Xavier Gordon-Brown is clearly a very bright child, and at eight years of age has achieved a GCSE maths A*, the highest grade available.
Maths-Whizz Blog
GCSE Maths A* for junior Whizzer
August 28th, 2009FREE Tutoring Subscription with the Great North Run
August 26th, 2009Whizz Education’s very own Natalie McNamara is running the Great North Run next month, and you can win a FREE Maths-Whizz Tutoring subscription in the process!
On the 20th September Natalie (who some of you will recognise as our Customer Service Manager Extraordinaire And All-Round Good Egg (that’s her official job title), will run from central Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to coastal South Shields, raising money for the children’s charity CLIC Sargent in the process.
The Great North Run, arguably the most popular long-distance event in the world, is a half-marathon race. For the mathematically-inclined (and that should be all of you!), that’s:
13.1 miles
21.1 kilometres
21,097 metres
69,215 feet
830,590 inches
2,109,700 centimetres
21,097,000 millimetres
2.1097 × 10^13 nanometres (or 21 trillion, give or take…)
Here’s where you get involved.
Whizz Education have pledged to enter every Whizz Blog reader who sponsors Natalie into a draw to win a FREE annual subscription to Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus, worth £99.99!
Just enter ‘Whizz’ in your message to Natalie and she’ll add you to the draw. The winner will be announced after the Great North Run in September, when we’ll also announce Natalie’s place and time!
Friday Maths Paradox
August 14th, 2009Not what you might generally expect to read on a Friday, but a reminder of an elegant geometry puzzle in today’s Financial Times letters page.
Take a square of 8 x 8 units = 64 square units. Divide it into two triangles of 3 units x 8 units and two polygons with two sides of 5 units and one side of 3 units and rearrange those four pieces into a rectangle – see above. The resultant rectangle will be 5 units by 13 units = 65 square units! One square unit out of nothing?
Without giving too much away, the apparent paradox of taking one shape and making a larger shape using the same pieces in fact isn’t a paradox at all. It’s more of a sneak.
I won’t link directly to a solution, but if you want one, I suggest you give the excellent ‘Cut the Knot‘ website a try.
We suggest you explore their website for puzzles that will draw on and enrich your child’s experience with our maths tutor.