Week 18: Iron Chef

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In Week 6, I explained to Billy that quantity:numeral/place value as time:hour/minute as place:city/street/house. I taught Billy the relationship between quantity and place value by drawing analogies to other abstract concepts and the social conventions that we use to describe them. 

My hidden agenda in all this, if not obvious by now, is to develop in Billy a keen sense of form versus function, so as to "emancipate" him from the "chains of mental slavery", as Bob Marley would say. 

But at the same time, I am wary of getting too abstract, of teaching him everything except what is pertinent.  While I can see a distinction between the concept of quantity and the social convention of numbering, I doubt that Billy, at the tender young age of 8, is able to appreciate or even care about such a nuance. It's simply not relevant to someone who can barely read numbers as it is. 

So today, rather than wax philosophical about the biochemical orgy that ignites in my brain when thinking about number systems based on anything other than the quantity described by the Hindu-Arabic numeral 10—I teach Billy to cook.

How to Make a Number

Step 1) Find the Recipe: To make the number 512, you first need to figure out how many of each ingredient to add. Each place value represents one ingredient, and the number in that place value tells you how much of that ingredient you need. So in the number 512, you need 2 ones, 1 ten, and 5 hundreds.

Step 2) Prepare the Ingredients: The preparation process requires two tools which you have already mastered the use of: addition and multiplication. Use multiplication first to measure out enough of each ingredient: (5 x 100), (1 x 10), and (2 x 1).

Step 3) Combine the Ingredients: Once you have measured out enough of each ingredient, use addition to combine them all together: (5 x 100) + (1 x 10) + (2 x 1).

Step 4) Reduce the Ingredients: Reduce all the ingredients until you end up with a single number: (500) + (10) + (2) = 512.

Step 5) Garnish and Serve: Check to make sure everything reduced correctly, and serve!

Pretty damn concrete, right?