What's New from Bob Albrecht & George Firedrake?






 * What is your radius of exploration? How far from your base camp are you willing to wander? As you meander and encounter wonders, how many possibilities do you squander because of baggage you carry? Travel light--carry a few essentials. Make room in your backpack for new experiences, new tools, new toys. (Laran Stardrake.)

Introduction
We (Bob Albrecht & George Firedrake) write math and science eBooks and post them online at IAE Pedia for free download. These books are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. You may give snippets or entire books to students, teachers, tutors, et, al, et al - anyone. It is AOK to cut and paste a snippet into your document, and then edit and enhance it to suit your style. We will love it if you mention Bob & George as the source.


 * Download our eBooks at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

eBooks by Bob & George
'Play Together, Learn Together: REVERSE - an Aha! Game' is a free 80-page eBook about the game REVERSE, a puzzle game created by Peter Lynn Sessions and first published in People's Computer Company May 1973.

REVERSE is a puzzle game that we think you have not seen before (as of 2014-04-15). REVERSE, as described in this 80-page eBook, is mostly missing from the Internet (as of 2014-04-15). Opportunity knocks! You and we together can develop REVERSE as a NEW tool/toy for learning and teaching.

Many first-time players find REVERSE a boggling game and are unable to solve the puzzle until - ---Aha!--- - they discover or invent a method that works for any list of numbers. We describe algorithmic and heuristic methods for playing REVERSE. We think REVERSE is a great game for you and your students to explore algorithmic and heuristic problem solving. Hey, REVERSE is a game - kids love games.

This eBook also introduces Double REVERSE, a NEW puzzle game (as of 2014-04-15) inspired by REVERSE. We hope that you will encourage students to discover or invent ways to solve REVERSE and Double REVERSE puzzles.

Counting Alakazams 01: Count Objects in Arrays is a free 76-page eBook inspired by Count von Count of Sesame Street. This eBook is intended for teachers of mathematics at all grade levels. It is about counting objects in square and rectangular arrays of tiny squares (Tic Tac Toe array, chessboard, et cetera). The objects to be counted are squares and rectangles. Counting is one of the foundations of mathematics. Counting is fun!

Chapters: Rectangular and Square Arrays, Count Squares in Square Arrays, Count Squares in Rectangular Arrays, Count Rectangles in Square Arrays, Count Rectangles in Rectangular Arrays, Algebraic Alakazams, and Problems for You to Ponder.

As your students play through this book, they will encounter many Your Turn activities followed by Answers. Immediate feedback.

Mathemagical Meandering is a free 41-page booklet that contains a motley assortment of meanderings by Bob Albrecht and George Firedrake. Several of these ramblings were previously posted on the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics (OCTM) listserv.


 * Download Mathemagical Meandering at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

The booklet includes


 * The Plop Investigation
 * A Plethora of Snakes
 * A Note on the Science of NFL Football
 * Round-Robin Tournament SAT Practice Test Question
 * Measure the Height of a Tall Object
 * Win a Bag of Money
 * Solar-System Necklace
 * Coconut-Carrying Swallows
 * Use FOIL to Multiply 2-Digit Numbers
 * Nine to the Nine to the Nine
 * Eager Eric Wants to be Shorn
 * Roll 2D6 Doubles Game
 * Are All Perfect Numbers Triangular Numbers?
 * A Word Game Using a TI-84 to 'Roll' 26-Faced Dice.

Hey! This is free book. You may give snippets or the entire booklet to students, teachers, tutors, parents, grandparents, et al, et al.

Mathemagical Black Holes is a free 96-page eBook that you can download as a PDF file or as a Microsoft Word file. You and your students/tutees can edit the Word file, improve it, enhance it, et cetera, et cetera.


 * Download Mathemagical Black Holes at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

The book includes

Mathemagical Black Holes of the Simple Kind


 * Add 0 Black Hole
 * Subtract 0 Black Hole
 * Subtract a Number from Itself Black Hole
 * Multiply by 1 Black hole
 * Divide by 1 Black Hole
 * Double and Divide by 2 Black Hole
 * Divide by 2: Q = 0, R = 0 Black Hole

Mathemagical Black Hole 123 [The right stuff for 1st-grade students]

Mathemagical Black Holes 99 & 1089

Mathemagical Black Hole 495

Mathemagical Black Hole 6174

Mathemagical Black Hole 153

Mathemagical Square Root Black Hole

Mathemagical Black Holes of the Cyclic Kind.

