Dimidiate

1. Arrange the digits from 1 to 9 in alphabetical order.

2. Memorise the large number you have created.

3. Close your eyes, can you remember it?

4. How many times can you halve this number (without a calculator) to give a whole number answer?

Number Landscape

A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Number

  • Angela Lowry,
  •  
  • I think these are great! So useful and handy, the children love them.
    Could we have some on angles too please?
  • Transum,
  •  
  • The starter for the 28th May involves estimating angles.
  • Transum,
  •  
  • The title of today's starter is an old English word meaning dividing into two halves. It was used to describe the process of halving two coat of arms so that they can be represented on the same shield. Dimidiation involves placing the right half of one coat of arms alongside the left half of the other. In the case of marriage, the right half of the husband's arms would be placed alongside the left half of the wife's arms. The practice fell out of use because the result was not always aesthetically pleasing! The word derives from the Latin dimidiat- 'halved', from the verb dimidiare and from dimidium, 'half'. Dimidiation Example of two coats dimidiated [This picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence]

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
Click here to enter your comments.

Previous Day | This starter is for 2 May | Next Day

 

Answers

Extension

What are the prime factors of this large alphabetical number?

Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

Educational Technology on Amazon

 

Online Maths Shop
Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Laptops In Lessons

Here a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments.

Transum.org/go/?Start=May2

Here is the URL which will take them to an activity about recognising prime numbers.

Transum.org/go/?to=pandigital

Student Activity

 

 

 

 

Extension Answers

29×33×61843

 

FACT button

Tip For Teacher

Most people don't know all of the wonderful things our calculators can do. There are just so many buttons and functions.

Do you have this strange FACT function on your calculator? Do you know what it does?

Type a number (48 is a good example) into the calculator then press the equals button.

Next press shift then this button with FACT written over it.

You should now see 24 × 3 in the calculator display.

The function performed the prime factorisation of 48.

Very useful.

So this button can be used to find out if a number is a prime number as the prime factorisation function will return the original number.

Apple

For Students:

 

Transum.org is a proud supporter of the kidSAFE Seal Program

For Teachers:

For All:

©1997-2025 WWW.TRANSUM.ORG