A quick little maths tip on cubes

by | Dec 4, 2014 | Maths, Teach, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Children love a bite-sized piece of insider knowledge. These 6 little numbers take moments to secure, but once your child knows them they will be just a teeny bit ahead of where they were in maths yesterday.

The first few cube numbers pop up regularly in maths exams and few children recognise them as a set.

Cube numbers are created by multiplying a number by itself and then by itself again:

2 x 2 x 2 = 8

3 x 3 x 3 = 27

If your child can recognise these as a set of numbers and understands how they are calculated, it is a good beginning. Ideally though, they should be able to recite just the first 6 – which I’ve typed out for you in colour , just click on the link below:

Cube numbers in colour

It is no harm to point out that there are other simple cube numbers out there, for instance:

10 x 10 x 10 = 1000

20 x 20 x 20 = 8000

But these higher numbers don’t need to be learnt, just appreciated (aaah!)…

Here are some standard exam questions involving cube numbers:

What comes next? 216, 125, 64, 27 _ ?

Spot the odd one out: 100, 64, 2, 8, 216

Which of these is an even cube number? 32  125  64  144

I think of a number, multiply it by itself and then multiply the answer by the number I first started with. My answer is 64, what was the number I first thought of?

Print up my little graphic and stick it on your fridge. Don’t say anything about it and wait until someone asks you!