We think that first-grade students can enjoy some of the simple black holes and Black Hole 123, especially with you coaching them. Black Hole 123 is amazing, and requires only counting and catenating (putting numbers together). Grab your magic wand, hop on your broom, and explore mathemagical black holes.


 * Download Mathemagical Meandering at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

Mars, Earth, Curiosity is a free 12-page eBook that you can download as a PDF file or as a Word file. It is AOK to give snippets or the entire book to students, teachers, tutors, anyone who might help a child learn. Curiosity, NASA's Mars Rover, is roving. This eBooklet uses images from Solar System Live to show the positions of Mars and Earth (Mercury and Venus too) in their orbits on the day the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to Mars was launched (2011-11-26), the day Curiosity was gently lowered to the surface of Mars (2012-08-06), and the 1st and 15th of every month from September 2012 through September 2013 (26 images of the inner planets' orbits, four per page).

Hey, there is more: Solar System Live images of the inner planets' orbits at Mars opposition 2012-03-03 and conjunction 2013-04-17. Still more: Data, data, data about Mars and Earth, and a link to the Goddard Space Science Center where you can indulge your curiosity about Curiosity.


 * Download Mars, Earth, Curiosity at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

Solar System Perambulations is a free 58-page eBook that you can download as a PDF file or as a Microsoft Word file.

Most of our heroes are great mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers. Just for the fun of it, we wrote this 58-page eBook. It lists 53 mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers, one per page. For each entry, we show date of birth, the positions of the eight planets and dwarf planet Pluto on the birth date, a link to the person's Wikipedia web page, and a table of data about the eight planets, dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres, and Earth's Moon.

We also show you how to use the diagram of the planets' orbits to deduce what planets you can see and about what time of day (night) you can see them. We do this exercise with students we tutor – they like it.


 * Download ''Solar System Perambulations" at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

Algebra: Numbers 01 is a 38-page teach-yourself unit. It is a very slow introduction to natural numbers and whole numbers presented in small bite-sized chunks. Nibble, nibble, gnosh, gnosh, learn a little algebra. It is slow and easy. Topics include natural numbers, whole numbers, odd numbers, even numbers, square numbers, triangular numbers, and a math recreation called mathemagical black hole 123. There are 22 sets of Your Turn exercises with answers and a 17-question self-test with answers. Algebra: Numbers 01 is available as a PDF file and also as a Microsoft Word file that you can edit. May dragons of algebraic alakazams be with you.


 * Download Algebra: Numbers 01 at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html.

Other free eBooks reside at http://i-a-e.org/downloads/cat_view/86-free-ebooks-by-bob-albrecht.html:


 * Mathemagical Numbers 1 to 99
 * Mathemagical Numbers 100 to 199
 * Mathemagical Numbers 200-299
 * Becoming a Better Math Tutor (Moursund & Albrecht)
 * Using Math Games & Word Problems to Increase the Math Maturity of K-8 Students (Moursund & Albrecht)

Current Adventure: Dice Probabilities & Statistics
Ahoy Reader, This is a work in progress, under construction, ongoing, probably never finished. We hope that you will find it useful for learning and teaching, share it with students, teachers, tutors, and others, add stuff that didn't occur to us, fixx our mistrakes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

60 pages and counting. We hope to post it soon in our download page at IAE Pedia. Today (2012-11-23) the book contains these sections:


 * About Dice
 * Roll 1D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 1DD: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 2D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 2DD: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 2D6, Pick 1D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 2DD, Pick 1DD: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 3D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 3DD: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 4D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Roll 4D6, Pick 3D6: Probabilities & Statistics
 * Create a Dungeons & Dragons Character
 * TI-84 Dice Odometer Programs
 * TI-84 Dice Rolling Programs
 * TI-84 Frequency Table Programs

Author or Author
Bob Albrecht and George Firedrake.