The children enjoyed yet another fantastic Spaghetti Maths session today and Jonny had the following to say:

We investigated an interesting piece of mathematical wonder – the Mobius strip; which is a ‘one sided‘ surface.  

 The children were asked how many sides/surfaces a piece of paper has; the most common answer to this was 2, front and back, some of the children said 6 (knowing correctly that a sheet of paper is actually a 3 dimensional cuboid) – but for this exercise we just consider the large usable surfaces, the front and back. 

 The children were challenged to 

  Draw a line down the centre of the paper without lifting their pen off the table; this is impossible because the paper has 2 distinct sides.   

 The children were then shown how to make a Mobius Strip – ask them how (or see the yellow take-home sheet for details) 

 They were then asked to repeat the tasks above  

 Draw a line down the centre – and they found that without moving the pen form the paper that the line covered both sides of the strip, showing that the shape did only have 1 surface. 

 A great deal of making, cutting, drawing, remaking and investigating then ensued. 

 We also played a game called Quads (all to do with the number 4) – if you know the simple mathematical rule in the game you never lose! Your child/ren may be challenging you to a game of this, this evening.  

 If you want to know the rules just ask!!