Mathward Bound Mathward Bound

Contents
MATHWARD BOUND. WHY?

3

MATH STORIES IN GRAPHS

4

RIDDLES

30

MATHS IN LITERATURE

32

CRIME STORIES

55

A WORLD WITHOUT MATHS

117

MATHWARD BOUND

Mathward Bound.

WHY?

bound:
- tied
- destined
- compelled
- obliged to
- on the way to
- jump
TO MATHS
like in:
HOMEWARD
BOUND
by Simon&
Garfunkel

Math and verbal intelligence

This magazine is a project activity focused on the use of
verbal intelligence in learning Maths.
Students who have high verbal-linguistic intelligence find
it easy to work with words and languages. These
students learn and think most easily by discussing,
arguing, debating and following spoken explanations.
They are typically good at reading, writing, explaining,
telling stories and memorizing words along with dates.
Stories are especially motivating for them.
This type of intelligence is used when students convert
numerical data to a verbal code, explain to each other or
to themselves the meaning of number statements or the
content of a particular diagram. When students talk to
themselves or to their peers about mathematical ideas,
they can use their verbal logic and reasoning more easily.
These learners think in words rather than pictures, they
freequently need to talk to themselves as they are
learning.
That is why we tried to involve our students in learning
Maths by writing all kind of stories, hoping they will finally
become...MATHWARD BOUND.

MATHWARD BOUND

Graphs
Math Stories

Mathward Bound

The Contest
By Mara, Bucharest

Four girls, Alberta, Betsy, Carla and Dora
had a contest: who is the first to get to the
ski slope, leaving at 7 o'clock from the
cottage they were staying at. Carla left at
7 from the "Three Pines" cottage, which
was closer to the slope and walked with
constant speed, reaching the slope the
second.
Alberta, Betsy and Dora were staying at
the "Little Bear" cottage, farther away
from the slope, so they had about 1 km to
get there. They left at different times, on
different tracks. Dora and Betsy woke up
at the same time, but Dora managed to
get equipped and left at 7 from the
cottage. Being so far away from the
slope, she took a snowmobile and went at
a greater speed than Carla, until the first
gas station. There, she stopped for 15
minutes to buy gas and rest, then she
went on, but unfortunately she arrived the
last.

Betsy left at 7:15, taking the snowboard
with her. While walking on the street, she
saw Alberta passing her by in a taxi, but
she failed to stop her. After a while, she
found a sloping road and started
snowboarding in speed. In the middle of
the sloping road, she crossed roads with
Dora on snowmobile. As the sloping road
was a shortcut, Betsy arrived the 3rd,
before Dora.
Alberta woke up later, and of course she
panicked, so she called a taxi. On the
way, she didn't see Betsy, but she saw
Dora at the gas station. She realised
she's not the last to get to the slope but
continued to go with the same speed. The
taxi took her there quickly, so she
managed to arrive the first, to her great
joy.

1.Look carefully ar the
graph and try to interpret
the data.
2. Write a story about it.
3. Send the story to the
next team accompanied by
a new graph for them to
work on.

MATHWARD BOUND

The Meeting Point

Because the spring comes with feelings
of good cheer and warmth, four friends,
Ana, Betty, Mara and Serena decided to
go to the park, located near the school.
Mara, more affected by the spring fatigue,
hasnt been to school, but she thought it
would be better to breathe some fresh air
along with her friends. So, after she
picked up some chocolate bars just in
case and put them in her bag, she got
out as soon as she received the text
message from Betty and Serena, who
had already gone out of the school yard.
Mara walked slowly, knowing she is 300
m ahead, her block of flats being closer to
the park than the school. After 3 minutes
and a half, she had already walked 200 m
and she was starting to feel anxious
about the time of the meeting.

Serena went from school directly towards
the park, but due to her back problems,
she decided to leave some books in a
drawer in the classroom. In 4 minutes,
she reached the local shop, located 400
m away from the school. In just 2
minutes, she bought some juice, then she
began running towards the meeting point
when she came in a minute.
Ana left from the school too, but with a
delay of 3 minutes, because she stopped
to borrow a book from the schools library.
Because of this delay, she had to go
faster to recover lost time, so in just 2
minutes, she has walked 350 m, very
quickly reaching the shop where Serena
was waiting.

Betty, the poet of the group,
left school with Serena, but
the magnificent trees and the
beautiful scents have
awakened her artistic sense,
so she was hovering,
gathering ideas, feelings and
pictures, that she is going to
use in her next poems for the
school magazine and other
literature contests.

MATHWARD BOUND

After 2 minutes, she was already 100 m
away from the school and she didnt even
notice Serena, when she had gone pass
the store where she was staying. Betty
kept walking until she reached 700 m in
little over 7 minutes. At one point, the
girls met, and the story of their journeys
were transposed into a coordinate system
by four graphs representing the distance
each girl had traveled and their time,
resolving the project for their mathematics
lesson.

The meeting point, where the graphs
intersect, can be seen from the graph, but
it can also be calculated.
Serena and Betty arrived in 7 minutes at
the meeting point, located 700 m from the
school, so the four friends met at the
point P(7; 700) and a beautiful adventure
began there, on a beautiful spring day in
the park, near the school.
Written in Romanian by Dimciu Mara,
translated into English by Cisu Dragos
VIII C.

MATHWARD BOUND

The graph challenge from
Bucharest
Write a story starting from this graph.
Hint: take into consideration also the
measure units!

MATHWARD BOUND

A story written by Louis from Mara's
graph !
- FRANCE -

First, a wise turtle defied a mocking
hare at the race. The hare, thinking
it was too easy for him, laughed at
the turtle, accepted her defy and
sworne that, if the turtle arrived at
least at the time as him, he would
not laugh at her for one year.
Then, they started their race : the
goal was the big tree, at about three
miles from there.

Then minutes later, seeing his
advance of about half a mile, the
hare decided to have a break of
about five minutesand he slept.
When he woken up, he had a look at
his watch and noticed that he had
overslept : he had slept of
approximatly ten minutes, instead
of five ; so the turtle had an advance
of half a mile. As a consequence, he
had to run even harder than before
to catch up the turtle. Finally, the
two opponents arrived at the same
time under the big tree, so the hare
didn't laugh at the turtle for one
year.

Graph given by Louis from
FRANCE, as a challenge
for a new creative story !

Lorem Ipsum

Possible stories for the Graph
Challenge given by France (Louis) -
made by the teams from Amsterdam

Team A.I.M.:
Bob (1), Jan (2) and Peter (3) have
three different houses with three
different taps. They all turn their taps
up to shower. Bobs forgetful brother
Norbert forgot to turn the tap
completely off, so Bobs tap still has
some hot water in it. Bob has a tap of
which the speed of the heat increases
at a constant speed. Jan has a slow tap
that steadily increases heat. Peter has a
rather unpredictable tap which
increases really slow in the beginning
but tends to increase heat the longer
he uses it.

