MrSmith Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 My DS9 is currently in the Number Theory chapter of AOPS PreAlgebra. While he appears to understand the material, his error rate in the problem sets was higher than his average. When I asked him about it, he claimed this was because NT is "boring". Please recommend some material (texts, problem sets) that might him help see why NT is cool and interesting. Otherwise this will be a long chapter :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I recommend: The Number Devil The Penrose books by Theoni Pappas If these are too cutesy for him, check out math circle materials here. And these: Number Freak and Prime Curios I have several other suggestions linked in my signature. If you can access an actual math circle, that might make it more fun for him too. My DS found number patterns fascinating and tried to derive formulas for them on his own. Could you perhaps put the books away for a bit and just ask him to observe numbers and think of ways to relate them together? ETA: some kids might not enjoy number theory but instead enjoy something else like geometry or probability puzzles...so maybe it might also just be a need to do something else/ very different for a little while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 If you are talking about Chapter 3 which is mainly on primes, than number theory might feel boring. I second The Number Devil book. Also have fun with Mayan number system, binary number system and let him invent his own number system. My kids like the AoPS Intro to number theory book a lot more than that chapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 I recommend: The Number Devil The Penrose books by Theoni Pappas If these are too cutesy for him, check out math circle materials here. And these: Number Freak and Prime Curios . Ooh, thanks Quark, for the Prime Curios tip! That is one I haven't seen and Alex has a thing for primes at the moment:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
go_go_gadget Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 This page has a nice overview, but playing with the number theory inherent to cryptography is usually a big attention-getter. Once they understand the principles, they can apply the number theory they've learned to make up their own codes, and have you try to break them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 OH my. I always thought it would be so neat to have a book like, "Number Freak". Now I know one exists. Thanks you. Ours is well thumbed and DS used to even sleep with it. :001_wub: Good times. Hope yours love it as much as he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1053 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 I recommend: The Number Devil The Penrose books by Theoni Pappas If these are too cutesy for him, check out math circle materials here. And these: Number Freak and Prime Curios I have several other suggestions linked in my signature. If you can access an actual math circle, that might make it more fun for him too. My DS found number patterns fascinating and tried to derive formulas for them on his own. Could you perhaps put the books away for a bit and just ask him to observe numbers and think of ways to relate them together? ETA: some kids might not enjoy number theory but instead enjoy something else like geometry or probability puzzles...so maybe it might also just be a need to do something else/ very different for a little while. Thank you for all these wonderful suggestions! I'm hoping at least one will pique his interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 This page has a nice overview, but playing with the number theory inherent to cryptography is usually a big attention-getter. Once they understand the principles, they can apply the number theory they've learned to make up their own codes, and have you try to break them. This looks a lot like the books I used in college for discrete math (CS side; I also took similar classes from the math dept, but that's more theory than I'd care to remember :laugh:). I'm not sure he's quite ready to dive into this yet but I will tease him with it a bit (he's a big fan of secret codes and stuff atm). Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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