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.

Practice Solving Equations with Equate Board Game

If you want your children or students practice equations and operations, you might want to try Equate: The Equation Thinking Game. Equate is a math board game that works like Scrabble. In Equate, instead of forming words, you can form equations. Younger children can choose an easy game which only consists of addition and subtraction, while older children can include multiplication and subtraction. Even more challenging is to include fractions!

Just like Scrabble, you can have double or triple scores in Equate. This can make players think of equations that yields a larger answers, while practicing their arithmetic.

Equate can be played 2-4 players ages 8 years old and above.

Although this game is challenging, it could also take a while to finish one game. Games which include fraction is expected to last up to 120 minutes.

Three Sticks: A New Promising Math Game

Last year, I shared Primo, a game that is aimed to develop the notion of prime numbers among players. In this post, I am going to share with you another interesting game called Three Sticks which aims to develop knowledge of basic geometric shapes.  In this game, using the same three types of sticks, players try to figure out different shapes and score points. In each turn, a player is allowed to put two sticks in order to form shapes with the largest number of points. Watch the video below to know more about the details on how the game is played.

Some of the mathematical concepts that can be learned by playing Three sticks are

  • polygons and their properties
  • how to calculate perimeter of polygons
  • convex and non-convex polygons
  • regular and irregular polygons

The printable board, cards, sticks, and Rules book can be found here. Three Sticks is currently on trial, so even the sticks are also printable. According to the designer, the actual set will include  plastic sticks and a board with holes into which the sticks would fit,

Three Sticks was developed by Pramod Ponnaluri of Kitki.in.

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