Proud Father

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Wow. Check this out. My son, who is entering the 8th grade, is taking an online math course in Number Theory. Number Theory is the math field dedicated to whole numbers and their properties. I double majored in Math undergrad, so I got to take a college level version of that course as a Junior. It was one of my favorites since it deals with tricks of numbers like if you add up all the digits in a number, if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, so is the number.

While practicing his chinese characters today (he is studying Mandarin Chinese as his language. Ouch. I thought French was tough enough for me), he yelled out, "Dad, I wonder if any number which is one greater or one less than that number is relatively prime to it."

He couldn't prove it yet since that is something you learn when you get into more advanced math. But, he was able to make his first "conjecture" which is basically something that you believe is true, but you haven't yet proven.
Not bad for an eighth grader.

When I was going into 8th grade, I cared more about baseball and girls than I did math. Boy, have times changed.

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

Boca,
Definately not bad for an 8th grader. You have every reason to be proud.

Lisa

[shopgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shopgirl]

Boca, sounds like he is very smart. He definitely is a chip off of the ol' block. You gotta watch out for those smart kids. They're pretty good instigators. I would bet you know that first hand.

[kapish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close kapish]

Jim, it is nice to read about your son and his interests. May he be blessed with continued curiosity and success

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Yep, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and all that.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

My oldest son is way smarter than I was. My second son has my personality which is very mischievous. I was always in trouble as a kid. So is he. My youngest is the little prince.

I NEVER picked up a book to study in the summer. Not once, ever. In fact, I don't remember doing that much during the school year either. I think school is a lot harder now than it was when I was a kid.

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

WOW, this is something to be proud of.
It sounds like one day your son’s name will be added to this list.

The World Great Mathematicians

Charles Babbage

Augustin Louis Cauchy

Albert Einstein

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier

Carl Friedrich Gauss

David Hilbert

Karl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Andrei Andreyevich Markov

Sir Isaac Newton

Blaise Pascal

Carle David Tolm Runge

George Gabriel Stokes

Alan Mathison Turing

and Boca son

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Proud Father

Wow. Check this out. My son, who is entering the 8th grade, is taking an online math course in Number Theory. Number Theory is the math field dedicated to whole numbers and their properties. I double majored in Math undergrad, so I got to take a college level version of that course as a Junior. It was one of my favorites since it deals with tricks of numbers like if you add up all the digits in a number, if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, so is the number.

While practicing his chinese characters today (he is studying Mandarin Chinese as his language. Ouch. I thought French was tough enough for me), he yelled out, "Dad, I wonder if any number which is one greater or one less than that number is relatively prime to it."

He couldn't prove it yet since that is something you learn when you get into more advanced math. But, he was able to make his first "conjecture" which is basically something that you believe is true, but you haven't yet proven.
Not bad for an eighth grader.

When I was going into 8th grade, I cared more about baseball and girls than I did math. Boy, have times changed.

You have a reason to be proud! I have a feeling that you were smart and curious too as a kid and still are today.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

When my son was 8 years old, we were headed to Orlando and he was doodling with numbers. He wrote down the following sequence of numbers: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, ... Those numbers are recognizable to us as the sequence of squares. 1*1, 2*2, 3*3, 4*4, and so on.

He observed that every number in the sequence had a difference of 2 more than the difference of the previous 2 numbers in the sequence. In other words, if you look at the numbers (4, 9) in the sequence, the difference between those two number is 5. Now look at the previous 2 numbers which are (1, 4). The difference between those numbers is 3. The next pair of numbers in the sequence is (9, 16) whose differnce is 7 which is 2 more than the difference of the prior pair in the sequence (4, 9).

He told me that in order to calculate the square of a number, all he had to do was start with the first number (1), then add 3 to it to get 4. Then, add, 5 to that and get 9. Then, add 7 to that and get 16. And so on.

I was blown away at that observation for a 3rd grader.

I just asked him if he remembered that day. He said he did. And, he told me that when he was in 4th grade, he proved to himself why his observation was true. I couldn't believe how clever the proof was. He basically used tiles to do it. I can't describe it. It was very impressive.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

Ugh, math......I'd rather drink sour milk, in a snake pit, than do math. But, that's just me.


I don't blame you for being proud. Mandarin Chinese, and an on-line course in Number Theory. Very impressive. He must be one smart, and ambitious boy.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

My goodness, what a smart young man. You have good reason to be very proud of him!

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I don't blame you for being proud. Mandarin Chinese, and an on-line course in Number Theory. Very impressive. He must be one smart, and ambitious boy.

I would rephrase that as a smart kid and an ambitious mother. If it weren't for his mother, he would be playing RuneScape (the online adventure game) 24 hours a day.

I'm more like my dad. My dad let me do whatever I wanted. I couldn't be lazy, so I had to do something. And, whatever I did, I had to be good at it.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

BB

I would rephrase that as a smart kid and an ambitious mother. If it weren't for his mother, he would be playing RuneScape (the online adventure game) 24 hours a day.

Your wife is very wise, and a very good mother. Her efforts, and his hard work, will pay off in dividends, as he continues through high school, and college.

I always let my kids enjoy their summers, and down time, doing whatever they enjoyed. But, they also had to spend a certain amount of time bettering themselves, in some way. It became habit, and they continue to do this to this day.

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

Impressive, Daddy Boca, very impressive!
Connie

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

I love it when Dad's are so enthusiastic about their kids! And when Dad's can articulate what their kids are all about. Boca, me thinks your boys are very very lucky to have the parents they do.

Hope