Comments on: Root extraction, part II: cube roots

By: jovelyn

jovelyn — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:10:15 +0000

hey! thank you verry much for the illustration and discussion on how to extract the cube root of a number……………..

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:17:19 +0000

You might be interested to know that this basic approach was actually used in schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Three dimensional wooden models called Cube Root Blocks were available for teachers to use as visualization aids. You can find an example of a “Double” cube root block on my website at sawbonesantiques.com under the “Technical” link. The double block allowed calculation of roots to three significant digits.

By: Carnival of Mathematics 1000 « JD2718

Carnival of Mathematics 1000 « JD2718 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:25:53 +0000

[...] Borovik discusses at Math Under the Microscope. 00 – A geometric interpretation of how to extract cube roots (for the brave) over at Blog 360. (Also, for the brave and non-brave alike, discussion of how to [...]

By: jd2718

jd2718 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:53:19 +0000

very nice. I know it’s not your problem, but look how easy it is to see that

Oh, yeah, the post is impressive, too. I’m just stuck on that diagram.

By: TwoPi

TwoPi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:01:09 +0000

I built them in Microsoft Word, trying to capture the essence what I had done in class using base ten blocks.

By: jd2718

jd2718 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:53:58 +0000

Hi! Thanks for this.

Where do the diagrams come from? (very nice visual for centered hexagonal numbers, believe it or not)

Jonathan