Math in my Game

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Remembering your school days! All the childhood games that you used to play in class, on grounds, or in the streets. 

Yes, I too used to play many such games either to kill extra time or to have fun with my buddies. One such game which I used to play a lot with my seat partner in elementary years of schooling was 'NAME, PLACE, ANIMAL, THING'.

Image source: original 

Yes, you have read it right! It is a beautiful vocabulary, mind, and math game. 

Hold it! you must be wondering vocabulary, mind is fine but where does this math come from. The only math used was just to find the winner by summing up all score points. Otherwise, there is no math in it. The answer is 'NO'

"MATH IS THERE IN MY GAME". It can be much more, but you can find enough evidence that connects it with your school mathematics. 

 

Focus on these three points.

 

1 Matrix structure

2 Score function 

3 Points and winner relation

These three points collectively explaining this game. Yes, I am not kidding. It's true. 

See the first point. It is giving the structure and data of the game. Now see this Image again.

Image Source: Original 

You may now correlate that the common method used to write our data is in form of a matrix. Yes, the data is stored in a rectangular matrix of order n by 4 where n represents the number of times a letter is chosen/ round played and 4 represents the number of heads for names (which is fixed in this game). Now let us see what columns and rows are describing. Each column represents a name under a particular head (person, place, animal, or thing). Each row represents a letter chosen from 26 letters of the English alphabet with which a name has to start. This is how each name becomes an element of the matrix with a fixed position. 

Isn't it interesting! 

Now let us look upon the second point. Yes, you must get an idea that it is related to scores.  The rule (Function) for how scores/points were given. If the name is different from others then 10 points will be awarded to each player, if names are common then 5 points are awarded to the player having a common name, and 0 for not attempting or the wrong name. 

For example: If the animal name 'Ape' is different from others then the player will get 10 points but if it is common with some other player then all the players having a common name will be given 5 points. Somehow,  the name is not an animal name then 0 points. 

Image: original

In the last, third point the relation is given, that is

• Each player is related to a number which is the total number obtained in an entire game. (see image below)

Image source: original

• winner(s) is the one which is having the maximum number among the set of those numbers obtained by each player.  

That's all!

Enjoyed knowing the math behind my game that I love to play again. 

Thank you for being a part of my educational memoir. 

 

Bye!