The Child-Engineering of Arithmetic in ToonTalk  

Ken Kahn

Providing a child-appropriate interface to an arithmetic package with arbitrarily large numbers and exact fractions is surprisingly challenging. We discuss solutions to problems ranging from how to present fractions such as 1/3 to how to deal with numbers with tens of thousands of digits to how to deal with irrational numbers. As with other objects in ToonTalk®, we strive to make the enhanced numbers work in a concrete and playful manner.

A short version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference, College Park, Maryland, June 2004.

Download the full version of this paper as an Adobe Acrobat file (PDF) - 1.5MB

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