Alexandria Jones

I hope it is obvious that Alexandria Jones and her family are fictional. Their stories will appear sporadically, as I find time to transcribe them from the back-issues of my old math newsletter. I am trying to keep the months lined up, since some of the content is seasonal.

In case you missed any of them, here are all the Alexandria Jones stories so far, plus a peek into the future. I hope you will have as much fun reading Alex’s adventures as I had writing them.

“Table of Contents” Quicklinks

• Introducing Alexandria Jones
• The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure
• The Mysterious Temporal Freeze
• The Thief in the Night
• The Christmas Present Quandary
• The Secret of the Egyptian Fractions
• The Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles
• The Mosaic Tile Mystery

Introducing Alexandria Jones

The story behind Alex’s story, how it all started with a few homeschooling friends who played around with math.

• Introducing Alexandria Jones
• Alexandria’s Dog is Now a Teacher

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May/June 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure

In this issue, we play the Pharaoh’s Pyramid game (a 2-D version of Nim), learn a little about surveying, and meet four mathematicians from history: Diophantus, Pappus of Alexandria, Leonardo Fibonacci, and Srinavasa Ayengar Ramanujan.

• The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 1
• The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 2
• The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 3
• Historical Tidbits: The Pharaoh’s treasure
• Historical Tidbits: Alexandria Jones
• Historical Tidbits: Alexandria Jones Answers

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July/August 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mysterious Temporal Freeze

Time stops for Alex and friends, and we calculate how long it would take a cat to eat a lasagna the size of Illinois.

• The Mysterious Temporal Freeze
• Solution: The Cat’s Lasagna

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September/October 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Thief in the Night

We learn to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs, discover how the Egyptian scribes multiplied numbers, and play around with function machines. Then we try our hands at story problems and geometry challenges from the Rhind and Moscow mathematical papyri.

• Alexandria Jones and the Thief in the Night
• Egyptian Math in Hieroglyphs
• Alex’s Puzzling Papyrus
• Egyptian Math Puzzles
• Another Egyptian Math Puzzle
• Egyptian Geometry and Other Challenges
• Egyptian Math: The Answers

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November/December 1998 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Christmas Present Quandary

Alex designs tessellation wrapping paper, hunts for the perfect Christmas tree, and comes up with a lively present for her brother. We meet the rest of Alex’s family, along with historical figures Maria Agnesi and Leonhard Euler, and we take a brief glance at mathematics from China.

• The Christmas Present Quandary
• A-Hunting They Will Go
• The Golden Christmas Tree
• Leon’s Christmas Gift
• Magic Square Puzzles
• Christmas Puzzle Answers
• Historical Tidbits: Agnesi, Euler, and China

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January/February 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Secret of the Egyptian Fractions

Dr. Jones teaches Alex and Leon to work with fractions, Egyptian-style, and Leon paints a wooden block puzzle. For history, we explore the mathematicians of Napoleon Bonaparte: Gaspard Monge, Fourier, and LaPlace.

• The Secret of Egyptian Fractions
• Egyptian Fractions: The Answer Sheet
• Leonhard’s Block Puzzles
• Alex & Leon’s Homeschool Puzzle
• Answers to Alex’s and Leon’s Puzzles
• Historical Tidbits: Math and the Emperor Napoleon

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March/April 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles

The Jones family flies to Italy for spring break and visits the ruins of the Pythagorean school. Leon learns to make pebble numbers, and Alex challenges him to a strategy game. For history, we learn about the great crisis of ancient Greek mathematics.

• The Puzzling Pythagorean Pebbles
• Puzzle: Figuring Out Figurate Numbers
• Answers to Leon’s Figurate Number Puzzles
• Game: Avoid Three, or Tic-Tac-No!
• An Ancient Mathematical Crisis
• Historical Tidbits: The Pythagorean Brotherhood

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May/June 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mosaic Tile Mystery

Alex receives a letter from Dr. Theano, asking for help in solving an archaeological puzzle. Leon learns the Pythagorean Theorem, and we try our hands at geometric algebra. A politician makes mathematical history.

• The Mosaic Tile Mystery
• The Pythagorean Proof
• Euclid’s Geometric Algebra
• Answers: Euclid’s Geometric Algebra
• A Mathematician for President
• Historical Tidbits:Euclid and the Presidents

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July/August 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Birthday Surprise

Alex has a birthday, and the Jones family explores some problems about probability. My math club students treat us to their story problem challenges, and for history, we meet the battling Bernoulli brothers.

• The birthday surprise
• Probability and baby blues
• How to start an argument
• Story problem challenges
• Hints and solutions
• Historical tidbits: The battling Bernoullis

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September/October 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the Mathematical Carnival

Maria Jones suffers from Can’t-Say-No Syndrome, and the Jones children plan a mathematics carnival for their homeschool group. We learn several math and logic games and meet a few mathematical puzzlers from history: Claude Bachet, Charles Dodgson, and Sam Loyd.

• The mathematical carnival
• Cousin Sam’s 15 challenge
• Alex deals out Equations
• Lewis Carroll’s logic challenges
• How to plan your own math carnival (and a couple of chess puzzles)
• Hints and solutions
• Historical tidbits and puzzles

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November/December 1999 Issue:
Alexandria Jones and the 80-Yard Drive

The Jones family meet Uncle Will and cousin Sam for a tailgate picnic before the big football game, and someone else tries to crash the party. Alex plays with Platonic solids, and Alex and Leon trade story problems. For history, we meet René Descartes.

• The 80-Yard Drive
• Renee’s Platonic mobile
• The grandfather of computer graphics
• Story problem challenges
• Hints and solutions
• Historical tidbits: Rene Descartes

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