Chapter 3

Games of Recreational Number Theory: Skill Levels Through Multiplication and Division

Elliot Benjamin

Abstract

Chapter 3 consists of the games that require the skill levels through multiplication and division. These games consist of The Prime Number Game, The Perfect Number Game, The Semi-Perfect Number Game, The Powerful Number Game, The Divisor Game, The Sum of Squares Game, The Syracuse Algorithm Game, and The Fib-Tri-Prime Game. The games in Chapter 3 are in general appropriate for children in grades 4, 5, and 6, depending on their skills levels, inclusive of gifted children. The Perfect Number Game has been especially popular with children, in particular because of the stimulating open problems about perfect numbers in mathematics; i.e. are there infinitely many perfect numbers and does there exist an odd perfect number (see the Perfect Number problem section in Chapter 1). The games in Chapter 3 are excellent teaching devices to motivate children to practice their multiplication and division skills in an enjoyable way, in addition to enhancing their creative thinking capacities (see some of the teacher and teacher education Numberama workshop participant responses in Appendix).

Total Pages: 81-96 (16)

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