math problem solving tips and tricks (Math is cool)

For some students, listening to the teachers in the class while they multiply and add innumerable numbers can sound uninteresting and tedious. However, this is not monotonous, in fact, it is cool. Just try to look at its beauty, and you will find it cool. Remember that the beauty of Maths is in the mind of the beholder. If one sets the mind that Math is FUN, he/she will really find it fun.

How to make math fun

Do you know Math is more fun than sports, video games, reading books, and some other activities? Once you see it for what it is, you will surely find it huge, cross-generational, international, fantastically whimsical, and collaborative (in the words of Dr. Ian). If you can look at math mainly as a game, you will never find it boring. Look at Math as Math Playground and play with maths.

Do you know that only two things are said to be perfect in the world, one is Mother Nature, and the other in Mathematics? Discoveries are made each day in nature and Math as well. Mathematics’ most important and at the same time, the simplest element is number.

Like the elements of nature, numbers also share a complicated relationship with each other in a set. This relationship is valid throughout the universe. Math is really cool, but you need to develop your interest in Math to find all of its cool elements.

So the question is how to be interested in Math? The monotony of Math can be done away with by making math meaningful and by relating to every aspect and interest of our life. By following various methods, you can cultivate your interest in Math.

Make it a game:

There are a lot of online Apps to help math students. The most enjoyable way to learn math is to turn it into a game. Use online Math games to cultivate your interest in Math. Do you remember the oil games of Monopoly and Yahtzee? These are the best games to develop an interest in Maths.

Learn the tricks of Math:

Math is full of short tricks to help save time. Once you try to explore them, you will be amazed by them, and it will increase your interest in them. E.g., if you have to find the remainder of any number by 27, how will you do that for any long number say 34568276?

Well, the traditional way would take a lot of time. The best way is to make triplets of the number. The triplet for the number 34568276 is ….

34…….. 568…..276

Now add all the triplets = 34+568+276

And the number you get is 878. Now simply divide the 878 by 27, and you will get the remainder as 14. So your answer is 14. Isn’t that cool? Believe me; math is cool if you learn the tricks well.

Join some math club:

Any club is made around an idea that interests all. If you become a member of the Math club, you will get surrounded by people who have a passion for math and loves it. In the long run, this will inspire you to love math, and slowly you will increase your interest in it. This will also raise your awareness about how math is related to every aspect of your life, and this will further add interest. You can join a club online or at school or the local community.

Make Math less Abstract:

Learning the underlying principles makes memorizing the formulas easy and less daunting. So when you are in the class, ask your teacher about why some formulas work and others do not? Constantly go in search of the underlying principles of any formula.

Constantly self-analyze yourself by asking questions that if you can easily explain the mathematical concepts? Are you good at making logical connections between the facts and the concepts? If you are unable to do it, you are in need of some good maths tuition or math help. Just knowing the math answer is not enough, you should learn all the underlying principles used to solve the math problem.

Really, Maths is a beauty. Maths is everywhere around us from what we eat and drink to the architecture we see. Everything is based on some function of Maths. For all measures and all the ingredients you use, use a number. Nothing around us is without Maths. The equation of (a+b)2 = a2+b2+2ab is universal. It stands true everywhere, be it on Earth or Jupiter. There are no physical dimensions on which Math exists. It is a mental concept that exists in the mind of humans.

Maths is an abstract representation of Nature:

If you see closely, you will find that math is an abstract representation of nature only. Let me explain to you with examples: Tell me, what’s the size of the universe and the largest number a human mind can conceive? You know, the answer is zero. Isn’t it amazing to find it? In nature, for every matter there is anti-matter, similarly in Math, for every positive number, there is a negative number.

That is why when everything is put together, the size of the universe turns to zero and that is why 0 is called a whole number. Even if you add or remove anything from this while number, it remains the whole.

Let us understand mathematics and its beauty in the words of Dr. Ian. He says that if I take some silkworms and I let them remain surrounded by mulberry leaves at a warm place and secure them from the predators, the silkworms will produce more silk. Now, this silk can be taken and can be reshaped in different forms – shorts, scarves, parachutes, silk threads, etc. – but the silkworms do not have to do anything with that.

So mathematics is like silk. If you leave some mathematicians in a nice office, they will create mathematics. They will indulge in a math puzzle of some kind and then solve them. It is we who can take the solutions and use them for our needs and construct things like – computers, flight simulators, and animated movies, and so on. Mathematicians do not have to do anything with this. For them solving math problems is the only aim.

Dealing with mathematics while remaining detached from its outcome, will help to understand Maths better. If any private maths tutor or online math tutor can represent the Maths in the way Mathematicians view Maths, i.e., as a game, I am sure that all the students will find Math really cool and would love to engage with it and find that math is fun.