Team the Mixed Couple:
It could be a glass of water that is
being filled with a liquid, a certain
amount of water is being added in the
glass with the max speed possible. This
is a test that is being performed by
Jan(1), Pepijn(3) and peter(2), they
want to know how much water comes
out of a tap on its max speed. They
continued this for 10 sec. and their
result were different per tap. Jans glas
was already filled with water at the
beginning of the test, Pepijn was
unable to go to his max speed in one
time and had to wait for some time.
The one Peter used was working on
max speed the moment he turned on
the tap.

MATHWARD BOUND


Team Mathstatic:
The graph describes a food eating
contest. Line 1 is Johnny, he has a
head start because he is the new
contester in the contest. Line 2 is
Jason, he has been famous for eating
very much in a short period of time.
Line 3 is Anthony, the champion of the
last contest. He begins steady but then
ramps up. The horizontal line is equal
to time in minutes. The vertical line is
equal to the amount of kilos eaten by
the contesters.

Team the Square Root Ninjas:
There is a math competition between
different schools all over the
netherlands. The presentor ask 12
questions to each candidate. The
person who has the most answers
correct wins. Each of them gets 120
seconds. There were 12 candidates and
the final was played with 3 candidates.
Their names were: Sara, Peter and
Tim. In the final they had 90 seconds
to answer the questions. Everyone had
a button and if you knew the answer
you had to try to be the first one to
press on your button. And finally there
was one winner, and that was Sara !!!!

MATHWARD BOUND


Team Divide and Conquer:
Black Piet and the candles Black Piet
got some information on a few candles
he bought at a web shop: An unknown
candle is made of a wax that burns
slowly An unknown candle is made of a
wax that burns relatively quickly An
unknown candle is made of different
kind of waxes (from top to bottom)
burns slowly- burns quickly (5 types of
waxes). Black Piet buys three different
candles from an online web shop. They
all have a different type of wax but he
doesnt know which ones which and
only knows that one of them is made
up of different type of waxes (the third
one).

He made a graph to show the time-
height relationship of the three
candles. Then from the graph you can
see that the first candle is made from
some kind of wax which burns slowly.
The second one burns quicker which
means it is made of a different type of
wax. The third one is special. You can
see that the loss of candle height
increases quickly. This shows that this
candle is made of different types of
wax which burn at different rates.

MATHWARD BOUND


Team the Modals:
One day, three people wanted to go to
China. These people were Bob, Jan and
Kim. Bob is departing from France.
Jan and Kim are departing from the
Netherlands. They are going on
different ways. Bob is travelling by
boat, Jan by plane and Kim by train.
On coincidence, Bob and Kim meet
each other at Russia at the 6th day.
Three days later, Bob and Jan meet
each other at Pakistan. There they
talked a lot. Because of this, Bob
missed his boat. Then he unfortunately
lost track and got in Australia.

One day later, Kim and Jan met each
other. There they also talked a lot and
Kim missed her train. Because of this
she also lost track and got in Thailand.
To conclude, Jan was the only one who
got in China.

MATHWARD BOUND


Team Me + Me:
Graph 1- Bus 2- Car 3- Train The Bus
leaves 200km further than the Car and
the Train. The bus Leaves from
Rotterdam and the car and the train
from Amsterdam. Their destination is
Luxembourgh. The bus is having a
constant tempo. The Car is starting low
and works up his tempo. The train
begins slow and final he is the fastest
of them all. The Train arrives first,
then the car and the bus as last.
Team the Calculators:
Competition: Jumping Rope Weve got
three participants: Number one,
named Mahmoud,

number two, named Saleh and number
three, named Rachid. Mahmoud starts
with a high pace. That tires him fast
and that makes him very badly. He
thinks that he will never finish. Saleh,
also known as number two, has a
smart trick. He begins slow and as
soon as he gains some energy, he starts
to jump faster and faster until he
reaches the finish. Rachid, the third
participant has a bad health. He begins
jumping and takes small breaks every
now and then. After taking some
breaks, he gives a 100% energy and
doesnt stop until he reaches the finish.
Rachid ends up first. Saleh ends up
second and Mahmoud ends up last.

The moral of this story is:
Dont ever underestimate
your powers.

MATHWARD BOUND

Graph challenge by the Hervormd
Lyceum West
Think of a story that belongs to
these three graphs. If you would
be able to give the functions too,
that would be a bonus! (Hint:
something linear, quadratic and
square root)

MATHWARD BOUND

Possible stories to the Graph
Challenge given to the Spanish
Team by Hervotmd Lyceum West

Patrick (A) and his girlfriend,
Angelina (B), went to the gym to
become fit.
In the dressing room, Angelina, met
her friend Alice (C).
Patrick was fit and hunk, Angelina
had a normal weight and Alice, was
overweight.
They started running and they
noticed that the three of them didnt
get the same muscle mass iat the
same time. After twelve minutes
exercises Patrick won 02 kilos
muscle mass, Angelina won 06
kilos. However Alice only won 005
kilos.
After 60 minutes, Patrick had won
1kilo, Angelina 18 kilos and Alice
02 kilos.

14 kilos, Angelina 2 kilos and Alice
06 kilos.
18 kilos, Angelina 23kilos and Alice
1 kilo.
22 kilos, Angelina 24 and Alice 16
kilos.
24 kilos, Angelina 28 kilos and
Alice 2 kilos.
And finally, after 180 minutes
exercise Patrick, Angelina and Alice
had increased their muscle mass by
3 kilos.

by Mara, Sergio and
Nerea Team.

MATHWARD BOUND

A brand of Fluor toothpaste is trying
to improve their product, so they
made an experiment,
They mixed water and Fluor in
different ways to see which one was
better in order to present it to the
market .
A: first little water water and then
much water.
B: as always, progressively.
C: first a lot of water and then little
water.

They compared the results and the
best Fluor toothpaste was A,
because it has the same ingredients
but different elaboration and
different texture.

Written by Carlos and
Victor

MATHWARD BOUND

There are 3 different discos in a
town: Disco A, B and C.
They open at midnight.
Disco A gets clients faster than the
other two discos. Disco C gets
clients more slowly than the other
two discos.
During the first two hours, Disco A
and B get more clients than in the
rest of the night, but Disco C gets
fewer clients than in the other
hours.

For example, at 2 oclock Disco A
had 190 clients, Disco B had 120
clients and Disco C had 50 clients.
But then, at 4 oclock Disco A got
260 clients, Disco B got 230 clients
and Disco C got 180 clients.
Nevertheless, at 5 oclock all of
them, Disco A, B and C got 300
clients.
Written by Diego, Gonzalo and
Mario

MATHWARD BOUND

Jack wanted to know how many
calories he could lose in 180
minutes doing two of his favourite
sports: running and climbing
mountains. He also wanted to know
how many calories he could lose
walking. He did all the exercises and
he recorded the time and the
calories he lost. First he went
running, then walking and then
climbing a mountain. This is what
he obtained:
During 24 minutes running fast he
lost approximately 120 calories. The
same time walking at the same
speed he lost 40 calories. When
climbing he lost 10 calories because
he was at the bottom of a mountain
and he didnt need a big effort.

