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:
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!