https://mathforlove.com/2020/03/pencil-and-paper-games-to-play-at-home/ Transforming how math is taught and learned. Sat, 27 Feb 2021 05:34:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://mathforlove.com/2020/03/pencil-and-paper-games-to-play-at-home/#comment-34082 Sat, 27 Feb 2021 05:34:43 +0000 https://mathforlove1.wpenginepowered.com/?p=11752#comment-34082 I sometimes play Taxman at work during meetings. Write out some numbers, say 40. Choose a number. Taxman gets all the factors ( you must choose a number with some factors not yet chosen or claimed.) Repeat until you have no more moves. Taxman gets remaining numbers. Some bookeeping, which can be assisted with a calculator. And practice factoring. One strategy is to try to allow taxman only one number each time. The best first choice is almost certainly the largest prime, giving the taxman 1. An optimal strategy may require an exponential time search. But there are heuristics I find that work well and are quick for reasonable game sizes. I would guess around 100 is not that hard to play with pencil and paper. One can always try to improve your score vs taxman score.

]]> https://mathforlove.com/2020/03/pencil-and-paper-games-to-play-at-home/#comment-33558 Sat, 02 Jan 2021 22:25:20 +0000 https://mathforlove1.wpenginepowered.com/?p=11752#comment-33558 I so appreciate Math For Love’s emails and game ideas. Tiny Polka Dot game “21 or Bust” has been a favourite with my group of unschooled children. Thank you.

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