The Deluxe Real Numbers Game
date: label: date made
content: ca 1966
name: label: developer
content: Allen, Layman E.
label: maker
content: Learning Games Associates
notes: label: Description
content: This game taught how to build grammatically correct expressions that represent real numbers (numbers that can be written in decimal notation, including those with infinite decimal expansions). Real Numbers was developed by Layman E. Allen at Yale University Law School as director of the ALL (Accelerated Learning of Logic) Project that developed mathematical games under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
label: Description
content: The game includes five wooden cubes in a holder with a ballpoint pen. On their faces the cubes have single digit numbers and symbols representing arithmetical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, as well as exponentiation, and taking roots). The game is explained in a four-page pamphlet, <I> the REAL numbers game</I>, written by Allen in 1966.
label: Description
content: The pamphlet explaining the game refers to various types of real numbers including natural numbers (1,2,3 …), integers (… 3, 2, 1,0,1,2,3 …), rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a ratio of two integers with a non-zero denominator), and irrational numbers (real numbers that are not rational numbers, such as the square root of two). After rolling the dice, players attempt to write down all possible real numbers formed from the symbols and numbers shown. The pamphlet also includes rules for scoring.
label: Description
content: The game and the pamphlet explaining it came in a plastic bag that had been stapled to a hanging display label that reads: the deluxe (/) REAL (/) numbers game by Layman E. Allen. The plastic bag also included a sheet listing “GAMES for THINKERS” that were available from WFF ‘N PROOF Publishers and a postcard offering a free one-year subscription to the WFF ‘N PROOF Newsletter.
label: Description
content: In 1968 Allen moved from Yale to the University of Michigan with a joint appointment in the Law School and the Mental Health Research Institute, where he continued his work on instructional games. Over the years the name and location of the distributor of the Real Numbers Game changed, although the phrase “Games For Thinkers” has been associated with it from before Allen’s move to Ann Arbor. Price lists in the <I>WFF ‘N PROOF Newsletters</I> (part of the documentation in accession 317891) indicate that at first the game was distributed by WFF ‘N PROOF in New Haven, Connecticut, and sold for $1.50. In 1970 the price was raised to $2.00 and in 1971 the game was distributed by WFF ‘N PROOF through Maple Packers in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. Afirm called Learning Games Associates of Ann Arbor later took over distribution of the game and donated this example to the Smithsonian in 1975. The Accelerated Learning Foundation of Fairfield, Iowa, then became the distributor.
label: Description
content: Reference: Games For Thinkers Website.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Ann Arbor
topic: label: Subject
content: Games
label: Subject
content: Education
label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Mathematical Recreations
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Learning Games Associates
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335307
label: accession number
content: 317891
label: catalog number
content: 335307
objectType: label: Object Name
content: game
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 cm x 15.5 cm x 12 cm; 25/32 in x 6 3/32 in x 4 23/32 in