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About This Lesson

Grandpa Never Loses — How to always win the 21 matchstick game (Nim) is a free, interactive intermediate-level mathematics lesson covering math. Designed for grades 4, 5, 6, this 15-minute lesson includes 22 interactive questions with immediate feedback to help learners master key concepts.

What You'll Learn

  1. Understand the key ideas in Mathematics
  2. Practise with 22 interactive questions and instant feedback
  3. Follow a clear lesson, step by step

Lesson Details

Type
Lesson
Subject
math
Category
Mathematics
Difficulty
Intermediate
Grade Level
4, 5, 6
Duration
15 minutes
Questions
22
Language
English
Cost
Free

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Home/Explore/Mathematics/Grandpa Never Loses — How to always win the 21 matchstick game (Nim)
LessonMathematicsIntermediate

Grandpa Never Loses — How to always win the 21 matchstick game (Nim)

The matchstick game — 21 matches on the table, take one, two or three, and whoever picks up the last match wins — is not luck at all: it is completely solved, and this lesson shows you how to work the winning rule out yourself. You start where the game ENDS, at zero matches, and count backwards until you find the trap numbers: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20. Then you find out the thing that took a kid eleven summers to notice — why Grandpa always went first.

15 min22 questionsGrades 4, 5, 6
VCreated byViafocusOfficial Viafocus lesson
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Questions preview

22 questions

first 4 shown
  1. 1The GameInteractive
  2. 2The LadderInteractive
  3. 3The Last NightInteractive

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  • 4Back to the old rule for a second: take one, two or three. It is YOUR turn and there are eight matches on the table. What is about to happen?Multiple choice
  • Lesson details

    Lesson
    Lesson
    Subject
    Mathematics
    Difficulty
    Intermediate
    Grade level
    Grades 4, 5, 6
    Length
    About 15 min
    Language
    English · Svenska

    What to expect

    1. 1Understand the key ideas in Mathematics
    2. 2Practise with 22 interactive questions and instant feedback
    3. 3Follow a clear lesson, step by step

    In class

    Start on the projector or share a code — students answer on their own devices and results land on your dashboard.

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