World of Number Released on 
Archimedes 

Embargo Release Date 20th January 1993 

Acorn Computers is using BETT '93 to launch World of Number, a series of 
four Archimedes CD ROM disks which support the teaching and learning of the 
mathematics curriculum (key stages 3 & 4) combining the multimedia formats 
of text, sound, pictures and video. 

World of Number was originally developed for the National Curriculum Council 
in an interactive video (IV) format by New Media and The Shell Centre for 
Mathematical Education. The same team has been sponsored by Acorn to rework 
the material for CD ROM under RISC OS thereby making this valuable resource 
accessible to the rapidly increasing number of schools equipped with Acorn 
CD ROM systems.  The choice of CD ROM allows many more schools to benefit 
from the World of Number series without their having to use the more 
expensive and less universally found IV systems. 

The four CD ROMs are:   * Who stole the Decimal Point?  * Picture Gallery               * 
Number Games and Short Tasks    * Perspectives 

Who stole the Decimal Point? is an adventure game in which a series of 
mathematical problems must be solved in order to complete the story.  Number 
Games  consists of a collection of seven puzzles which must be solved by 
groups of students through discussion of calculation and reasoning.  Picture 
Gallery has a large collection of photographs together with a set of simple 
software drawing tools which can be used for counting and measuring. 
Perspectives employs four on-screen windows enabling users to look at 
information from different perspectives in video, graphics and data. 

The material is brought to life by Acorn Replay full motion video.  Replay 
differs from Interactive Video systems in that it reads highly compressed 
data from CD ROMs in real time on a standard curriculum computer without the 
addition of hardware assistance, and yet maintains a constant frame rate. 
In this way Acorn Replay combines the cost effective processing power of 
ARM-based RISC machines with the low cost mass storage offered by CD ROM to 
solve the problem of using motion video as part of a multimedia system. 

World of Number comes complete with worksheets which can be read from the 
CDs onto the Archimedes computer as an editable resource and subsequently 
printed out for use by teachers and students alike. 

ENDS 

Further information from Roger Broadie, Acorn Computers, Tel 0223 254254 

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