Isnt maths cool /mathslearning/ en Gerry-mean-dering /mathslearning/news/list/2023/08/12/gerry-mean-dering <p>A recent video from Howie Hua showed how if you split a collection of numbers into equal-sized groups, then find the mean of each group, then find the mean of those means, it turns out this final answer is the same as the mean of the original collection. He was careful to say it usually does <em>not </em>work if the groups were different sizes. Which got me to wondering: just how much of an effect on the final mean-of-means can you have by splitting a collection of numbers into different-sized groups?</p> August 12 2023 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2023/08/12/gerry-mean-dering Introducing Digit Disguises with a small game /mathslearning/news/list/2023/07/08/introducing-digit-disguises-with-a-small-game <p>Because [reasons], my game Digit Disguises has been on my mind recently, and reading the original blog post from 2019, I suddenly realised I had never shared my ideas on how to introduce the game to a whole class at once.</p> July 08 2023 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2023/07/08/introducing-digit-disguises-with-a-small-game Where the complex points are: i-arrows /mathslearning/news/list/2022/07/26/where-the-complex-points-are-i-arrows <p>Once upon a time in 2016, I created <a data-entity-substitution="canonical" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="172e6829-8771-4b78-bf5a-112396bbe1c6" href="/mathslearning/news/list/2016/08/05/where-the-complex-points-are" title="Where the complex points are">the idea of iplanes</a>, which I consider to be one of my biggest maths ideas of all time. It was a way of me visualising where the complex points are on the graph of a real function while still being able to see the original graph. But there was a problem with it: the thing I want, which is to <em>see</em> where the complex points are (or at least look like they are) is several steps away from locating them.</p> July 26 2022 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2022/07/26/where-the-complex-points-are-i-arrows My first Maths Teacher Circle /mathslearning/news/list/2021/01/25/my-first-maths-teacher-circle <p>Last week I participated in my first <a href="https://mathsteachercircles.org.au/">Maths Teacher Circle</a>. I just want to do a quick blog post here to record for posterity that I did it and it was excellent. I choose to take the practical approach of just relating what happened.</p> January 25 2021 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2021/01/25/my-first-maths-teacher-circle Quarter the Cross: Connect the Dots /mathslearning/news/list/2020/11/15/quarter-the-cross-connect-the-dots <p>This blog post is about a new variation on the classic Some resources linked from this post: problem, which I call Quarter the Cross: Connect the Dots.</p> November 15 2020 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2020/11/15/quarter-the-cross-connect-the-dots Number Neighbourhoods /mathslearning/news/list/2020/09/05/number-neighbourhoods <p>This blog post is about a game I invented in February 2020, the third in a suite of Battleships-style games. (The previous two are <a data-entity-substitution="canonical" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="625d6909-e3ea-4ea7-827a-f8f739fd4486" href="/mathslearning/news/list/2020/08/18/which-number-where" title="Which Number Where">Which Number Where</a> and <a data-entity-substitution="canonical" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="40c35305-0bf7-4e3f-9250-bb602c672fec" href="/mathslearning/news/list/2019/09/21/digit-disguises" title="Digit Disguises">Digit Disguises</a>.)</p> September 05 2020 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2020/09/05/number-neighbourhoods Where the complex points are: on a real circle /mathslearning/news/list/2020/08/31/where-the-complex-points-are-on-a-real-circle <p>In 2016 <a data-entity-substitution="canonical" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="172e6829-8771-4b78-bf5a-112396bbe1c6" href="/mathslearning/news/list/2016/08/05/where-the-complex-points-are" title="Where the complex points are">I created the iplane idea</a>, which allows you to locate the complex points on a real graph. Ever since I had this idea, I have wondered on and off about the complex points on a circle. It's time to write about what I've found.</p> August 31 2020 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2020/08/31/where-the-complex-points-are-on-a-real-circle Quarter the Cross: Colouring /mathslearning/news/list/2020/08/25/quarter-the-cross-colouring <p>Quarter the Cross is one of my favourite activities of all time, whether in maths or just life. I learned about it way back in 2015 and have been mildly or very obsessed with it ever since. This blog post is about one particular version of the Quarter the Cross problem you might like: the colouring version!</p> August 25 2020 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2020/08/25/quarter-the-cross-colouring Where the complex points are: on a complex line (again) /mathslearning/news/list/2020/05/03/where-the-complex-points-are-on-a-complex-line-again <p>It's been four years since I came up with <a data-entity-substitution="canonical" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="172e6829-8771-4b78-bf5a-112396bbe1c6" href="/mathslearning/news/list/2016/08/05/where-the-complex-points-are" title="Where the complex points are">the idea of iplanes</a> as a way to organise the complex points on a graph, and in the intervening time I have thought about them on and off. For some reason right now I am thinking about them a lot, and I thought I would write down some of what I am thinking.</p> May 03 2020 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2020/05/03/where-the-complex-points-are-on-a-complex-line-again Digit Disguises /mathslearning/news/list/2019/09/21/digit-disguises <p>This blog post is about a game I invented this week, and the game is AWESOME, if I do say myself.</p> September 21 2019 David Butler /mathslearning/news/list/2019/09/21/digit-disguises