Question 13
Consider any 2 by 2 square of numbers in a calendar, as shown in the figure.
Find products of numbers lying along each diagonal — , . Do this for the other 2 by 2 squares. What do you observe about the diagonal products? Explain why this happens.
Hint: Label the numbers in each 2 by 2 square as shown in the diagram.

We will explore the products of numbers along the diagonals of any 2 by 2 square in a calendar and explain the observed pattern using algebra.
Step 1 — Calculate diagonal products for the given square
Let us look at the 2 by 2 square given in the diagram. The numbers in this square are 4, 5, 11, and 12.
The first diagonal product is the top-left number multiplied by the bottom-right number.
The second diagonal product is the top-right number multiplied by the bottom-left number.
Let us find the difference between these two products.

Step 2 — Calculate diagonal products for another square
Let us choose another 2 by 2 square from the calendar. We will pick the square starting with the number 3. The numbers in this square are 3, 4, 10, and 11.
The first diagonal product is the top-left number multiplied by the bottom-right number.
The second diagonal product is the top-right number multiplied by the bottom-left number.
Let us find the difference between these two products.
Step 3 — Observe the pattern
From Step 1 and Step 2, we can see a pattern. The difference between the two diagonal products is always 7. Specifically, the product of the top-right and bottom-left numbers is always 7 more than the product of the top-left and bottom-right numbers.
Step 4 — Explain the pattern using algebra
Let 'n' be the number in the top-left corner of any 2 by 2 square. In a calendar, numbers in the same row are 1 apart. Numbers in the same column are 7 apart (because there are 7 days in a week).
So, the four numbers in the 2 by 2 square can be written as: Top-left: n Top-right: n + 1 Bottom-left: n + 7 Bottom-right: n + 8
Let us find the product of the numbers along the first diagonal (top-left and bottom-right).
Let us find the product of the numbers along the second diagonal (top-right and bottom-left).
Now, let us find the difference between the two diagonal products ().
This shows that the difference between the diagonal products is always 7.
Answer
(i) For the given 2 by 2 square (4, 5, 11, 12), the products along the diagonals are and . (ii) For another 2 by 2 square (e.g., 3, 4, 10, 11), the products along the diagonals are and . (iii) We observe that the difference between the two diagonal products is always 7. The product of the top-right and bottom-left numbers is always 7 more than the product of the top-left and bottom-right numbers. This happens because if we represent the top-left number as 'n', the four numbers in the square are n, n+1, n+7, and n+8. The diagonal products are and . The difference between these two products is .
More questions in FIO
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(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
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Expand:
(i)
(ii)
Expand:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
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Which is greater: or ? Justify your answer.
Express 100 as the difference of two squares.
Find , , , , and using the identities you have learnt so far.
Do Patterns 1 and 2 hold only for counting numbers? Do they hold for negative integers as well? What about fractions? Justify your answer.
Compute these products using the suggested identity.
(i) using Identity 1A for
(ii) using Identity 1C for
(iii) using Identity 1B for
(iv) using Identity 1C for
Use either a suitable identity or the distributive property to find each of the following products.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
For each statement identify the appropriate algebraic expression(s).
(i) Two more than a square number.
(ii) The sum of the squares of two consecutive numbers
Consider any 2 by 2 square of numbers in a calendar, as shown in the figure.
Find products of numbers lying along each diagonal — , . Do this for the other 2 by 2 squares. What do you observe about the diagonal products? Explain why this happens.
Hint: Label the numbers in each 2 by 2 square as shown in the diagram.
Verify which of the following statements are true.
(i) is always 2.
(ii) is a multiple of 4.
(iii) Squares of even numbers are multiples of 4, and squares of odd numbers are 1 more than multiples of 8.
(iv) is 5 less than a square number.
A number leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 7, and another number leaves a remainder of 5 when divided by 7. What is the remainder when their sum, difference, and product are divided by 7?
Choose three consecutive numbers, square the middle one, and subtract the product of the other two. Repeat the same with other sets of numbers. What pattern do you notice? How do we write this as an algebraic equation? Expand both sides of the equation to check that it is a true identity.
What is the algebraic expression describing the following steps—add any two numbers. Multiply this by half of the sum of the two numbers? Prove that this result will be half of the square of the sum of the two numbers.
Which is larger? Find out without fully computing the product.
(i) or
(ii) or
A tiny park is coming up in Dhauli. The plan is shown in the figure. The two square plots, each of area sq. ft., will have a green cover. All the remaining area is a walking path ft. wide that needs to be tiled. Write an expression for the area that needs to be tiled.
For each pattern shown below,
(i) Draw the next figure in the sequence. (ii) How many basic units are there in Step 10? (iii) Write an expression to describe the number of basic units in Step y.