HP Forum Archive 21

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Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #1 Posted by snaggs on 17 Sept 2013, 8:09 a.m. I want to teach my 10 year old son some simple programming. Can anyone suggest a simple problem I could get him to solve using the 35s that has enough steps to be fun? Daniel

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #2 Posted by Csaba Tizedes (Hungary) on 17 Sept 2013, 9:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs Fibonacci numbers - How little rabbits are made? :-o ;)

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #3 Posted by Don Shepherd on 17 Sept 2013, 9:20 a.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs How about guess the number, 1-100? The calculator generates a random number and he tries to guess it, and it tells him how many guesses it took when he gets it. This has the added advantage of teaching him about a binary search.

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #4 Posted by Namir on 17 Sept 2013, 9:27 a.m., in response to message #3 by Don Shepherd And you can do the reverse game, have your son guess a number between 1 and 100 and the calculator try to figure out the number. Perhaps the simplest program is having the calculator add integers from 1 to a specified upper limit and then comparing the result with Gauss's formula n(n+1)/2. Namir

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #5 Posted by Eddie W. Shore on 17 Sept 2013, 9:33 a.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs All I can think of is finding areas of (simple) geometric shapes like the circle, rectangles, ellipses, and right triangles.

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #6 Posted by Kimberly Thompson on 17 Sept 2013, 9:54 a.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs Daniel If I may suggest a modification to the suggestion by Csaba - population dynamics - w an emphasis on intersecting populations. The following URL(s) are very informative; Link to Population Game Link to Foxes-Rabbits Game This topic has a COMPLETE HP-25 published example. It might be slightly over the top for a 10 year old, but it is very do-able on an HP-35s. BEST! SlideRule

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #7 Posted by Namir on 17 Sept 2013, 11:05 a.m., in response to message #6 by Kimberly Thompson What is the link to that HP-25 listing please? Namir

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #8 Posted by Kimberly Thompson on 17 Sept 2013, 11:26 a.m., in response to message #7 by Namir Namir I'm looking for the parent source of a listing extracted from page 6 of an HP publication (Journal - maybe?). I can 'drop' the pdf extract to your email as a temp solution til I reconnect the child to the parent. Sorry ALL, I'm 'cleaning up' my dusty tome of HP artifacts (35+ years) and it isn't always pretty. BEST! SlideRule

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #9 Posted by Didier Lachieze on 17 Sept 2013, 11:57 a.m., in response to message #8 by Kimberly Thompson Quote: I'm looking for the parent source of a listing extracted from page 6 of an HP publication (Journal - maybe?). "Three New Pocket Calculators : Smaller, Less Costly, More Powerful" from November 1975 HP Journal.

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #10 Posted by Kimberly Thompson on 17 Sept 2013, 12:16 p.m., in response to message #9 by Didier Lachieze Didier Yes ... THANKS! SlideRule

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #11 Posted by Matt Agajanian on 17 Sept 2013, 5:52 p.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs Two games I can recommend are the well-known 'Nimb' found in HP-25C, HP-33E and HP-34C program manuals or here in MoHPC's Program Library or 'Sum of Digits Game' from the HP Digest article 'How Programmable Calculators Help Kids Learn.' Edited: 17 Sept 2013, 5:53 p.m.

Re: Good puzzle for kids to solve on 35s? Message #12 Posted by David Hayden on 18 Sept 2013, 10:40 p.m., in response to message #1 by snaggs It may be too advanced for a 10 year old, but finding prime factors of a number is fun too.

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