Introduction to the DaMath Board Game Part 2

In the first part of this series, we have learned the basics of playing DaMath. We have learned the initial position of pieces on the board, how to move the pieces, how to capture the opponent’s piece, and how to score exchanges. In this post, we are going to learn how to capture multiple pieces.

In DaMath, it is possible to capture multiple pieces. For example, in Figure 1, the Red Player placed 8 on (4,5). Now, the Blue Player is required to capture 8 using 4.

Figure 1 – Blue Player’s 4 capturing Red Player’s 8

After capturing 8, it is now the Red Player’s turn to capture the Blue Player’s pieces as shown in Figure 2. Although capturing a piece is mandatory, capturing multiple pieces is optional. As shown, the Red Player is required to capture 4 using -5. However, he has also the option to capture -1 or 8. Note that capturing multiple pieces is considered as one move. Here are the possible cases. » Read more

Introduction to the DaMath Board Game Part 1

DaMath is a math board game coined from the word dama, a Filipino checker game, and mathematics. It was invented by Jesus Huenda, a high school teacher from Sorsogon, Philippines. It became very popular in the 1980s and until now played in many schools in the Philippines.

DaMath can be used to practice the four fundamental operations and also the order of operations. It has numerous variations, but in the tutorial below, we will discuss the Integers DaMath. Note that explaining this game is quite complicated, so I have divided the tutorial into three posts.

The DaMath Board

The board is composed of 64 squares in alternating black and white just like the chessboard. The four basic mathematical operations are written on white squares as shown in Figure 1. Each square is identified by a (column, row) notation. The top-left square, for example, is in column 0 and row 7, so it is denoted by (0,7).  » Read more

The Loop Game: Pool in Elliptical Table

Mathematics enthusiast and author Allex Bellos has created an elliptical pool table and he named it “The Loop Game.” It was supposed to always make the ball go to the table pocket. This can be done by placing the pocket at one of the foci and hitting the ball placed on the other focus. This is easy to say theoretically, but of course in playing, you also have to consider Physics.

Watch the video of one of the newest interesting games that uses mathematics in real life.

To those who are interested about ellipse, he has an explanation about in his book “The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life.”

You can find the website of the game here and watch extra footage in Youtube here.

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