

I sat down with this book and went through every page, reading here and there, looking at the experiments. My very first thought was, No way could a typical kid create these experiments, much less complete them. But then after just a few pages, I decided, yes, they can with a little help here and there. If you (the adult) help a little, a lot of math will come back to you. This book is designed to be enjoyable for kid and adult alike.

For example, remember the Golden Mean, or special ratio in art and architecture, used in creating the perfect ratio "look" to the Parthenon and the Pyramid at Gizeh in Egypt? There is an experiment to learn just how the mean works. On the next page is an experiment to make the Golden Mean! How cool is that?!

Try using algebra to solve this puzzle: A friend said that on his birthday, his mother's age was three times his, but in 15 years, she would be twice as old as he. How old are the boy and his mother today?

There's a section on chances and probability. Did you learn those in school. Didn't think so. How about the various personal measuring systems used through the ages? Or how to economically wrap a package? In another chapter children will learn how to find true north, make a spirit level, create a leaning tower, use trigonometry to find the height of things, and create curves with straight lines.

They will learn about Nobel Prize winners in mathematics and create a double helix, create an envelope tetrahedron, make a flying machine, and study asymmetry using their own faces.

The last chapter concerns philosophy and logic. Two fabulous experiments involve making a paper logic chain and the other constructing the Tower of Hanoi. Have you ever seen those long flow charts where a steel ball travels along a mix-max of chutes and tunnels? Your kids can make one out of normal household products. The last activity is testing the chaos theory, which deals with dynamics or changes within a system.

I skipped the beginning, so let's go back. The first chapter shows what tools are needed for the entire book--all simple, easily obtainable items.
The history of numbers, major mathematicians, and enough games, puzzles, and tricks in this book will enable your child to have enough things to do for a very long time, or at least until the end of summer.

Meanwhile, the book is so mixed with visuals, facts, diagrams, information, and experiments, that it is highly likely for this book to create a supreme interest in mathematics. I'm personally allergic to math, but I think I want a copy of this book for myself. I suggest every parent who loves to work with their children and, indeed, every elementary teacher who provides instruction in math must own a copy! This is a must-have book!

It gave my kids an advantage on understanding Math
This is a great math tool that I have sitting on my shelf and it has helped my kids do wonderful in math. I would additionally like to share this site http://thecyberprofessor.com/ which gave me the insight into know mathematical sciences as well.

Excellent addition to any homeschooler's math program
This is simply the best math "activity" book out there! Well worth every dollar! Kids need help with many activities, but it is well worth the parent's time. The activities are not only educational but really FUN and engaging.