a framework for toolmaking
What the highest number you have ever counted to? What is the highest number you have ever seen? How was it written? (1 trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12 (10 to the 12th)?)
What’s the smallest number you have ever seen? How was that written? What was it describing?
Starting at 0, counting every integer, how fast can you count to 10 aloud? To yourself? What about 100, aloud and to yourself … 1,000? (or where/what time do you give up?) What if you count by 5? 10?
Next Steps:
- Write a software program that counts up in a way that you can see… printing it out, changing an image. Depending on your programing skills you can be as creative with this as you want. DO NOT use clock/time functions, just increment a variable.
- Give it a stop button and a way to reset the counter.
- Let it run for the same amount of time that it took you to count to 10. What number is it on?
- Now rewrite it so it only displays the number when you hit the “stop” button. Again, let it run for the same amount of time that it took you to count to 10. Does the final number change?