Aritmética modular nos códigos de barras

Abstract

Due to its characteristics: low price, facility of implementation and use and, mainly, the quality of information and reduction of operation time of systems, the bar codes are being used for small and big activities such as the ones that need identification documents and commercialization and control of products. This way bar codes usage is something very important to our routine and school environment. Identify the origin, producer and kind of product through bar codes are tasks that can be applied at school. The bar codes used in Brazil are codes EAN-13, with 13 digits, the last one being the digit that verifies the other 12 before, in a way that if one of these first digits is typed in a wrong way, certainly the product is not going to be identified. This is due to the verification process of the mistake, where we use the mathematics, especially the modular arithmetic and the vector product. In this project we enhance how interesting is the mathematics application of bar codes, being applied in an easy and stimulating way to elementary and high school students.