MATHWARD BOUND

Written by Laura, Chaimae and
Malena

During 84 minutes running he lost
200 calories.
The same time walking he lost 140
calories because he was going
upstairs in a building.
When climbing he lost 70 calories
because he was starting the slope of
the mountain.
During 144 minutes running he lost
260 calories.
The same time walking he lost 240
calories.
When climbing he lost 190 calories
because he was going up the
mountain.
And at the end, after 180 minutes:
running walking and climbing he
had lost :
The SAME calories: 300!

Incredible! The exercises were
different, and they were with
different speed: First, when running
he was very fast at the beginning
because he wanted to give the
maximum, but them he reduced his
speed because he was getting tired.
Then, while walking he went the
same speed all the time and the
calories he lost were regular with
the time he was walking. Finally
climbing the mountain he was fine
at the bottom of the mountain where
he lost less calories but then, in the
slope he was losing more calories
because he was making more effort.
And they ALL made him lose the
same amount of calories! His aim
was completely successful!

MATHWARD BOUND

Written by Sara

Liam, Sally and John wanted to
know who was better at running.
They decided to run 30 minutes.
the winner will be the one that
could run more kilometers, Liam
said.

They started running and they did
like this:
Liam: he started very quickly.
Sally: she started neither very
quickly but nor very slowly.
John: He started very slowly.
10 minutes later they were like this:
Liam: he had run 1.7 km.
Sally: She had run 1 km.
John: He had run 0.3 km.

Liam was going the first but
when they had been running for
20 minutes, Liam started going
slowly because he was very tired.
Sally was running with the same
rythm.
And John was running more and
more quickly.
After 20 minutes running they
were like this:
Liam: 2.5 km. Sally: 2 km. John:
1.3
But to their surprise, the three of
them arrived to the goal at the
same time! Incredible! They rhad
run different ways but the result
was the same for the three.

MATHWARD BOUND

A graph challenge from the IES Alonso
de Madrigal-Spain

MATHWARD BOUND

A funny race
Possible story for the Graph Challenge given
by Spain made by Francesca Rinaldi - Italy

It was a beautiful summer morning
and three friends, Luca, Giulio and
Antonio were at home, a bit bored.
We could go to the park suggested
Giulio. Everyone accepted the idea.
Let's have a race said Antonio. The
last one who arrives at the park will
pay for the ice cream.
Luca and Giulio accepted the
challenge. But we have to start at the
same time and we have to go through
different roads! decided Luca and the
others agreed with him.

After deciding on what time to start
and which roads to run on, they
planned to meet at the park in the
afternoon and they said good-bye.
Giulio walked to the park with a
constant speed.
He absolutely didn't want to lose the
race, so he was very concentrated and
he never stopped walking. He travelled
1200 metres in 25 minutes.
You can't say the same thing about
Luca.

MATHWARD BOUND

He went to the park on foot too, and in
the beginning he walked faster than
Giulio because he wanted to win, but
after running for 900 metres in ten
minutes, he was attracted by a
confectionery's window.
It was full of cream, chocolate and fruit
sweets and he was a gourmand so he
couldn't resist.
He entered the shop and remained
there for 4 minutes and in that time he
bought and ate several sweets.

But when he came out of the shop he
was very thirsty and remembered that
400 metres back there was a cafe
where he could drink a glass of water
to placate his thirst.
He took 4 minutes to run back to the
cafe and after having his drink he
returned to his walk to the park,
travelling for other 700 metres in 7
minutes.
Instead Antonio was the laziest one
and he remained at home because he
had fallen a sleep. He blissfully slept
for 18 minutes until he woke up and he
suddenly remembered about the race.

MATHWARD BOUND

He knew that even if he ran, he would
never arrive in time. So he took his
bike and he rode as fast as possible for
1200 metres in 7 minutes.
No-one said that we couldn't use a
bike, thought Antonio!
Who was the last? Well, the three
friends arrived at the park at the same
time and nobody lost the race.
Hey, its not fair! said Giulio. Luca
distracted himself and Antonio used
his bike!. Breaks were not forbidden
laughed Luca. And neither bikes!
Antonio summed up. So Giulio, Luca
and Antonio spent a lovely afternoon
at the park and each of them paid for
his own icecream!

MATHWARD BOUND

The graph challenge from Italy
Write a story starting from this graph.
Hint: take into consideration also the
measure units!

MATHWARD BOUND

"Leaving for vacations.
written by Ioanna Gerontidou -
Greece

Two colleagues, Mary and John are
going to their villages during the
vacations by their cars. Their trips
started from the same point at the
same time. John drove 70km in fifty
minutes. Then for another fifty
minutes he stayed at a coffee house
where he rested and had a cup of
coffee. Then he continued his trip,
but faster than before because he
lost time. So he reached to his
destination 200 minutes since he
started the trip.

Mary, the second driver, drove
300km in 100 minutes. But she was
forced to stop at a car station,
because her car broke down. She
had to fix it. So she stopped driving
for 50 minutes. Then she went on
her way. She drove slower, because
she was not sure that the car was
fixed. She was at her village after
150 minutes. s nulla, ut adama

MATHWARD BOUND

Written by Anna Deka -Greece

The graph represents the number
of deaths and births which have
occurred over the last 300
months in a country according to
the register office archives. The
red curve shows the death rate
while the blue one shows the
birth rate.

First, the deaths are in a small
increase for the first 50 months,
in contrast to births which
increase at a bigger rate. The
births continue to increase in the
first 100 months. Both deaths
and births have been stabilized
for 50 months each, but after the
first 150 months there has been
an impressive increase in deaths
and a smaller increase in births

Results of statistical
investigation

MATHWARD BOUND

Companies APPLE and BIRD.
written by Dora
Chatzikonstantinou- Greece

The graph shows the production of
two companies Apple and Bird, in
comparison. These two companies
produce with the same product,
childrens shoes. The red curve
represents the first company Apple
and the blue curve the Bird. The
horizontal axis shows the time that
passes and the vertical one shows
the units of production.

As far as the red curve is concerned we
can see that in the first 50 weeks there
was a small increase in the production
of the Apple Company. For the next
fifty weeks the production was stable
because of the general agitation in the
labor relations. After that, the
company decided to give a bonus to the
staff. The result was a big increase to
the production. The Bird Company has
an increase of the production rate at
the beginning, but after 100 weeks as
the general agitation in the labor
relations was continuing, the
production was stable. After fifty
weeks the production of the Bird
Company began to show a small
increase. It is obvious that the new
policy of the Apple Company had good
results for the company.

MATHWARD BOUND

MATHWARD BOUND

A man had to cross a river with a goat, a
cabbage and a wolf, in a boat that could
only take him and one of these three
items.
How did he manage to do that, without
the goat eating the cabbage or being
eaten by the wolf? (Solving a task
involving contradictory interests is called
here in a joking manner: to reconcile the
goat and the cabbage.)

