Hit it!

All right there mathematicians, welcome back and welcome back Barbara!

Hello Michelle, lovely to see you.

And you. Umm, and maths! Hello maths! I hope you're having a great day maths! Oh I really am!

Yeah I'm everywhere!

Imagine if maths was personified, right, like what character would it be?

It would just be me. [Laughter]

I feel like it would be the Hulk.

The Hulk, yeah!

Cuz it can be like...

But more easygoing...

Really big and powerful, but really clever as well.

But more fun than the Hulk.

The Hulk is fun.

Oh he's fun?

Yeah, super fun. I love the Hulk. Who do you think is more fun than the Hulk?

Ummm.

No one?

Iron man.

Oh yeah that's true, Iron man is pretty good.

I got, I got your weakness!

Alright, lets play. So we, we're gonna play a game called Hit it! that I learned from Mike Askew.

Okay, how do you play?

So we need a target number, which is what you're gonna try to hit.

Okay.

And we need a target number that's a multiple of 100.

Okay.

So, and we'll play between 100 and 900 to start with. Okay, so what's the target number you'd like?

Ahh, 500.

Okay, so that's our target number. And we also need a game board and it looks like this.

That looks nice and easy.

You can create yours.

Okay.

And then we roll the dice and we have to use the digits that we roll to try to form a number that's as close as possible to 500.

Okay.

So we're trying to hit the target. Ummm. And who should go first?

Well I think me.

We need like a mathematical way of deciding.

Okay.

So what about number of letters in your last name?

Okay, well I have 9.

[Sigh] I've got 8... I thought I had it with 8.

Okay. You know what you could also play? You know how last time we said the person with the largest number of letters in their first name?

Yeah.

And I still won that round. This is really advantageous because usually you get cranky about having so many letters.

Oh that's true actually.

In your name but you could also do total letters in your whole name.

I don't have a middle name.

Oh well, I have 20, so I still get to go first. This may not do me any favors, but let's play.

All right, ohhh 3. So...

Oh that's a hard choice!

It's a hard choice, and I can't decide whether to err on the side of caution or to be quite crazy. So, I'm gonna go for a crazy idea.

Okay.

Your go.

7. Okay, well that's... It's, this is sort of a similar choice.

Similar choice.

Cause it's still 2 away from the 5.

Like the 3 was.

Yeah, but I was thinking that the, because I was thinking that 4 would be a really good number to get.

Oh would be a good number.

Because you could get 495 or 6 right?

So yeah, that's true so it's about the same isn't it?

Yeah.

So 7 and then get a really low number.

But I'm not ready to do that, so I'm just gonna put this, 7 tens.

Okay.

I, well, I'm gonna say 7 tens also.

So now you really want a 4!

Yeah, because a 4 would better than a 5 wouldn't it?

That's true!

Yes. Okay, well now 77.

This digit determines everything.

It does.

Okay.

Cuz neither, you know sometimes...

And even though 4 is the best for both of us.. Oh, uh....

[Laughter] I think I've got it.

It couldn't have been worse!

907. Actually, you haven't won yet! Because if you get a 9 I win.

So I need an 8?

You need...

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3.

Yeah.

And then but 2. Oh I wonder who would win if I have 2?

Ah who cares because I have 477!

So you have to be on it, we have to be able to explain how far away we are from the target.

Okay.

Before you get your point.

So how far away are you from 500?

Okay so, if I, if I had 480.

Uh-huh.

I would be 20 away.

Yeah.

So that's 3 more. So, so 3, 3 further away than that. So I'm 23 away from... The target.

Okay and I am way more than 23 away!

In fact I'm 473 away.

Okay so, I think... You do win. You get a point.

Sometimes a little 8 letter... [Laughter] I try to think that made a difference. I just got a bit lucky with my 4.

Okay. You score yourself a tally mark and let's play again.

Okay. Let's do best out of 3.

Okay, let's do it.

Are we keeping the same target number?

We can, or we can change it. What would you like to do?

