Too many people think that mathematics is a house of horrors, but there are plenty of bloggers out there, who know that done right, math is actually ALL fun and games. It is like a carnival! Every month, you can play at the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival, and it really is play! What does a playful math carnival look like? Go on over to see how Math Mama Writes… and puts on a fabulous March carnival!

I will be hosting this monthly carnival the last week of April! Why do I get to host it? I sent a message on twitter to Denise Gaskins who coordinates the carnival, and I requested the privilege. If you would like to host it in the future, let her know. She is always looking for blogs to host, and she will be very happy to hear from you.

In the meantime, you can help me with my carnival. If you blog about mathematics in a playful way that could benefit children who are somewhere between preschool to high school age, I would love to include your post in my carnival. The carnival is a FREE way to promote your post, so if you would like more traffic to your blog, submit a post using the link from Denise Gaskins’ website by Friday, April 19. Then before the end of the month, you will be able to enjoy the carnival even more because of your participation!

Now I’ll tell you a little bit about the post number, 1376:

• 1376 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 1376 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 43, which can be written 1376 = 2⁵ × 43
• 1376 has at least one exponent greater than 1 in its prime factorization so √1376 can be simplified. Taking the factor pair from the factor pair table below with the largest square number factor, we get √1376 = (√16)(√86) = 4√86
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 5 and 1. Adding one to each exponent and multiplying we get (5 + 1)(1 + 1) = 6 × 2 = 12. Therefore 1376 has exactly 12 factors.
• The factors of 1376 are outlined with their factor pair partners in the graphic below.

As mentioned in my previous post, 1376 is part of the three smallest consecutive numbers that have cube roots that can be simplified.