Number Sense – Activity: Tsunami Numbers in the News

About a decade ago, there was a great Tsunami happening in Asia.
What do you know about the Asian tsunami?

Read through the article first. Use the following numbers to fill in the blanks in the story.Think about which numbers make sense.

500  20  8,000;  2004  110,000  30,000  9.0

A tsunami triggered by a very large earthquake off the coast of the
Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26, ____, has left
more than 150,000 people dead and millions homeless. Countries hit hardest by the disaster include
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and the Maldives. Almost 75% of the deaths occurred in
Indonesia, estimated at ____. Sir Lanka was second highest with about 20% of the estimated deaths, or
______ people lost that day. The rest of the deaths, approximately ____, occurred in the other nine
countries affected by the tsunami.
The ____ foot wall of water, higher than a two-story building,
swallowed entire villages. The tsunami waves were not only very high, they moved at a much faster speed
than normal. These waves were comparable in size to those you see on some of the surfing movies;
but those waves travel at 30 miles an hour, and the tsunami waves
were moving more than fifteen times as fast at ____ miles an hour.
The velocity of the force is what caused the destruction—a massive force that swept away everything in its path.

The earthquake causing this Tsunami was a destructive earthquake measuring ______ on the Richter scale,
the fourth worst earthquake in recorded history. Earthquakes are measured on a Richter scale that has
a range from 0 to 12; a 6.0 on the scale is a pretty bad earthquake.

(Story constructed from January 2005 news reports)

The symbol π — where does it come from?

Where does the symbol π come from?

In 1652, William Oughtred used π to refer to the periphery of a circle (in his expression, the ratio of circumference-to-diameter of a circle is π ⁄ δ, the latter referring to diameter).

In 1665, Jonh Wallis used a Hebrew letter mem(mem) to equal the ratio of one-quarter of circumference to diameter of a circle. (This letter plays the role as of “M” in Latin alphabets, but look how close its shape resembles a quarter of a circle, as well as the Greek letter pi !)

In 1705, William Johns used π to represent the ratio of circumference-to-diameter of a circle (believed to be first use with exactly same meaning as in today) .

From 1736, Leonard Euler, both famous and a prolific writer in mathematics works, spread the use of π in his publications.

Counting from the first relevant use, the symbol π has already had a history of more than 360 years!

Prime numbers

Prime numbers are those that have 1 (one) and itself as the only two divisors. Examples of primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11. None of 4, 6, 9 is a prime since 4 = 2 × 2, 6 = 2 × 3, and 9 = 3 × 3.

If a number greater than one is not a prime, then it is a composite number, and can be factored into the product of primes — called prime factorization. We have given the prime factorization of 4, 6, 9 as above. For a couple of more examples:

12 = 2 × 2 × 3

36 = 2 × 3 × 3 × 3

28 = 2 × 2 × 7

So all natural numbers are divided into three classes: the number 1, the prime numbers, and the composite numbers.

A bonus point: π, besides representing in a circle, the ratio of circumference to diameter, also stands for a special function related to prime numbers. Function π(x) — for every integer x, represent the number of primes less than or equal (i.e. not exceeding) x. For example, we have:

π(2) = 1, π(3) = 2, π(10) = 4, π(20) = 8 etc.
[To find why π(10) = 4, recall the 4 prime numbers not exceeding 10: they are 2,3,5, and 7.]

Ribbon Square is Fun

Have you ever tried to use ribbons crossing each other to enclose a square? And do it in a rectangle “something”, like a pool in fitness center?

An external link plays with fun on this.

The Ribbon Square

It answers some of these questions:

What is the largest ‘ribbon square’ you can make? And the smallest? How many different squares can you make altogether?