Math At Its Best!

The mathematician who made this wanted me to post it for his dad to see!  We had played a game with these blocks and then the student started making a pattern with them.  We talked about how it looked a lot like a quilt square and then together we got to looking at the sums in the square.  Look closely.  One plus one is two.  Look at the blocks... one white, plus one white = two blocks.  The sum is 2. Look at the red blocks.  Two plus two is four.  Now how many blocks are to the left of the red ones?  Two white and two red, that is four blocks.  Two plus two is 4.  Okay one more.  Look at the  purple fours.  Four plus four is 8.  How many blocks are two the left of the purple?  Two white, two red, two light green, two purple.  That is 8!  We discovered that this works through the entire pattern!  How proud the mathematician was!