zarabellesmom Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 This is just for fun (in other words, we are not doing my friend's daughter's homework for her)... But my very good friend has a fourth grader and called me for homework help this afternoon. So the question is Explain why one is not a prime number in words and demonstrate numerically. Please remember that your answer must be on a fourth grade level--no citing famous mathematicians. No googling. :) Teresa (mom to a 3rd grader, not prepared to answer fourth grade math problems...yet). PS: The other day this same friend asked me what I thought the antonym of "hurt" is. I suggested several including "well" but the little girl had already used that and had it marked wrong. Feel free to suggest your own antonyms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 A prime number is a whole number that has as factors 1 and itself (2 different whole number factors): 1 has only 1 as a factor. Unhurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zarabellesmom Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 A prime number is a whole number that has as factors 1 and itself (2 different whole number factors): 1 has only 1 as a factor. Unhurt. You have to demonstrate numerically. Using the definition was the easy part (at least for me). I agree to unhurt. My friend said no. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 A prime number is a whole number that has as factors 1 and itself (2 different whole number factors): 1 has only 1 as a factor. Unhurt. Yup. One does not have two, and only two, unique factors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 To demo numerically easily for grade 4, make 3 columns: 1 x _______ x _______ (I do not know how to make a column on this reply area) anyway, you should have a 1 in the 1 column and another number in the second column (the number itself), but no number possible in the third column. Alternatively, do a number grid and cross out all the numbers after 2 divisible by 2, all the numbers after 3 divisible by 3 and so on. You would not want to cross out all the numbers after 1 divisible by 1 because there would be no other prime in that case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 The child's teacher nixed both well and unhurt? Strange. How about hale, hearty, uninjured, intact, healed, repaired? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Is hurt a noun, adjective, or verb in this case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zarabellesmom Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 I don't think her daughter tried the others, though I agree it is a good list. Ooh, noun, verb or adj! Good question. The original question did not refer to a particular part of speech. I like the way you think, Pen, with the columns. I got stuck at the part where I thought, "By definition, it's not prime. What more is there to say?" T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Healed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 A prime number can be divided by one and another number and the answer is a whole number. One can only be divided by itself so it can't be a prime number. 1 / 1 = 1 1 / 2 = 0.5 Unless the teacher has been modeling verbal responses constantly, I think it's difficult for kids to come up with written words for the whys of arithmetic. I think the daughter's antonym answer is correct if hurt is used as an adjective. I am hurt. I am well. If it's used as a verb (I hurt myself today), well would not be a correct answer. Never trust the internet, but the thesaurus.com says well is an antonym. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kagmypts Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Heal????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Words don't usually have one, single correct opposite. Heal, healed, well, help, aid, and many other words could work. This is one of the many reasons I can't be a school parent. I'd be too ticked off about that sort of thing and it would eat away at my soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitten18 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Words don't usually have one, single correct opposite. Heal, healed, well, help, aid, and many other words could work. This is one of the many reasons I can't be a school parent. I'd be too ticked off about that sort of thing and it would eat away at my soul.Ha! I totally agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Mm I am a school parent and see problems ahead. Is the purpose to investigate antonyms (spelling I know) or play 20 questions with the teacher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 For hurt my first thought was pleasure. The soothe, assuage, make better, unhurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmmm Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 I know you said that this is just for fun, but we should be able to google the answer. She can probably look at her lesson, her math book, or look online for the answer. I have a hard time believing that math question was given to her without some background, or that she is not allowed to use a thesaurus or internet to get information. In fact my answer is to tell her to find the answer herself because 4th graders should be able to find the answers to those questions. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 The problem with resorting to the definition of "prime" is that kids then want to know WHY that's the definition of prime. It seems so arbitrary. With my own kids, and kids on our math team, I show them how to make a factor tree, and let them experiment with branching down using 1. They quickly discover that the tree branches infinitely, you never get down to a useful "bottom of the tree" (prime) number, and you're forced to rule that one doesn't count. So if you asked one of my kids why 1 isn't a prime, she'd say "because if it were prime, you'd run out of paper." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 I know you said that this is just for fun, but we should be able to google the answer. She can probably look at her lesson, her math book, or look online for the answer. Unfortunately, some schools don't allow kids to bring home books these days. The books are sometimes shared between multiple classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 So, can you ask your friend what this child's teacher does think the antonym of hurt should be? This sort of thing reminds me of when my ds was in a b&m school. So much seemed so silly and so arbitrary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Didn't someone ask recently for a p.s. homework page - what the antonym of strawberry was? At least hurt has some possible answers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Didn't someone ask recently for a p.s. homework page - what the antonym of strawberry was? At least hurt has some possible answers! I just had to google and you are right! forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/473143-what-is-the-antonym-to-strawberries/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 "Help" as the antonym? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathmarm Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 This is just for fun (in other words, we are not doing my friend's daughter's homework for her)... But my very good friend has a fourth grader and called me for homework help this afternoon. So the question is Explain why one is not a prime number in words and demonstrate numerically. If students are asked about prime numbers, I'm going to assume they've been given the definition of a prime number. By definition, a prime number is a number with only two unique factors: 1 and itself. So, 7 = 1 * 7, 5 = 1 * 5 The number 1, however, has an infinite number of identical factors. 1= 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1... (And yes, I expect a 9-11yo, 4th grader to be able to use words and ideas like identical and infinite in their math homework.) Please remember that your answer must be on a fourth grade level--no citing famous mathematicians. No googling. :) PS: The other day this same friend asked me what I thought the antonym of "hurt" is. I suggested several including "well" but the little girl had already used that and had it marked wrong. Feel free to suggest your own antonyms. How was the word hurt used? Hurt =/= unhurt, well, health, whole, soothing, pleasure...(depending on how it was used, anyway) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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