Welcome to Math Tricks!

If you are like me, you have an appreciation of mathematics, and enjoy seeing how a mathematical formula can be applied to real-world situations.  And, of course, love math tricks and fun math games!

Who is Math Tricks for?

This site is for anybody, really.  Young or old, rich or poor, it does not matter.

Even those who are not so enthusiastic about math, they are invited too!  In fact, I challenge anybody who does not like math to look over the posts and not go away with a new-found appreciation of mathematics!

For those parents out there with kids who find arithmetic boring, you are encouraged to look over the material in math tricks; you will be sure to find something that your kids will enjoy – and get them interested in math!

Tags: elementary math games, fun math, Math Tricks

As a child, there was nothing like the first snowfall of the year.  It was a sign that the joyous upcoming holiday season was upon us.  Looking around at the growing accumulation, one would begin to anticipate snowball fights and sledding down white, glistening hills.  If you caught a snowflake on your tongue, the cold, crisp beauty of the event would precipitate within your soul.

Now consider the snowflakes themselves.  Their beautiful geometric patterns have fascinated us.  Taken individually, they seem to us lovely enough, but considering the innumerable variety of complex patterns, one is almost overwhelmed with this marvel of nature.

Snowflake patterns do form as a consequence of the physical properties of water, but this does not take away from our appreciation of the astonishing symmetry within them.  Indeed, one can come away with a feeling of the tight bond between mathematics and nature.  To many, a picture of a snowflake represents order within nature.   Simply by looking at a snowflake, you may be convinced that there is an underlying order in our universe.

Natural snowflakes can be imitated mathematically with fractal patterns.  Helge von Koch was a pioneer in fractal mathematics, and in 1904, he came up with a fractal pattern (the Koch snowflake) that resembled a snowflake:

The Koch Snowflake¹

Constructing this fractal is an easy process.  You begin with an equilateral triangle.  For each side of the triangle, divide the side into thirds.  For the middle third, draw an equilateral triangle.  When complete, repeat this process for each triangle of your new construct.  This process is illustrated in the figure below:

Construction of the Koch Snowflake²

When properly considered, there is more to the intrinsic beauty within a natural snowflake or one constructed using fractal mathematics.  If you consider the Koch snowflake carefully, you will realize that there is much more to it than what you can see.  Indeed, if you analyze the Koch snowflake mathematically, you will even be able to glimpse of the handiwork of God!

Let me show you two mathematical properties of the Koch snowflake that, taken together, are really very remarkable philosophically.  First, what is the area of the Koch snowflake?  I will not derive the formula for you – I will just give it to you here for iteration k to n:

where s is the length of each side of the original equilateral triangle.

Now, as n approaches infinity, the area of the Koch snowflake becomes a finite value, and is equal to:

So what about the length of the perimeter of the Koch snowflake?  The length of the perimeter at iteration n is given by:

Now, as n approaches infinity, can you see what happens to the length?  Amazingly, the length of the perimeter of the Koch snowflake becomes infinite!  So the Koch snowflake is a mathematical object with finite area bounded by an infinite boundary – how awesome is that?!

There are many things I like to think about when I philosophize about the nature of the universe, and the mathematical properties of the Koch snowflake is one of them.  I like to think of the Koch snowflake as a metaphor for existence outside of our realm of perception.  We are all bounded by the limits of our lives, but is there something beyond our existence that we sometimes fail to see?  Look at the Koch snowflake, and you may see, evidence of intelligence, and what may be.

¹Illustration by Wrtlprnft: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wrtlprnft

²Illustration by Wxs: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wxs

Tags: fractal, infinite fractal, Koch Snowflake, proof god exists, proof of god

Many of you may have seen this one before – it is very old (I first saw this in grade school, which makes this example of math tricks ancient!).

Yes, it is the infamous 2=1 “proof”.  Here I present it to you as a graphic an also as a video set to Beethoven’s 5th (yea – it was raining yesterday so I had a lot of time on my hands!).

First, here is the graphic of the proof:

And now for the video proof:

So that is the proof.  Can you spot where the error is?

Tags: 2=1, math proof, Math Tricks

I came across a very interesting problem – one that seems to involve math tricks of some sort.  Or is it magic?  Whatever it is, it is certainly a math brain teaser!  Anyway, here is the graphic that had me scratching my head:

So what’s the deal here??  Where did the hole come from?  Please post your answers  :)

Tags: brain teaser, math brain teaser, Math Tricks

Long before Sudoku began showing up in newspapers, ancient peoples had their own math tricks up their sleeves.  What were these math tricks?  They are called magic squares.  Magic squares were known by the Chinese as far back as 650 BC.

What are magic squares?  They are squares of order n with n² numbers within the square’s n x n matrix such that the numbers in each column, row and diagonal add up the same number.   For example, the magic square for order n=3 looks like this:

Look carefully at the rows, columns and diagonals – they each add up to the same number – 15!  Now this magic square is a special case; it is the only magic square for order 3.  Sure you can rotate it and make reflections, but this is the only arrangement for an n=3 magic square.

Magic squares exist for n >= 3.  There exists a trivial magic square for n=1, and for n=2, there is no magic square.  The number for which the columns, rows, and diagonals add up to is called the magic constant.  The value of the magic constant for a square of order n is determined by the formula:

So for n=3, the magic constant (C_m) = 15.  For n=4, C_m = 34.  For n=5, C_m = 65, etc.

How many solutions are there for magic squares for n>3?  There are many!  For n=4, there are 880.  For n=5, there are 275305224.  How many are there for n=6?  I have seen an estimate for over 1.7745×10¹⁹!

Tags: Magic Squares, Math Games, Sudoku