Two riddles
from Bucharest

The Goat, the Wolf and the Cabbage
(8th century logical riddle)

Once upon a time, there was an old
shepherd who had 17 sheep in his herd.
He had three sons and decided to leave
the sheep to his sons as an inheritance
as follows: the oldest son was to inherit
half of the sheep, the second a third of
t hem and the youngest son the ninth
part.
After he died, his sons managed to fulfil
this task. Without, of course, hurting the
sheep. How did they manage to do that?

The Shepherd and His 17 Sheep
(Old Romanian riddle)

RIDDLES

MATHWARD BOUND

With these ones here,
some other onles like these ones,
plus half the number of these ones,
I'll be the head shepherd
of the one hundred heads.

Where is the head shepherd of the one
hundred heads going?

GRAZING SHEEP

A SPANISH RIDDLE IN A COMIC

RIDDLES

Maths in
literature

MATHWARD BOUND

Dante's numbers

M

athematics and Literature have been closely related
since old times, even if in ordinary opinion they seem
to be poles apart.

The most important writers all over the world have acknowledged these ties;
in fact in the most famous literary works there are several math quotes.
An outstanding example is Dante Alighieri, the father of Italian Literature.
In his verses, especially in his similes, Dante chooses Maths because it allows
an immediate comprehension of the concepts he wants to express and
probably because in those times such language skills were quite spread among
educated people.
For example, in his Paradiso he claims that a triangle cannot have two interior
obtuse angles:
come veggion le terrene menti
non capere in triangol due ottusi
As earthly minds descern no triangle
Can contain two angles, both of them obtuse
(Par. XVII, 14-15)
In the same work Dante mentions the angle to the circumference, that is an
angle having vertex on the circumference and two secant sides or a secant one
and a tangential one to the circumference. When this is inscribed in the
semicircle, it is always right:
o se del mezzo cerchio far si puote
triangol s chun retto non avesse.
Nor if in a semicircle a triangle can be formed
Without its having one right angle
(Par. XIII, 101,102)

MATHWARD BOUND

In another excerpt from Paradiso
(XXXIII, 133-138), the Poet faces the
trouble of understanding the mystery
of incarnation, that is how we can
imagine one thing representing two
things at the same time, in the case of
incarnation the human and divine
nature of God. Dante compares this
difficult issue to a classic Maths
problem, the squaring of the circle,
that is the construction of a rectangle
with the same area as a given circle.
It may seem a simple question: the
area of the circle is Pir^2, so we can
take a rectangle Pir long and r wide.
But, where is the trouble? In ancient
Greece geometric problems had to be
solved only with geometric tools, in
this case a ruler (without graduation)
and a compass.

But this problem cannot be solved with
such tools. As the geometer tries hard
to solve the squaring of the circle and
he cant manage it because he lacks the
theorem, I was likewise puzzled to see
how I could adapt that amazing view of
the reflection of a shape that is placed
inside a circle:
Qual il geometra che tutto saffige
Per misurar lo cerchio, e non
ritrova,
pensando, quel primcipio ondelli
indige
tal era io a quella vista nova;
veder volea come si convenne limago
al cerchio e come vi sindova;

MATHWARD BOUND

Like the geometer who fully applies
himself
To square the circle and, for all his
thought,
Cannot discover the principle he lacks,
Such was I at that strange new sight.
I tried to see how the image fit the
circle
And how it found its where in it.
(Par. XXXIII, 133-138)

In Paradiso Dante also says that the
angels are generated in a number even
greater than that mentioned in the
legend of the inventor of chess.
According to the tale, in reward for
inventing the game, the inventor asked
the king such a number of rice grains
that on the first square there must be
one, on the second as twice, on the
third as twice as the second, and so on
until the sixty fourth square. The total
quantity of the grains is the sum of a
geometric progression of ratio 2:
1+2+2^2+2^3+ +2^63=2^64-1
So the quantity of rice that he claimed
was really enormous!
Lincendio suo seguiva ogni scintilla;
ed eran tante, che l numero loro
pi che l doppiar delli scacchi
sinmilla.

MATHWARD BOUND

Each spark keeping to its flaming
ring.
They were so many that their number
ran to thousands more than the
successive doubling of a chessboards
squares.
(Par. XXVIII, 91-93)
Finally, the Supreme Poet also
mentions Arithmetic in his work
Convivio, where he has words of
veneration for this subject and
compares it to a blazing sun.
an article from Francesca_Italy
English translation of quoted lines by
R.Hollander J. Hollander 2000-
2007 Princeton Dante Project
http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/commedia.html

MATHWARD BOUND

Five Breads
After a story by Ion Creanga

It was a sunny summer day and two
friends were traveling together. One of
them had two breads and the other had
three. They arrived near a fountain and
stopped, because they wanted to eat.
Before they started eating, a traveler
asked them if he could eat with them too
because he had nor been able to buy
some food. They all ate together. When
they finished eating, the traveler gave
them five lei (Romanian money). After the
traveler left, they tried to divide the five lei
between them. The one who had three
breads wanted to keep three lei, but the
other wanted to divide the money equally,
two and a half lei for each. As they didnt
know how to share the money, they went
to a judge. But the judge gave four lei to
the person who had three breads and one
leu to the other. Why? It is simple:

The judge divided all those five breads
into three pieces each one. The person
with three breads had 9 pieces and the
other one 6 pieces. The judge added nine
to six and the result was fifteen pieces
together. Then he divided fifteen by three
(the number of persons) and the result
was five pieces for each person. Then he
subtracted the five pieces that they had
eaten from the pieces each of the two the
friends had (9-5=4; 6-5=1). After all these,
it came up that the person with three
breads gave to the traveler four pieces of
bread and the other one only one piece of
bread. Thats why the one with three
breads got four lei and the other one only
one leu.

Written by Vlad Buture

MATHWARD BOUND

Mathematics in Romanian
FAIRY TALES

R

omanians have many fairy tales and stories, and you
can't stop noticing at least one of these numbers: 2,
3, 7, 12.

Numbers and their meanings

For instance, in every fairy tale there is an emperor that has 3 sons or 3
daughters or there may be a dragon that has 7 heads and each of them has 3
more heads, or there may be 12 beautiful girls that walk through the palaces
wonderful gardens during the day and when the night comes, they sneak away
and dance all night long.
In these kind of stories things are more complicated, I mean that there are
numbers and a pretty long text, for me it looks like two school subjects in one!!
Now, as I have just made these fairy tales to look more and more complicated,
let me explain by telling you the summary of a very popular Romanian fairy
tale named THE BRAVE PRASLEA AND THE GOLDEN APPLES (Praslea is
the name for the youngest son):
Once upon a time there was an emperor who had a tree which had golden
apples; unfortunately, he had never tasted them because of some robbers
who used to steal the apples exactly when they were mellow. The emperor
had 3 sons, 2 of them, obviously the oldest ones, tried to protect the apples
but they fell asleep. When Praslea tried to protect the tree, he nearly caught
the robber; but since he finally managed to he escape, Praslea followed him.
Praslea, on his way to the robber, realized that the robber was a dragon which
had 2 more brothers.

