Hello. My daughter Taylor is in 4th grade and has an assignment about Arrays. My husband and I had no idea what an Array was. At least not in mathematical terms. What is an array? I don’t think I ever studied this when I was a kid.

Thank you,
Laura

Hi Taylor and Laura,

An array is a rectangular arrangement so 12 apples might be arranged in a 4 by 3 array

(mathematicians always mention the number of rows first and then the number of columns)
or a 3 by 4 array

or a 2 by 6

or a number of other ways including a 1 by 12 and a 12 by 1 array. The only requirement is that there be the same number of apples in each row and the same number of apples in each column.

Arithmetically you are writing 12 as a times b and then putting the apples into a rows and b columns.

Penny