Math Facts

Using interesting math facts to educate children

As children advance in mathematical skill and knowledge, they will learn many interesting things that can be explained through math. Math will teach them to think about shapes, spaces, and numbers in entirely new ways.

In the lower grades K-3, your children will learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. They will learn that when adding and multiplying, the answer will always be the same in any order. This phenomenon is known as the Associative Property (for addition and subtraction) and the Commutative Property (for multiplication and division). From this children will learn that 3+7 = 10 and 7+3 = 10. Also, 3x5=15, just as 5x3=15.

As children progress, they will also learn interesting facts about math terms like Pi (p), the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi (p) holds true for any circle, no matter how big or small its diameter. Pi is also an irrational number, a number that cannot be expressed as a fraction. Many mathematicians have spent great time trying to calculate Pi out as far as they can. Yasumasa Kanada from the University of Tokyo currently holds the record for expressing Pi out to the 1,241,100,000,000th decimal.

There are many activities that rely heavily on math, like the Japanese art of paper folding known as Origami. Using mathematical equations, you can determine some boundaries for folding shapes with paper. You cannot fold paper in half endlessly because with each fold, a piece of paper doubles in thickness and eventually tears. High school student, Britney Gallivan, demonstrated this in 2002 when she folded a paper 12 times, confronting the myth that paper cannot be folded more than 8 times. She also devised a formula for folding limit for any given dimension.