Eleven Plus - Blog number 500

This is blog Number 500. Thank you to all the readers and commentators. I have enjoyed the experience.

To celebrate we need a cool Eleven Plus question.

What do you know about the number 500?

500 ÷ 2 = 250
250 ÷ 2 = 125
125 ÷ 5 = 25
25 ÷ 5 = 5
5 ÷ 5 = 1

2 x 2 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 22 x 32

1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 125, 250, 500

The prime factors are: 2 and 5. (1 is not a prime factor because a prime factor has to have two numbers.)

If we multiply out all the factors we obtain 1.562516. This leads us to the Standard Form of numbers. The first number has a value between 1 and 10. It is either a single number – or a decimal point follows the first figure.

The number is followed by the index of numbers – in this case the index is 16.

There have been readers from all the continents. For some time an academic in a University in California was reading the blogs on a daily basis. I am not quite sure the relevance of a blog on the Eleven Plus to American contemporary education.

There have also been readers questioning my sanity. I am sure their diagnosis has been correct on more than one occasion.

A paraphrase of the comment would read:

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Dear Blog Writer Number 500

I question your competence to comment on the current Eleven Plus scene.

For many of use getting our children into a grammar school is as stressful as getting married or buying a house.

If we followed your advice we would need to have a very different form of Eleven Plus. The examination would need contain elements that educated, entertained, diverted and stimulated.

As parents we do the best we can. We simply do not need any more attempts to confuse the already complicated system of selection.

Is it not time to …..

Yours sincerely

Worried Parent.

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Dear Worried Parent

You are correct on all counts.

I will endeavour to make the next 500 blogs a little more ….

Yours sincerely

Blog Writer Number 500

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