MATHWARD BOUND

The 3 dragons had kidnaped 3 royal
daughters and they wanted to marry
them, even if the girls did not love
them. Praslea passed 3 forests: one
made of bronze, one made of silver
and one made of gold. After that,
Praslea killed the 3 dragons, he saved
the 3 girls and got married with one,
the youngest one, of course.

As you can see, the summary was full
of MAGIC NUMBERS (this is how we
call them when we learn about fairy
tales, and the ways to prove that a
story is a fairy tale in the Romanian
Literature class) and if we count the
numerals as well we are able to say
that MATHS IS THE KEY FOR
EVERYTHING.
Written by: Andronic Anda, Dinu
Liliana, Frunza Lucian , Dumitrache
Adrian

MATHWARD BOUND

To the Star

T

o the Star (La steaua) is a philosophical poem written by
Mihai Eminescu, the Romanian National poet. Even if there
is no explicitly Maths aspect in this poem, some verse give
us the possibility to approximate the distance to the star
referred to by the poet in this poem.

So far it is athwart the blue
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.

As it is specified in the poem, That for its light to reach our view, Has needed
thousand years, we can consider the minimum time for the light to come from
the star to Earth as two thousand years. We also know that the speed of the
light is about three thousand km/s. In consequence we can approximate the
minimum distance from the star to Earth as follows:
1 hour = 3600 s
1 day = 24 x 3600 s = 86400 s
1 year = 365 x 86400 s = 31536000 s
2000 years = 2000 x 31536000 s = 63072 x 10^6 s
Minimum distance is about
(63072 x 10^6) s x 300000 km/s = 189216 x10^11 km
That means about 18922 thousands of billions of kilometers, or about 19
millions of billions of kilometers. This is very difficult to imagine, isnt it?
Written by Radu Wagner
Read the entire poem, both in Romanian and in English, on the next page.

MATHWARD BOUND

To the Star
So far it is athwart the blue
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.
Maybe those ages gone it shed
Its glow, then languished in the skies,
Yet only now its rays have sped
Their journey to our eyes.
The icon of the star that died
Slowly the vault ascended;
Time was ere it could first be spied,
We see now what is ended.
So is it when our love's aspire
Is hid beneath night's bowl,
The gleam of its extinguished fire
Enkindles yet our soul.
(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)

La steaua
La steaua care-a rasarit
E-o cale-att de lunga,
Ca mii de ani i-au trebuit
Luminii sa ne-ajunga.
Poate de mult s-a stins n drum
n departari albastre,
Iar raza ei abia acum
Luci vederii noastre.
Icoana stelei ce-a murit
ncet pe cer se suie;
Era pe cnd nu s-a zarit,
Azi o vedem, si nu e.
Tot astfel cnd al nostru dor
Pieri n noapte-adnca,
Lumina stinsului amor
Ne urmareste nca.
(1886, 1 decembrie)

MATHWARD BOUND

Mathematics in
Alice in Wonderland

A

lice in Wonderland is a story written by an algebra teacher, Charles
L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). He wrote his story in the late half of the
19th century, when Maths was becoming more and more abstract.
Alice is a girl who falls asleep and dreams about a fantasy world
with strange characters and weird logic.

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

She could be seen as a reflection of the writer himself, who has some
wrong perceptions about Maths. Her adventure is full of paradoxes, puzzles,
riddles and mathematical concepts.
First of all, while falling through the rabbit hole, she wonders and tries to
guess how many miles she has fallen. After that, she lands in a hole full of
different sized doors. Trying to enter a door, she has to shrink herself in order
to fit. Even though her size changes, her proportions remain the same, this
being a mathematical property called similarity.
Thinking that she has changed a lot, she tries to remember usual things like
the multiplication table. She tries to calculate some multiplications like: four
times five is twelve, four times six is thirteen and four times seven is fourteen.
These make no sense in the base 10 numerical system, but they make sense
in other bases numerical systems. Four times five is twelve makes sense in
base 18 numerical system because 4(18) x 5(18) = 4 x 5 = 20 = 1 x 18 + 2 =
12(18). Four times six is thirteen in base 21 numerical system, as 4(21) x
6(21) = 4 x6 = 24 = 1 x 21 + 3 = 13(21)., and four times seven is fourteen in
base 24 numerical system because 4(24) x 7(24) = 4 x 7 = 28 = 1 x24 + 4 =
14(24).
After Alice enters the door, she meets a caterpillar smoking a hookah, term
which means algebra in Arabic. The caterpillar advises her to eat the proper
quantity of the both sides of the mushroom, in order to regain her size and
keep the right proportions.

MATHWARD BOUND

In another chapter, she meets the
Duchess, whos feeding her baby with
soup, which contained too much
pepper. When Alice grabs the baby, it
turns into a pig. Here, Lewis Carroll
makes a parody of Jean-Victor
Ponselles principle of continuity. Next,
she has tea with three strange
characters that had tea all day long
because time has punished them by
standing forever at 5 oclock pm (tea
time).This has something to do with the
four dimensions coordinate system, the
geometrical three dimensional
coordinate system and the fourth
dimension being time. Without this
dimension, the tea party would last
forever.
At this party, Alice receives a lot of
riddles such as I see what I eat and I
eat what I see or I like what I find
and I find what I like.

This switching of words reminds of the
mathematical property called
commutative property, which is only
applied to some of the operations, and
for others it is not true. Another riddle
is the famous Why is a raven like a
writing desk? This riddle doesnt make
sense and it reflects how the author
saw the changes in Maths during that
ti me. Besides all these mathematical
facts hidden in the story, Lewis Carroll
also used a lot of units of
measurement and he used number 3
as a magic element. These are some
of the multiple mathematical aspects of
the fascinating adventure of Alice in
Wonderland, which seems senseless
at first sight.
Written by Monica Alexiuc, Adriana
Ionita, Mara Marinescu

MATHWARD BOUND

Calligrams

Calligrams are visual poems. A few Spanish examples in
geometrical figures

MATHWARD BOUND

TH3 M4THS T34CH3 MURD3R"
by Jordi Sierra i Fabra

- Kids, kids. Kids! - the teacher said
caoming closer to the the three kids
and sitting down on the desk_
Maths is essential.
After Language, Maths is the most
impotant.......
I think if you don't know how to read
and write decently, Maths is no good.
But anyway, it is essential.
They help you think, reason about
things and have a mind discipline

Science fiction, fantasy, comics,
videogames.......
- Right! Maths is like they all together!
A good thriller provides clues little by
little, the same as a Maths problem,
and it reaches a unique possible end:
the guilty one.
And this is the same for Science fiction
and very especially for videogames.
If your mind is able ot work the speed
you need to get the end in a
videogame, then you are capable of
solving any Maths problem.

Mathward Bound

PORTIA'S CASKETS RIDDLE.
(Merchant of Venice by William
Shakespeare)
A riddle that can be solved with
propositions
The first, of gold, who this inscription
bears, 'Who chooseth me shall gain
what many men desire;' The second,
silver, which this promise carries, 'Who
chooseth me shall get as much as he
deserves;' This third, dull lead, with
warning all as blunt, 'Who chooseth
me must give and hazard all he hath.'
The one of them contains my picture,
prince: If you choose that, then I am
yours withal.

