Brain Teaser

Happy Summer!  Okay, I am few days early but it is truly hot here in Kansas!  So, I have been looking for ideas and fun math things to do this Summer inside and I came across this brain teaser.  Here is the link:  http://illuminations.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Brain_Teasers/BT39-SlidingTriangle-Solution.pdf?platform=hootsuite

Is this something you could use in your classroom?  Do you think your learners would like it and would they benefit from this?  I am trying to decide this for my learners.  Also, if you have a fun activity that you found this Summer post it.  Let's share resources!

Stay cool and hydrated!

Brooke

Comments

This would definitely be a challenge for my students. I wonder if we could create a series of hints that would help them without giving the answer away? I'm not sure how many students would think to solve it the way it's described in the solution, but it might be interesting to have the class make a table of the various stages of the triangle's collapse (maybe even graph it!) and see from that if they can come to a conclusion. That would be really good practice with the area and pythagorean formulas...

On a side note, this is how I used to explain why triangles have 180 degrees--the angle in the center gets more and more obtuse while the other two angles get more and more acute until the middle one becomes 180 and the sides become 0. I'm not sure how mathematically sound that is, but it helped the "but why?" crowd to think of it that way.

<p>Here are some other sites I have used for my quizzlers. &nbsp;They have puzzles of varying difficulty for different level learners.</p>

<p>Math is Fun Puzzles &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/">https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles…;

<p>Discovery Education Brain Boosters &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/">http://school.disc…;

<p>Brain Den Math Teasers &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://brainden.com/cool-math-games.htm">http://brainden.com/cool-math-…;

<p>Just Riddles and More Math Riddles &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justriddlesandmore.com/Mathrids/mathdir.html">http://www.jus…;

<p>Steve Miller's Math Riddles &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://mathriddles.williams.edu/">http://mathriddles.williams.edu/</a><…;

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