Multiplication tables have some wonderful and quite surprising patterns. This is one of them. Draw any rectangle in a multiplication table and you will find that the products of opposite corners are equal. For example a rectangle around a full 12 by 12 table will be 1144 and 1212. Try it, is it always true? …
Shapes introduces student to changing the colors in cells and to changing the shapes of cells by dragging the column or row separators in the address axes. Students can use spreadsheets as drawing tools and can create some wonderful pictures with them. Spreadsheets can thus be tools for visualizing mathematics as well as adding the …
Using the times table, students can see that products are always rectangles, and that they represent the area of that rectangle. They should explore the times table by playing with these rectangles whose sides are the factor of the products.
Our number system inherited from India and from the Medieval Arab world enables us to use just 10 symbols to write any number we can imagine. Students learn in this spreadsheet to enter numbers, to compare compact and expanded forms of those symbols and to add units to any number. Students who like to explore …
We use rules to build new numberlines. For example we can start in the middle and go both forward or backward using adding and subtracting rules. You can even generate and experiment with negative numbers by subtracting below 0. As you build numberlines on spreadsheets you are building them in your mind. And by thinking of numberlines in terms of rules you are getting ready for algebra.
