News from Mr Grady
Hello everyone.
This week our main school students will be competing in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, an absolutely fantastic competition where students begin to test their Maths knowledge in a context that is outside of the curriculum that we might teach. This is often the best kind of test at all, because it’s where the concepts that you learn, and the ideas of what you have to start applying might look different to the types of questions you might normally be faced with. If a student were to ask me “how do I improve in English?” I would state simply: Read more. There’s no better practice than simply reading as widely as possible – books, articles, websites and so on. Simply by reading you will always be improving your English. In Maths, I’m reliably informed, it is about practice. Practising each new idea and concept, doing more Maths essentially, until functions and calculations are second nature. Because once they’re second nature you can begin to apply them in more and more creative situations, which gains you a deeper understanding of the hidden Maths that surrounds us. Take the following puzzle (the like of which is exactly the sort of thing you get in the Maths Challenge):
Anthony, Marc, Katy and Lizzy are four mathematicians. Each of them either always tells the truth or always tells lies. One day, they make the following statements:
Anthony: “Marc always tells lies”
Marc: “Anthony and Lizzy are either both truth-tellers or both liars”
Katy: “Marc and Lizzy are either both liars or both truth-tellers”
Lizzy: “I always tell the truth”
Who is definitely lying?
Now, there may not seem to be a mathematical approach within sight of these prose-statements, but it is through some swift use of logic and the language of mathematical reasoning that you are most likely to get the quickest result.
If you are like me and look at this puzzle with the slow sinking feeling that you are just not up to the job, it’s nothing to be worried about. If you want to get quicker at this type of thing, you simply have to put in the practice. Break it down into its component parts, practice each bit and then start putting them back together. You’d do this if you were learning an instrument, practising a skill in a sport, rehearsing a piece in drama or learning a language – it’s an ability we all have. The more repetitions of something we do, the more effective we become at it.
Sometimes we can over-complicate something because it is not yet in our muscle memory, so it feels alien or difficult, but the more you do it the more it becomes something you can’t even imagine not being able to do! To all the mathematicians that look at the puzzle above and see a host of numbers and letters dancing to your tune as you logically and rationally move them about, you’ve done the right amount of practice! To those of us sighing and getting out a pen and paper, we have the simplest of answers at our disposal: When you’ve done this one, have a go at another, and another and another – pretty soon, the letters and numbers will be dancing to your tune too!
Mr Grady
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