Number Devil Activities: The Seventh Night

On the seventh night of The Number Devil, Robert is introduced to Pascal's triangle.  These amusing activities will bring the chapter to life.

1) Blaise Pascal:

Pascal is the famous mathematician from the 17th century that created the triangle the Number Devil teaches about to Robert.  Read about Pascal in Mathematicians are People, Too  or do an internet search to learn about him.  Create this notebook page about him.  If you have a timeline, add him to it.

2) Pascal's Triangle Practice:

Use this worksheet to fill out Pascal's triangle.  Can you do it without looking at your book?  Remember start by writing 1's along the edges then add the two boxes that are touching together and write the answer in the box below it.

3) Fimo Fractals Craft:

Make Fimo Fractals.  Compare your fractals to the  picture on page 142 of The Number Devil

4) Pascal's Fitness Challenge:

Print a copy of Pascal's Triangle Fitness Challenge.

Choose an exercise to do each day for the next week such as sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, or laps around the house.

We are going to use the second, third, and fourth diagonal lines of Pascal's triangle to accomplish our challenge.  The second diagonal line shows the day of the challenge (ie. 1, 2, 3, 4 , etc.), the third diagonal shows the number of exercises to do (ie. 1, 3, 6, 10,etc.), the fourth diagonal shows the total  number of exercises you've done with all the days combined (ie. 1, 4, 10, 15, etc.).

This copy of Pascal's triangle is color-code to help visualize the lines.  The green line is the day of the challenge, the blue line is the number of exercise to do, and the purple line is the total number of exercises you've done all together.

Here's an example of how it works:  The first day you do one push-up for a total of 1 all together; the second day you do 3 push-ups for a total of 4 all together; the third day you do 6 push-ups for a total of 10 all together.  Can you keep up with the challenge for a week?  After a week you'd have done 84 push-up all together!  To track your progress color in the squares that correlate with that day.  For example, after you do one push-up on day one you color the three 1's and after you do three push-ups on day two you color in the 2, 3, and 4.  The next day you'll be coloring in the 3, 6, and 10.   You can choose a different color for each day if you'd like.

5) Probability with Pascal:

The number devil introduces Robert to Pascal's triangle.  Examine how Pascal's triangle is used in probability.  This fabulous lesson (click on Pascal's triangle) shows how Pascal's triangle figures probability.