Ummm, I think keep it it. Maybe for the third game. We might change it.

Yeah. Alright.

Sometimes its nice to use the same numbers, because you might develop some strategies.

You can roll first because you won.

Yes! 2. Ohhh, similar choice.

Do you know what I should have done, is actually made the 300.

Yeah. That actually would have been much better.

But I still wouldn't have won though.

No but it wouldn't have been as sad as your result!

Well, I feel like if you're gonna lose, lose big!

So, I'm gonna choose 2 tens, so I've got 20 something.

Okay. [Rolls dice] Come on! Good numbers [Blows on dice] Ohhhh.. Oh, okay.

Now it's your time! You get a do-over Michelle would you do things differently?

I still don't know that I would, but I'm gonna give it a go, and see what happens.

Okay.

[Rolls dice] [Laughter]

400.

Rats! So, so, actually we already know you've got the point right?

Yep.

Anyway.

And we already know who won best out of 3 too!

I'm gonna go a 1 here. Your go.

Cuz you still want to get as close as possible right?

You do.

Ohhh, see I wish I'd put my 2 in the end there, because I would have been so close.

You would have been really close.

Okay. Look the good news is I couldn't have formed any bigger a number.

No. So there were no bad choices.

No bad choices!

So how far away are you with this one?

Okay, so I am 70 something. So 72.

Yes, I agree with you, because 2 more would make it 430.

That's right.

And then another 70...

Yeah. I thought about it the other way. I thought, I've just pretended I had 30 and then I added the 2 later.

Oh, that's a good idea. So we just, we worked it out the the same way but we changed the order around.

Yeah.

So what I'm gonna think about, this idea, if that was a zero.

Okay.

So I would need 70 more to get to the next 400.

Okay.

The hundred, so that's actually 69.

Yes.

And then I need 169.

So not as bad as 973 but still not as good. Not as close as 73.

So a puck mark for you.

And this ones with a clean sweep.

Would you like to keep the target or change it?

You know what, I think you should choose.

Oh no... Let's choose.

Because if I'm gonna beat you at least it could be your own architecture that brings you down.

I'm gonna choose 700, just to see how that changes the game.

Because 500 is sort of in the middle right?

Yeah.

So let's see what happens.

Okay.

That's a, I'm thinking about this in a really different way now.

Okay. You roll.

Ohhh... 600.

Okay. Ohhhh, 900.

Well, I'm not gonna put it in the hundreds. No.

But I might put it in the tens.

Okay, I mean, if you get a 6, 690 something would be fantastic.

So good.

Ohhh... 690 something would be fantastic!

I feel like you've got rigged dice!

Ok, your go. Let's swap them. [Laughter]

Doesn't matter now. 3.

Oh, rats!

693.

So even if I got a 6 now, you still get the clean sweep.

Yep and you chose the target number and we swapped dice.

Oh my gosh and I got a 1. Okay, so how far away are you?

7.

Mmmm and I'm...

That's my best one yet.

That is your best one, and I'm like...

Is that your worst one yet?

It could be my worst. I think it is. So I would need another 9 to get to 200.

Mhhmm.

And then another 500.

So I'm 509 away! So it is my worst one yet. Look if you're gonna lose, lose big.

Go big or go home as they say!

Have fun playing Hit it! mathematicians.

You could play, umm, actually with 4 digit numbers.

Oh yeah.

And you can even try with decimals.

And I guess you could do it, so that if you, you know, you can't go over, so you can only go...

Under?

Yeah.

Uh huh. There's a lot of variations. There's heaps of cool things you could do. Have fun playing!

So what's some of the mathematics with this game? This task gives us an opportunity to practice and deepen our skills and understanding in things like estimating, rounding, using our place value knowledge, reasoning and explaining how we know which number is closet to the target number using flexible strategies.

So over to you mathematicians. You can play this game in lots of different ways, you could use 2, 4, 5 digit numbers and beyond. You could also play using decimal fractions. Have fun!