thnik again!

Play Hour Maze here.

What is the name of the game? How does one win on the left? Why can’t the one to move win on the right? Why is ‘loses’ spelt ‘loss’? Why is this last question included?

Play “Company of Myself” here.

If you ask for help, this is what you get:

The Company of Myself is a puzzle game, and that means that the challenge comes from the puzzles. Giving solutions to the puzzles is the equivalent of turning on godmode in an action game: You lose all of the challenge! If you’re having trouble with a level, try looking at it in a new way or doing something else for a while and coming back to it. And hey, just imagine how smart you’ll feel when you figure out that extra-hard puzzle. Good luck!

I couldn’t have said it better. Who said, “We should teach students patient problem solving”?

“the word etymology comes from the Greek word ‘etymos’, which means real, or true, and the -ology ending indicates that it’s the study of, or science of. Put them together and you get the study or science of the real or true.” (source)

Etymologic names itself the toughest word game on the web. Play it here.

Here are a few warm-up questions:

What do you think of when you think of mathematics? Numbers? Equations? How about magic? It turns out that the basic principals of mathematics can make for some pretty impressive card tricks, where the hand and the math is quicker than the eye.

The quote is taken from this web page where there is a short video showing students being impressed and delighted by mathematics dressed as a card trick.

Colm Mulcahy, the magician in the video, has a column on card tricks here and an essay with examples here. A 50 minute video of a talk is here and here is a list of interesting links.

About the programme Just a Minute.

From the TV series “Swedes are human beings” comes the game “Spot the Swede.” Play it here.

Games in math education is a hot topic at the moment.

Stanford mathematician and NPR Math Guy Keith Devlin explains why, fun aside, video games are the ideal medium to teach middle-school math. Aimed primarily at teachers and education researchers, but also of interest to game developers who want to produce videogames for mathematics education, Mathematics Education for a New Era: Video Games as a Medium for Learning describes exactly what is involved in designing and producing successful math educational videogames that foster the innovative mathematical thinking skills necessary for success in a global economy. (More)

Above are shown the 12 different pentominoes (illustration copied from http://www.mrlsmath.com).

Cut them out and see if you can make a rectangle using all of them.

Scientists have found indications that your ability to jump to intuitive answers — what they term the “Aha!” moment — may be affected by your mood. After watching a humorous video, brain imaging and test results of subjects suggested that a positive mood prepares the brain’s insight.

What is it? Test your a-ha skills here.

My result ran counter to the theory. Click on the image for easier reading.

I am afraid I do not understand the importance of the timer. I tried to guess as soon as I could, but the chart only shows the number of my correct answers. Do you have a clue about the timer?

Mathematics and visual arts intersect in the concept of symmetry. In art, symmetry is a basic design element, something that many people consider to be aesthetically pleasing. In math, symmetry can be defined and verified by finding motions that leave a design’s appearance unchanged. These motions can be combined and analyzed in much the way numbers are.

Play with symmetry here and watch a video that starts with a gun shot here.

The video has an interesting quote from a book whose title tickles my curiosity.