MATHWARD BOUND

El Quijote
and Maths

Mathward Bound

Cervantes, in El Quijote, provides
knowledge about justice, ethics,
gastronomy, history and Maths

Explanation given by Quijote to the
poetry student Lorenzo when he asked
for the science of knight-errantry.
Its a science -Quijote said- which
comprehends all the sciences of the
world, because, the person that works
on it must be a jurist and know laws of
distributive and conmutative justice to
give each one what belongs to him, he
must be theologian to give clear and
distinctive reason, a physician and an
astronomert, to know what time of the
night its through the stars and to
know where and in what climate he
stays. He must know mathematics,
because in every step of his life, he will
need them.
Gonzalo Prez & Carlos Olmo

At the beginning, Cervantes gives us an
idea of Quijotes economical situation.
In a village of La Mancha, there lived
a gentleman who still kept lance and
buckler, a horse and a greyhound. An
olla of rather more beef than mutton,
minced meat on most nights, fried eggs
and bacon on Saturdays and lentils on
Fridays and a pidgeon or so extra on
Sundays made away with three-
quarters of his income. The rest of it
went on a doublet fine cloth and velvet
breeches and shoes to match for
holidays.....
Sara Lpez & Ester Moreno

We will find in El
Quijote lots of
Mathematical expressions:
numbers
fractions
geometry
logical problems
calculations

Mathward Bound

Ancient measure units for distance, weight,
speed. Ancient currency, paradoxes, thousands
of ..............., infinity, astronomy
expressions are to be found in El Quijote.

In this part of the chapter XXXIII in
the first part of the Quijote, Lotario
says what Cervantes thinks about the
maths.
They have to give easy examples with
mathematical demonstrations that you
cant deny, like when people say: if
from two equal parts we remove two
equal parts, the ones that are left are
equal too and when they dont
understand with words you have to
explain with the hands.
Pablo Jimnez & Guillermo Muoz

The farmer hung his head and without
answer any word, untied his servant
and of whom Don Quijote asked how
much his master owed him.
The servant said it was nine months
seven reals a month.
Don Quijote added it up and found
that it was seventythree reals.
He told the farmer he had to pay it
down immediately if he didnt want to
die for it.
The evil villain answered that by the
oath he had done, but he hadnt done
any oath, it was not as many reals as
they were saying, because three pairs
of shoes the servant had received had
to be discounted as well as one real for
two blood-lettings when he was ill.
Mara Blanco, Sergio Jimnez & Nerea
Porro

During the remainder of
the journey the licentiate
held forth to them on the
excellences of the sword,
with such conclusive
arguments, and such
figures and mathematical
proofs, that all were
convinced of the value of
the science.
Victor Esquilas & Mario
Velayos

Mathward Bound

Mathward Bound

A thief stole a basket with oranges.
He lost half the oranges plus a half
jumping over a fence.
He left half the oranges minus half fall
when chased by a dog.
He lost half the oranges and a half when
stumbling.
In his cave, two dozens, he kept away-
How many oranges did he steal?

A story from the X Century
by Isabel Molina

When attending school in Crdoba,
Jos got these problems

While two lovers were playing, a
necklace got broken, a string of pearls
escaped.
A sixth fell on the floor.
A fifth stayed on the bed and a third the
lady got.
A tenth the gentleman found and six
pearls remained on the string.
How many pearls did the necklace
have?

Due to his calculation skils, his
partners got jealous and he left.

The Zero Man

Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish novelist
and philosopher wrote Aunt Tula, where
geometry is compared with purity and
luminosity.

It was with Ramirn learning
everything he had to learn, so she was
taking daily the lessons. And this way
that anxiety for knowing that had
grieved her since she was a child and
that made her uncle compare her with
Eva. got satisfied. And among the
things she learned with her nephew, to
teach them to him, there were few ones
that interested her more than
geometry. She would never believe it!
And it is that in those geometry
demonstrations, an arid and cold
science as everybody felt, Gertrudis
was finding a sort of luminosity and
purity she could not understand.
Some years later, being Ramirn
already an adult, and when the dust
that had been his aunts body was
resting underground, without light
from the Sun, he remembered the

with which one day of radiant spring
she had explained to him how there
cant be any more than five and only
five regular polyhedrons; three formed
of triangles: the tetrahedron, of four;
the octahedron, of eight, and the
icosahedron, of twenty; one of squares:
the cube, of six; and one of pentagons:
the dodecahedron, of twelve. But dont
you see it clear? , only five and not
more she was saying to me- the
nephew said-; dont you see it? , How
nice! And it cannot be another way, it
has to be like that! and on saying that
she was showing me the five models in
the white cardboard, which she had
constructed by herself, with her holy
hands, which were prodigious for any
labour, and seemed as if she has the
law of five regular polyhedrons.........,

poor aunt Tula! And I
remember that as one of
those geometric models got
a grease stain, she built a
new one because she said
that the stain didnt allow
us to understand the
demonstration well. For
her geometry was light and
purity.
Laura Resco & Chaimae
Zahri

Mathward Bound

'Logicomix', the story of Bertrand Russell's
struggles with philosophy and his sanity

an article from
Independent
2009

The book is the
brainchild of two
Greek men.
Apostolos Doxiadis,
55, is hell-bent on
bridging the gap
between science and
the arts: he's a
mathematician but
also a translator,
actor, writer and
movie director. His
third novel, Uncle
Petros and
Goldbach's
Conjecture, was an
international
bestseller, published
here by Faber &
Faber. He once
devised a shadow-
puppet musical about
Jackson Pollock, and
wrote a play called
Seventeenth Night
about the theorems of
Kurt Godel. His
collaborator on the
Russell project is
Christos
Papadimitriou, a
professor of computer
science at Berkeley,
California; Bill Gates
is among his former
pupils.et ultimum
errore

"Logicomix"
written by Apostolos Doxiadis

A story within another. A novel form of comic. An essay that
fits in a fairy tale. Following the trail of the founders of
Reason, a group in modern Athens delegate to Bertrand
Russell as a guide, leaving him to guide us to an era that
marked the history of science - and beyond.
Against a background of war and the absurdity of the power
of ideas and, above all, persons behind them, pulling the
strings in a story where the "craze for logic" tends to infinity.
Bertrand Russell, hero, takes the floor and leads us into a
world where paranoia lurking around every corner. From his
childhood and adulthood until the age of scientific work and
its intersection with the legends of science, history of logic
unfolds as a series of paradoxes.
The ideological ferment, spiritual burnout, the enthusiasm of
success, the cancellation before the deadlock, the desire for
recognition and above all passion for absolute knowledge
color the characters of the book, giving birth to heroes like
Frege, Hilbert The Poincare, the Vitgkentstain the Gdel and
Turing. Inspired notations unearth the deeper feelings and
mood swings them, shedding light on the man behind the
scientist.
The Logicomix is a journey into the world of ideas. A dip in
the human passions. A "tragedy of the heroes of logic" that
tried to fit his whole life in an equation.

