NUMBER THEORY

if I show you the following list: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10,...

You may immediately conclude that the next number after 10 is 12.

If I show you also the following list:

2 1, 2 2, 2 3, 2 4,...

What comes next?

Of course it is 2 5

Exploring number patterns can really help you develop a strong understanding of
mathematics concepts. It is my desire that you develop a love for this topic and others
to come.

In this unit, you will explore some other interesting patterns while I teach the following
topics:

Identify prime and composite numbers.

Find least common multiple

find greatest common factor.

Find multiples for a given number

Divisibility tests

To use sets of numbers to find and describe number patterns

Problems that can be solved with number theory:

Example #1:

What is the least number of marbles that can satisfy the following situation:

Put the marbles in 2 piles with no leftovers

Put the marbles in 5 piles with no leftovers

Put the marbles in 7 piles with no leftovers

To solve this problem, you can play around with the marbles until you find the correct
combination

However, you could get the least common multiple of 2, 5, and 7.

LCM (2,5,7) = 70

You need 70 marbles

Example #2:

Your father wants to give you some money if the following condition is met

You can share the money with either 2, 3, or 6 people

The money is less than 100 dollars

You need divisibility rules to solve this problem. There may be more than one solution

All you have to do is to make sure that the number is divisible by 2, 3, and 6 at the same time

Possible solutions: 42, 12, and 84

Example #3:

A clown waves at people every 3 minutes

A second clown waves every 4 minutes
A third clown waves every 5 minutes
When will all 3 clowns wave at the same time?

Just get the least common multiple of 3, 4, and 5

LCM(3,4,5) = 60

All clowns will wave at the same time in 60 minutes

 Ratios

Things are not always the same size. Thus, a natural need arise to compare quantities
using division to see how much bigger a quantity is when compared to another.

For example, looking at the two piles below made of red apples and green apples, you
may not be satisfied just to know that there are more red apples.

A comparison of red apples to green apples using division may help you to see how much more red
apples there are.

There are 9 red apples and 3 green apples. We can do a ratio of red apples to green apples as
shown below:

93
=3

The quotient or answer to the ratio above is equal to 3 and we can quite interpret the answer.

It means that there are 3 times more red apples than green apples

Other examples:

Say for instance, you are in a classroom. In the classroom, there are 3 boys and six girls.

The ratio of boys to girls is

36
 is equal to
12
36
or 0.5

It means that there are half as many boys as girls in the classroom.

However, the ratio of girls to boys is

63

63
is equal to 2 and it means that there are two times as many girls as boys in the classroom.

You can also do the following ratios:

Ratio of girls to number of students in the classroom:

6/9

Ratio of boys to number of students in the classroom:

39

Ratio of number of students in the classroom to girls:

96

Ratio of number of students in the classroom to boys:

93

At this point you may have noticed that the order is important when defining a ratio. The number that
comes after ' of ' is your numerator and the number that comes after ' to ' is your denominator.

Some formal definitions

A ratio is a comparison of two numbers using division.

The ratio of a to b is
ab
with b 0
A ratio is an ordered pair of numbers, written a:b, with b 0

As you can see there are more than one way to express a ratio. For example, if you have 6 pencils
and 2 pens all the followings are good ways to express the ratio of pens to pencils

2:6

Ratio of pens to pencils

26

The word "per" also means a ratio

For example, gas mileage such as 50 miles per 4 gallons means

504

Wage such as 25 dollars per hour means

251

Continued ratio: The ratio of three or more quantities is called continued ratio

The ratio of 4 to 8 to 12 is the continued ratio 4:8:12

We get the continued ratio above by combining 3 ratios

4:8, 8:12, and 4:12

When doing ratios, make sure that quantities are in the same units first

Ratio of 24 inches to 6 feet

Since 1 foot = 12 inches, 6 feet = 6 12 inches = 72 inches

Now, you can do the ratio of 24 inches to 72 inches

2472

It may be useful to simplify a ratio sometimes such as the one immediately above

Just divide both numerator and the denominator by the greatest common factor

24 2472 24
We get:
13

A little word problem: A classroom has 50 students and the ratio of males to females is 2 to 3. How
many students are females?

2 to 3 is the same thing as 20 to 30

20 + 30 = 50

Therefore, there are 30 females in this class