Mathemagics

Yes you read the title of this entry correctly.  Mathemagics is the title of a book written by Margaret Ball back in 1996.  Its still possible to obtain copies of it but its out of print otherwise I think.

You probably wonder why I'm discussing a fantasy book but there is a point so please hang in with me for a bit longer ok?

This book is preceded by several short stories in the same world.  It involves a female sword fighter who lives in another world.  She is not a mage because she cannot seem to master the system of magic there. When she tries, accidents happen and she's never sure how to undo the damage.

Yes I can hear you muttering about getting to the point.  Here is the point.  The magic system in this book is based on calculus.  You read that right!  Calculus.  Every spell is a derivative and every counter spell the antiderivative to the original spell.

As I said earlier, she may not be great at math but a man from our universe who just happens to be a math teacher, ends up in hers.  They fall in love and of course they marry but in the process, he ends up a great mage because he can do both derivatives and antiderivatives.

The book takes up when the family living in this world where she is the author of several sword and sorceress books.  Her husband teaches Mathematics but when their world is invaded from hers so out comes the spells and they are off.

I found the idea of calculus as the basis of a magic system.  Yes I did check each and every spell and counter spell to make sure they were correct and yes they were.  In addition, every chapter title is also a mathematical expression such as i^4 for chapter 1 or sqroot 4 for chapter 2. 

I loved the book and have reread it numerous times since then and continue to do so because it is funny and the math is so well integrated you don't mind it.  Give it a shot and enjoy.

Announcement.

From midnight (12:00 AM) to 11:59 PM on April 30, 2013, my e-book is being offered from free at Amazon.com. The title is "Teaching Math Using the iPad".  I hope some of you will be kind enough to take advantage of this.

update on two apps and a new one.

I spent some time going through the Boss T Maths I downloaded the other night.  It appears the one I found are just samplers rather than the full versions. The first one, Expanding and Factoring, shows you how to expand the distributive property or factor it from the expanded form to the original problem.  The examples are for a(b + c),  a(b-c),  (b+c)a and (b-c)a.  The app provides some vocabulary and a geometric representation.  Once you get to the practice problems, you can access the ones for the first examples but the others are locked and  you need to purchase the full priced app.  You can access the first practice problems for factoring ab + ac and evaluating ab + ac.  Again, if you want to any of the other problems you have to upgrade.  I was rather disappointed in that I was unaware of this being a lite version rather than the full version.
The special binomial products is set up in the same manner as the other.  You have to upgrade to access all parts of this app.  I think I could still use this effectively with my students for reteaching or guided practice using the examples.  Although I cannot access all of the practice problems, I can always create problems with the answers contained in a QR code so once my students have finished the problems, they can check their work.
I found a book making app Book Magic.  It allows kids to make their own books.  I can see this being used by elementary students to create books on shapes,  processes,  etc.  The app comes with basic shapes and it also allows the students to draw pictures, import photos or other material.  This is a bit too simple for older students.