Just a bit of fun for week 24. Click the link for a 10 minute peek into the world of Tommy Turvey and Pokerjoe.
The first draft of Horse of the Same Colour is getting close to complete and although neither Megan nor Amy gets up to any of the antics shown, some of the things that happen come close.
Exciting news: the adventures of Megan, Amy, Jack and all the people mentioned in the professor's video HERE are getting close to a first full draft of a book, but this means things are getting busy and there isn't always time to remember which week of the count up we've reached (but I'll try) so for this final stretch towards the finish line, let's do something different.
Is anyone out there heading towards their GCSE Maths and feeling worried that they might not do very well? Here are some top tips for top marks:
If your first thought is evasion
At the sight of an equation
And you'd like to up your mark
But you're totally in the dark
Then try this neat persuasion
From a YouTuber named Clarke
In the video, Jake mentions Corbettmaths. Find them HERE.
And by the way, it's week 18 this week, but who's counting?
17
17 is a prime number like 13. Its connection with the number
13 and with cicadas is that cicadas can incubate underground for years, but not
a random number of years; either 13 or 17.
16
Week 16 of the count up and here’s a maths problem given as
homework to 9 year olds in Taiwan. Never mind “Mind Your Decisions”, which is
where this comes from, this one will blow your mind.
15
Week 15 of the count up and here’s another puzzle from Mind
Your Decisions. And since this is week 15, here’s a hint. The answer is NOT 15.
14
Week 14 of the count up and here’s something different from
a YouTube mathematician called Presh Talwalker whose YouTube channel is called
Mind Your Decisions. In this video he shows you a neat way to work out the
radius of a heart.
13
13 is a prime number and has an underground connection to cicadas – check out week 17 for more.
11
All the new cast is now embedded in the book,
that includes Solo, Fmelodie, Tristan and Starlight Piglet, but Megan and Amy
haven't properly met them all. At least not - as Amy would say - been
introduced in a 'pleased to meet you' kind of way. In fact, Megan isn't quite
sure she wants to meet Tristan properly. She has a feeling they've already met
and that she didn't do well out of the encounter.
I’m
not planning to get to week 1000, but I have a neat 1000 fact so I’ll put it
here. It’s about the letter ‘a’. Although not as common as ‘e’, it is the
second commonest vowel in the English language. Yet how many times would it
appear if you were to write out the numbers from 0 to 1000?
Answer
(surprisingly): just once.
It
is still a countUP but before too long it'll be a countDOWN,
10
We’re now in week 10 of the count up. Do you remember that
back in week 6 I said that there was a connection to the number 10? It is
that 10 factorial (usually written 10! And meaning 10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1) equals
the exact number of seconds in 6 weeks.
9
Nine is an interesting number to multiply. If you add
together the digits of the answer, you always end up back with 9.
2 * 9 = 18
Add together 1 and 8 et voila! 9
Or really go mad and try something bigger:
56 * 9 = 504
5+0+4 = 9
And even where you don’t immediately get back to 9, then add
together the numbers of the answer until you get back to a single digit and it
will always be 9.
55 * 9 = 495
4+9+5 = 18
1+8 = 9.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
8
This week I’m using the fact that 4 + 4 = 8.
Pick any 4-digit number (it must contain at least 2
different digits, so it could be 4985, or 5583 etc but not 5555)
1.
Write the digits in ascending order e.g. 4985
would become 4589
2.
Now write the digits in descending order e.g.
4985 would become 9854
3.
Now subtract the smaller number from the larger
e.g. 9854 minus 4589 equals 5265
Now start again at 1 with this new number, and eventually
you will end up with 6174, no matter where you start. The number 6174 is known
as Kaprekar’s constant.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
7
Seven is a number that crops up all over the place: 7
dwarves, 7 days in the week, 7 wonders of the world etc. It is also popular as
a ‘favourite number’ and has come top in favourite number polls.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
Horse of a Different Colour is due out as an audiobook any day now. Watch this space! But as for Horse of the Same Colour, this is week 6 of the count up and things are going well.
6
The number 6, because it denotes 6 weeks, has an interesting
connection to the number 10 – check out week 10 for more. If I was counting up
in days, this connection wouldn’t work.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
5
Five is an odd number and like all odd numbers, it has at
least one ‘e’ in its name.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
4
The number 4 has 4 letters in its name: f-o-u-r. Bet you
can’t find any other number that does that.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a
countDOWN, CLICKHERE for the New Year post
Megan and Amy find themselves entangled in trying to keep a secret that they're not even sure they know, but in between times they like to relax and play board games - sometimes they allow mums and dads to play, sometimes they don't.
Their current favourite is The Gorgon's Loch.
Go and take a look on THIS LINK and leave a comment to say what you think.
3
Here's a cool fact about the number 3: Somewhere between 3 and 4 is the mathematical constant, Pi. It can be defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.142 but you can keep those decimal points going forever.
For an explanation of why this is a countUP and not a countDOWN, CLICK HERE for the New Year post
2
‘eleven plus two’ is an anagram of another sum that also equals 13. Can you work out that sum? The answer will be in a few posts from now.
A happy, safe and prosperous 2021 to everyone
Having introduced all the new characters and hinted at the BIG SECRET, I had hoped to start a Countdown to Publication. But I can’t because I don’t have a publication date yet.
However, the book will be published in 2021 so instead of a
countDOWN, I’m doing a countUP. When I get a date, I will reverse direction and
count down.
This is week 1.
1 is an interesting number.
It’s neither a prime number nor a composite number. Every other whole number is
one or the other.
**Happy Festive Season to one and all**
After Jack the Horse got things underway many weeks ago and Professor von Puppet made initial introductions, we have met almost all the new cast of Horse of the Same Colour.
As to who else will be joining Megan and Amy in their new adventure, you can be sure that Naylor O'Neill and her gang will push their way to centre stage. Their long-standing teachers will do their best to keep things under control; fearsome Mr Connor, Miss Blanchard, the new teaching assistant, and the absent-minded Mrs Linstead who turns out to have hidden depths. And the traveller family who join the school for the autumn term also make quite an impact, in particular brothers Menowin and Patrin and their little sister, Rosella.
Here’s a quick reminder of the characters who have been introduced over the past few weeks. Have you decided upon a likely favourite? If so, please leave a comment to let us know which one.
Oh yes, the secret of the unicorn ... I'm afraid I'm not allowed to divulge that. It will all come out when Horse of the Same Colour is published in 2021.