Mathward Bound

Crime stories from France
and the Netherlands

MATHWARD BOUND

STORY #1

FRANCE

CHARLES FLORIAN LOUIS

FRANCE
PART1_Graph theory

Hi I'm agent 212, the detective in
charge of the investigation about the
murder of the man called Mr. Payne in
Charleville. I'm in my forties, and
when I was younger, I used to solve
mathematical and logical problems. As
a consequence, when I had to work, I
became a detective and I have already
driven to jail a lot of murderers, but
this investigation looks to be harder
than others. Ive got the names of the
main suspects and their testimonies.

The first suspect, Mr Mc Cormic said
he passed by Gonzague street, Flandre
street, and a few others ones.

The second, Dr Drai said he had
passed by Churchill place, and another
streets in this area.
The 3rd, Mrs Purps said she crossed
the Olympe bridge and walked in
streets all around.

The last one, Mr Channy would have
done almost almost the same trip as
Mrs Purps but he passed in the place
Ducale !

Finally, they all said that they didnt
passed two times by the same street.

MATHWARD BOUND

Thanks to their testimonies, I draw their path.

The yellow one correspond to Mr Mc Cormics path. He is an old
farmer of about 60 years old, white haired and rather small.

MATHWARD BOUND

The red one is Dr Drais one, a fifty years old doctor, blond haired
and quite tall.

MATHWARD BOUND

The black one is Mrs Purps path. She is a 30 years old barmaid, very
cute and of average height.

MATHWARD BOUND

The green one is Mr Channys one. He is young scientist who is
rather small, red haired and green eyes.

MATHWARD BOUND

Theorem

INFOMAG

GRAPH THEORY

Eulerian path

Eulerian cycle

Policeman conclusion :

To solve the mystery, I have to use the
graph theorem.

Theorem : The criminal could take all
streets without passing two times by the
same street if there are 0 or 2
crossroads (in this case departure and
arrival points) with an odd number of
streets.

Example : The departure and the arrival
are odd crossroad : 5 streets are starting
from there. Other crossroads are even
crossroad because 2 streets are starting
from each.

Thanks to those statements, could you
help me to discover who lied about his
path and so who can be cleared of the
suspects list ?

MATHWARD BOUND

FRANCE
PART 2_Theorem of Thales

Here is a way to clear one of the
suspects: following their
testimonies, i discovered that the
killer shot to death his victims,
Mrs Payne, from a building near
her house.

Mr. Mc Cormic said that is he was at
height of 6 meters, Mrs. Payne at a
height of 3 meters, the victim's house
was 5 meters far from the killer's
building and the victim's house 5
meters;
Mrs. Purps said that is he was at
height of 3 meters, Mrs. Payne at a
height of 1 meters, the victim's house
was 6 meters far from the killer's
building and the victim's house 3
meters;

MATHWARD BOUND

Dr Drai said that is he was at
height of 7 meters, Mrs. Payne at
a height of 3 meters, the victim's
house was 9 meters far from the
killer's building and the victim's
house 6 meters.
They all said that they were
aligned with their victim and the
corner of the victim's house.

Thanks to the datas given and
Thales Theorem, we are able to
know who lies.
Thales Theorem says that in this
configuration, if lines a and b are
parallel, we have the equality
written on the graphic.

MATHWARD BOUND

Theorem

INFOMAG

2 parallel lines
2 crossed lines


To solve the mystery, I have to use the
graph theorem.
Theorem : When 2 crossed lines are
intersecting 2 parallel lines, following
the two examples above, we can write
the equality :
AB AC BC
--- = --- = ---
AD AE DE
Thanks to those statements, could you
help me to discover who lied about this
clue and so who can be cleared of the
suspects list ?

MATHWARD BOUND

FRANCE
Part 3_BALLISTIC

We are now on the right track and just
one more effort and we discover who
the suspect is!
Through the search, they discovered
the weapons that have killed the
victim, we will identify them to identify
the killer.
On Mr. Mc Cormic's weapon, and on
the Mrs. Purps' weapon, we could read
this :

MATHWARD BOUND

Theorem

INFOMAG

CANONICAL FORM
Parabola
Vertex


To solve this problem, we have to
analyze these canonical forms.
Theorem : On a canonical form, the
number in red are the coordinates of
the vertex, which is in our situation the
shooter's place.
Example : In y=-2(x-2)+9, the vertex is
located in (2;9)
Thanks to the previous datas, can you
deduce who is the culprit?

MATHWARD BOUND

Amsterdam solving story
number 1

First we are going to look at the paths
of all suspects:
Mr McCormic's path has two points
with an odd number of roads so this
route is possible!
Dr. Drai's path has four points with an
odd number of roads so this route isn't
possible!
Mrs Purps path has two points with an
odd number of roads so this route is
possible!
Mr Channy's path has two points with
an odd number of roads so this route is
possible!

This means that Dr Drai didn't do it!
The second part: Mr Mc Cormic is
telling the truth: 6/10 = 3/5.
Mrs. Purps is telling the truth: 3/9 =
1/3.
Dr Drai (shouldn't this have been Mr
Channy??) isn't telling the truth: 7/15
is not equal to 3/6!
Third part: Mr McCormic has a vertex
of (7,3).
Mrs. Purps has a vertex of (9,3).

So Mrs. Purps did it!

MATHWARD BOUND

Solving a crime with
encrypted messages - a
crime story from Amsterdam

In this story, the crime is going to be
solved by decoding messages from
suspects, witnesses and the police.

The encoding is done via the Caesar
method, which means that you have to
shift the alphabet a number of places
to get to the correct decoding.

To find the number used for decoding,
solve the quadratic equation first and
follow the instructions on how to use
the answer(s). A positive or a negative
number can mean shifting either way,
so be carefull!

Having done this, use the number to
decode the messages and solve the
crime!

In this story, a test has been stolen at
the Hervormd Lyceum West in
Amsterdam.

There are nine teams at our school in
this project and each team has a role in
this story: one group is the thief, one
group is the police, three groups are
witnesses and four groups are
suspects. Each group has an encoded
message for you and it is your job to
find out which group took the test.

Enjoy solving the crime!

1. Solve the Quadratic
equation.
2. Follow the
instructions on how to use
the answer(s).
3. You now have a number
for the shift of the
alphabet.
4. Decode the message

MATHWARD BOUND

The story and the vision of
the police

Story from the police/investigators
(A.I.M.)

x
2
-5x+6=0

Use the addition of the two answers to
decode our message:

Bj lty hfqqji fy 9:00 FR. Fuufwjsyqd
xjajwfq inkkjwjsy jcfrx lty xytqjs ktw ymj
kwjxmrfs tk ymj Mjwatwri Qdhjzr Bjxy.
Fs fhvzfnsyfshj tk tzwx hfqqji zx tajw fsi
fxpji ktw tzw mjqu pstbnsl bj bjwj f
stytwntzx ijyjhynaj yjfr. Bj fwwnaji fy ymj
xhjsj tk hwnrj, ymj yjfhmjwx qtzslj. Bj
stynhji f gnl tujs xfkj bnym ithzrjsyx
qnyyjwji fwtzsi ymj wttr. Ymj xhjsj bfx
fqwjfid hqtxji tkk fsi tsqd bj fsi ymj
xzujwanxtw bjwj ns ymj wttr. Bj fqwjfid
fxpji nk fsd knsljwuwnsyx bjwj ktzsi gzy
ymjd bjwj ytt hqjfs.

