Clare Hall blog 3

1. Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Masaichiro and Mitsumasa Anno is a book to help kids understand the algebraic concept of multiplying factorials. The story starts with one island and on the island there are two countries. In each country there were 3 mountains, on each mountain 4 walled kingdoms. This continues until you get to 9 boxes with 10 jars in each box and the author poses the question about how many jars there are in total.
2. The mathematical concept introduced has to do with algebra skills, multiplication in particular. To find the number of jars you have to multiply the number of jars in each box (10) by the number of boxes (9) by the number of cupboards (8), all the way back to the one island. So, in the end your equation is 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 and then the author explains that this equation can be condensed to 10!, which is a factorial. A factorial is the product of the integer and all the integers below it, and this story explains that concept simply.
3. Literature is an effective way to explain a mathematical concept because it applies it to situations that the reader is familiar with. It makes the concept easier to understand if you can see how it functions in real life.