What’s Different?
I was in a 6th-grade math class yesterday. The instructor had put a similar illustration on the board – only the dimes and nickels were laid out in the same manner. And three or four of the pennies were shinier than the one that is in the center of the pennies in the above illustration. The instructor asked which set of coins was different and why? The first answer was logical for a math class. “The dimes are different because all of the other coins add up to 25 cents. F ive nickels make 25 cents. 25 pennies make 25 cents. A single quarter makes 25 cents. But five dimes make 50.” The instructor asked what might be some other possible answers. I...