a fun math game

Math problems run in and out of my head all day. Whenever I see a series of numbers, I can't help but put it into a math problem and try to solve it. That's how I came to invent my math game. Other people might play it, or do it without thinking it's a game. But I play it, so I claim it as mine.

Every time I see a bunch of numbers, usually about 5 or 6 of them, I try to turn it into an equation. I do this mostly with addresses. For instance, my address number is 24108, and I can turn this into an equation:

2*4*1+0=8

Now isnt that pretty. Math is art.

I also do this most commonly with times. I find that by cheating I can do it with any time in the 10th or 11th hour of the day. I will not divulge my cheating methods.

This can also be done with many other bunches of numbers, such as dates, phone numbers, social security numbers and anything else. Just a fun little game to play if you're bored and like math.

I do something similar, but don't quite think of it as a game. I think of how numbers are connected. Since I can remember I had trouble falling right to sleep. Now it's easier because I hardly get any sleep, but my mental "game" started with me watching my clock. The : became an equal sign, plus, minus, etc. I would make connections.

Whenever I see numbers, I notice immediately if there's some cool association between them. I never knew that anyone else did this. It helps in other math to be doing this sort of practice all the time, I've found. Your brain processes the simple stuff more quickly, which enables the hard shit to not be as horrendous. I would recommend for anyone to try to get into the habit of doing this. It makes your thoughts less boring, I think...

No, Arithmetwists are dumb. Those are forced and imposed. These games are for fun in our crazy little heads...

You both would probably like the math I had to do in 6th grade. It was called Arithmetwists. Mainly what is was is there were four or more numbers in a row with little squares for the signs, then an equal sign, and then the answer. You had to get it to equal the answer with plus, minus, multiplication, and division signs and parentheses. It started easy and then got 'harder'. There was also another part where it was opposite, you had the signs in the order and a list of the numbers you could use. You had to fill them all in. I thought it was a lot of fun, but there were some people who hated it and thought that math should be done with rows and rows of problems.

There is a 'classic' math game where one takes the numbers of the year, and manipulate them in order to produce the numbers from 0 to 100. Consider, 1993:

0 = 1 - (9/9)3
1 = 1993
2 = 1 + (9/9)3
...
22 = 1 + 9 + 9 + 3
...
34 = 1 + (99/3)
...

You get the idea.

Note: This game isn't going to be fun for awhile again. 2000 is a boring year, and 2001 isn't much better. I was in high school in the '80s, and that provided a reasonable range of numbers to work with.

Regarding the game in which one takes an ordered set of numbers (e.g. four fours) and arranges them in an expression that evaluates to a target number, it is possible to obtain any natural number starting with 0, using trig functions:

cos(0) = 1.

for all positive n,
sec(arctan(n^½)) = (n+1)^½.

The rest is left to the reader.