816 Math Blog

Once upon a time there was a lion named Goliath. He hadn't eaten for a day, and he was really hungry. So he decided to go to Food Land. To get to Food Land, he had to do 4 different challenges to be able to get there. When he went to the test room, he saw a man with a fat head and a small body.
"May I help you?" The man asked.
"Yes, sir. I want to go to Food Land," Goliath answered.
The man just nodded and put Goliath in a different room, following him. The room was full of squares and circles. Suddenly, Goliath heard a loud voice coming from no where.
"Challenge number 1, answer the following question" The voice said.
"Okay!" said Goliath.




Goliath was handed a paper and a pencil, and there he answered the question using algebra tiles. When he was finished, he handed back his piece of paper to the man with the fat head and small body. The man looked at it carefully.














"The answer is correct!" The man said. The man led Goliath to another room. It was green.. like money. Goliath saw nothing at first, but when he looked closely to the ground, he saw a small ladybug.
"Hello," The ladybug said.
"Hello, ladybug! I want to go the Food Land, please, so give me a challenge!" Goliath said confidently.
"Hmm.. okay. But I'm not sure if you can answer this question as easily as the last one." The ladybug said. The lady bug handed Goliath 10 paper dollars.






"What do I do with this money?" Goliath asked.
"Use it to answer your question" The ladybug replied.
Goliath looked at the question carefully. Negative 6 plus positive ten..? Goliath looked at the money.. and thought in his head:















"The answer is positive 4!" Goliath said, handing back 6 dollars to the ladybug.
"Hey! That was just a lucky guess.." The ladybug said.
The lady bug led Goliath to another room. It was full of lines.. and more lines. There he saw a stick-like figure in a kimono, meditating.
"Greetings, young grasshopper, I am Stickuman Sensei. It is a pleasure to meet you." Said the stick-like figure.
"Uhh.. hello. I'm Goliath.. and I'm not a grasshopper. By the way.. are you just a twig or something?" Goliath said.
"Yes, I am just a twig, but that's not the point. Here is the question you have to answer." Stickuman Sensei said.






"Be one with the line." Stickuman Sensei said.
Goliath thought in his head. Be one with the line..? What's that supposed to mean? Hey.. maybe he means a number line? Goliath drew a number line in his head












"The answer is negative one right? Because I used a number line?" Goliath asked.
"Yes. You take my advice well, young grasshopper." Stickuman Sensei said.
Stickuman Sensei led Goliath to the last room. It was full of nothing this time, just white walls. Goliath saw a floating lady dressed in white, standing there.
"Hello lady in white. I want to go to Food Land. This is that last room right?" Goliath asked.
"Yes it is. Congratulations for passing all your other challenges." The lady in white said.
"Thank you." Goliath said.
The floating lady in in white handed Goliath a piece of paper and a pencil.
"Please answer the following question. You can only use one of the answering methods to answer this question.



Now how am I supposed to answer this? I only know how to answer and integer if there's 2 different integers, not 3! Goliath was really nervous. What if he couldn't answer the question? Will he just have to tell his mom to make her yucky grass soup for him again?
"Uhmm.. can I at least have a hint of how to answer this question?" Goliath asked.
"Group like terms." The lady in white said.
Group like terms? So she means to group the numbers that are similar? Goliath started writing on his piece of paper.













When he was done, he was hesitant to give it to the lady in white. But before Goliath could give her his answer, she said:
"You are correct."
"How would you know if I'm correct or not? You didn't see my answer yet!" Goliath said.
"I was behind you looking at you answer the question the whole time." The lady in white said.
"Whoa.. okay. So I can go to Food Land now right?" Goliath asked excitedly.
"Yes you can." The lady in white said.
The lady in white said some magical words and in front of her popped a chocolate chip cookie door. Goliath said his thanks and opened the door to Food Land.

Integer Story Part 2

Goliath said his thanks and opened the door to Food Land..

"Where's the food?!" Goliath asked.
Food Land was gone. No edible tree leaves, no chocolate milk river, everything was gone. Goliath looked around and around for one little piece of food, but he couldn't find any.
Suddenly, someone popped out from nowhere. He looked like a villainous fairy, crooked, dark wings, squashed up crown, and a rotten smile.
"Hello there, I am the Dark Fairy. I take everything from every land." Said the villainous fairy.
"You take everything from every land?! Who would ever do such a thing?! Is there a way that I can get my - I mean the food back?" Goliath asked.
"Yes, but no one has ever answered this question correctly in 1 000 years." The Dark Fairy said.
"Just let me answer it, please. I can get it right if I just try." Goliath said confidently.
"As you wish. I will give you only one hint: Opposites." Replied the Dark Fairy.








Goliath thought in his head: Opposites? I wonder what that means. Hmm.. possibly it could mean opposite integer signs? Mr. Fuzzypants always talked about that in math class. Let's see if I can changed anything to it's opposite. Maybe I'll try to make the negatives positives because there's more of them in the question. And plus, who would ever subtract in an integer question? Haha.

















"I'm done Dark Fairy! The answer is positive 10!" Goliath said.
"What?! But your supposed to be wrong!" The Dark Fairy said in horror.
"Well that's too bad because I'm right aren't I?" Goliath said.
"NOOOOOOOO!" The Dark Fairy shouted, as he was slowly disappearing.

Goliath was so happy. Now he didn't have to deal with anymore Dark Fairies, and math questions.
"Wait a second." Goliath said suddenly.
The food in Food Land did not come back. Wasn't Goliath's answer to the question right.. ? All of a sudden, Goliath was warped to another land.
"Where am I this time?" Goliath said irritatingly.
The land Goliath was in looked like he was in the middle of no where. He saw a sign that said `NoWhere Land' behind him.
Suddenly, a loud voice boomed through the land. It was very low, and it sounded kind of scary.
"Welcome young Goliath! I am the most darkest fairies of the Dark Fairies, the Black Fairy." The loud voice said. Out popped a short fairy, with small crooked wings, and a big crown. Goliath just stood there in awe. He thought the Black Fairy would be.. taller.
"So, Black Fairy, what's the question you're going to ask me?" Goliath said calmly.
With a snap of his finger, the Black Fairy made a piece of paper appear in Goliath's hands. The Black Fairy just looked at Goliath, waiting for an answer. Goliath looked at the piece of paper:






Goliath didn't look surprised at all. He knew exactly how to answer the question. Goliath was so confident because he had so much experience with integers when he was on his way to food land. He thought the question out in his head and found the answer:











"The answer it positive 12 Mr. Black Fairy! I used most of the things I learned before and used it for this question!" Goliath said.
The Black Fairy looked too shocked to say a word. He disappeared into thin air. Goliath was warped back into Food Land. While he looked around, food started popping back to it's original place. Goliath went to a restaurant and asked for a turkey sandwich and a glass of water. He was the most happiest in the whole world because he got smarter and he got to eat some food.
The End!