I remember in 4th grade, a math teacher would write five numbers on the board and ask us to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to try arriving at a target number. Like many good things from my childhood, this game has been commercialized into “Math Dice”, where you pay $9.99 for $1.25 worth of dice.
With the help of the randbetween() function, we can create our own unbranded mental math game, fully customizable with the number of “dice” and how large the “dice” can get. We can make it in Google Sheets so you can have it in your pocket anytime the desire to unleash your mental math skills arises.
Spreadsheet Inputs
1) The number of dice/random numbers to use as raw material for calculations.
2) How big the dice/inputs are allowed to be.
3) How big the target number is allowed to be.
Here’s our spreadsheet so far:
Spreadsheet Calcs and Output
Basically, we’ll have a cell for each one of the “dice” that the user wants. The formula will first check to see if we have too many dice, then if not, we generate a random number between 1 and the “Maximum “Dice” Value” input. We then generate a random number for the target value at the bottom.
Here’s how the sheet looks. Also, 2 + (4 x 3) = 14, boom!
Check out the spreadsheet here: Math Dice Google Spreadsheet
You can save a copy of it to your Google Docs Drive to edit it. Every time you alter the sheet, it will generate new random numbers.