Kate Cornman

Blog post #3

a. 

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar written and illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno and his son Masaichiro Anno, is a children’s picture book illustrating the magic of factorials. The authors tell the story of one jar but within it there are wonders . There are amazing illustrations which make the book not only special in the sense that it teaches children the magic of math but provides beauty with art.

The book starts with a jar.Inside the jar has a sea with 1 island. On that island is 2 countries, in each country there are 3 mountains, on each mountain there are 4 kingdoms, each kingdom has 5 villages, in each village there are 6 houses, in those houses there are 7 rooms, in each of the rooms there were 8 cupboards,within each cupboard there were 9 boxes, and within each box there were 10 jars.

b.Then there is the question of : “How many jars were in all the boxes together?”

And the answer is 10! which means 10 factorial or 3,628,800

At the end of the book, the authors provide an explanation of factorials with tiny red dots to illustrate the amount of jars.For example,

In each village there were 6 houses so…

6!=6 *5!= 6*5*4*3*2*1= 720

You would continue to do this until 10! jars which equals 10*9!= 10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1

Mathematicians use factorials to conveniently represent large numbers. Anno tells us in the afterword that “Factorial” is a word that mathematicians use to describe a special kind of numerical relationships.The exclamation mark following a number signifies that the number it follows stands for the product of that number multiplied by the next small number, multiplied by the next smaller number, and so on all the way down to 1.

c. The last paragraph of the afterword states:

“Learning about numbers and how they can expand almost without limit by such simple means as are shown in this book, will we hope, give readers an idea if the remarkable order that underlines our universe, and a sense of the mystery, wonder, and excitement that can be experienced through mathematics.”

I think that this last paragraph grasps the essence of how literature can help to teach mathematical concepts in creative ways that stick with the reader. Instead of teaching a concept in a dry, mundane approach, the authors provide a story line which can help readers remember the concepts like they are apart of the story.Visualizations allow readers to have whimsical interpretations of the concepts as well.