Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Factoroids can be cheated

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Jesus, Brendan,

On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Brendan Luchen <che...@gm...> wrote:
> No ideas on how to get around this, but I don't think it's a huge
> problem. The first levels should be easy, and typing 2 is exactly how
> to factor 2, 4, etc!

I'm thinking that the revised factoroids will be 75% like regular
asteroids, with 25% math thrown in to make it a bit educational.  For
the first level, it is all powers of 2, so the player just has to
shoot like regular asteroids, with all the shots being 2s.  For the
second level, the player has to select between 2 and 3, and so forth.
Also, for rocks that are primes, I think we should require that the
player shoot them with the correct prime to eliminate them.

I think this game would be an easy way for kids to learn factoring rules:
Multiples of 2: end in 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0
Multiples of 3: digits add up to multiple of 3
Multiples of 5: end in 5 or 0
Multiples of 7: no simple rule
Multiples of 11: if  < 100, digits equal, otherwise no simple rule
Multiples of 13: no simple rule

David