Xtrjtsj kjqy lznqyd, N pstb ny. N xyfyji.

Mtb? ymj xzujwanxtw fxpji wfymjw
htskzxji.
Qttp fy ymj hnwhqj fwtzsi ymj vzfiwfynh
jvzfynts. Rd wfymjw gzkk kwnjsi xyfyji.
Ymjwjx fstymjw tsj mjwj ts ymnx rfym
yjxy. N xyfyji flfns
Nk dtz uzy ymj qjky tajw yjxy ts nyx
twnlnsfq uqfhj dtz xjj f xrfqq fwwtb
utnsynsl fy f utxyjw ns ymj htwsjw. Rd
kwnjsi xfni.
F htij ujwmfux? ymj xzujwanxtw fxpji.
Nsijji Bfyxts. N xfni.
dtz hfs fqxt wjfi f htij zsijw ymj utxyjw.
N kzwymjwrtwj fiiji.
Hfqq ns fqq xyzid lwtzux bnymtzy fs
fqngn mjwj! Ymj hzquwnyx fwj frtsl
ymjr! rd ufwysjw xmtzyji.

MATHWARD BOUND

Decrypted message made by Lucas, Maeva,
Alexis B.
- FRANCE -

We got called at 9:00 AM. Apparently
several different exams got stolen for
the freshman of the Hervormd Lyceum
West.
An acquaintance of ours called us over
and asked for our help knowing we
were a notorious detective team.
We arrived at the scene of crime, the
teachers lounge. We noticed a big open
safe with documents littered around
the room. The scene was already
closed off and only we and the
supervisor were in the room. We
already asked if any fingerprints were
found but they were too clean.
Someone felt guilty, I know it. I stated.

How?? the supervisor asked rather
confused.
Look at the circle around the quadratic
equation. My rather buff friend stated.
There's another one here on this math
test, I stated again. If you put the left
over test on its original place you see a
small arrow pointing at a poster in the
corner, my friend said.
A code perhaps?? the supervisor asked.
Indeed Watson, I said, you can also
read a code under the poster, I
furthermore added. Call in all study
groups without an alibi here! The
culprits are among them!? my partner
shouted.

Key is 2+3 = 5

MATHWARD BOUND

Stories from suspects, thief
and/or witnesses...

Divide and Conquer:

x
2
- 2x 3 = 0

Use one of the answers to decode our
message:

Zh zhuh qrw wkhvh dzixo vhoilvk
nohswrpdqldfv. Zh zhuhqw suhvhqw
lq wkh duhd ri wkh wkhiw, wkh
uhdvrq iru wkdw zdv ehfdxvh zh zhuh
vnlsslqj vfkrro wkdw gdb

Mathstatic:

F-48=8F

Use the division of the two outcomes to
decode our message:

F JXQEPQXQFZ PXT ELT JXQOFU
YLV OXK LRQ LC QEB ZIXPP OLLJ
TFQE QEB QBPQP.
F PXT QEB MXOXDOXME LC QEB
QBPQ XKA QEB DOLRM FQ TXP
LRO DOLRM.
TEBK F CLIILTBA QEBJ QEBV TBKQ
FKQL QEB JBAFXQEBBH XKA
ZLMFBA FQ QEXQP XII F PXT.

MATHWARD BOUND

Decrypted message made by Valentine,
Alexandre, Florian, Charles
- FRANCE -

We were not these awful selfish
kleptomaniacs. We weren't present in
the area of the theft, the reason for that
was because we were skipping school
that day.

I, MATHSTATIC, SAW HOW MATRIX
BOY RAN OUT OF THE CLASS
ROOM WITH THE TESTS.
I SAW THE PARAGRAPH OF THE
TEST AND THE GROUP IT WAS OUR
GROUP.
WHEN I FOLLOWED THEM THEY
WENT INTO THE MEDIATHEEK
AND COPIED IT THATS ALL I SAW.

The first key is 3
The second key is
12/-4 = -3

MATHWARD BOUND

and/or witnesses...

Me + Me:

X
2
+ 10 x + 16 = 0

Use one of the answers to decode our
message:

Wcq, uc qyu gr fynncl. Gr fynnclcb
tcpw dyqr. Zsr jcr kc qrypr zw rfc
zcegllgle. Dgpqr rfcw uclr rm rfc
ajyqqpmmk ylb gr qcckcb rm kc rfyr
rfcw fyb y icw. Qm rfcw uclr gl ylb
rmmi rfc cvyk dpmk rfc ryzjc. G rfgli
rfyr rfc rfgcd uyq y zmw. Rfyrq yjj G
qyu.

The Square root ninjas:

x-18x=-40

Use the smallest outcome of the two to
decode our message:

Uc ypc lmr esgjrw, zcaysqc uc ucpclr
yr rfyr njyac yr rfyr rgkc. Uc ucpc gl
mqbmpnnjcgl zswgle ajmrfcq. Rfcpc gq
lm npmtc rfyr uc ucpc rfc rfgcdcq. Uc
fytc rfc ajmrfcq fmkc rfyr uc fytc
zmsefr rm npmtc. Wms ayl yjqm afcai
rfc aykcpy, rfcl wms ayl qcc rfyr uc ypc
yzqmjsrcjw lmr rfc rfgcdcq.

MATHWARD BOUND

Decrypted message made by Alexis V., Louis
- FRANCE -

Yes, we saw it happen. It happened
very fast. But let me start by the
beginning.
First they went to the classroom and it
seemed to me that they had a key.
So they went in and took the exam
from the table. I think that the thief
was a boy. That's all I saw.

We are not guilty, because we weren't
at that place at that time.
We were in Osdorpplein buying
clothes. There is no prove that we were
the thiefes.
We have the clothes home that we
have bought to prove. You can also
check the camera, then you can see
that we are absolutely not the thiefes.

The first key is -2
The second key is -2

MATHWARD BOUND

and/or witnesses...

The Modals:

5x
2
+ 6x + 1 = 0

Divide the two answers to decode our
message:

Bj, Ymj Rtifqx, htzqisy mfaj itsj ny. Fy
ymj ynrj tk ymj hwnrj bj bjwj fy ymj
hnsjrf bfyhmnsl Ymj Frfensl Xunijwrfs
ybt. Fkyjw ymj rtanj bj bjsy yt Ymj
Frxyjwifr Izsljtsx. Bj qjky ymj hnyd fy
fgtzy jnlmy thqthp. Ymj hwnrj
mfuujsji fy xnc thqthp, xt ymnx uwtajx
ymfy bj htzqisy mfaj itsj ny. Bj fwj
nssthjsy.

The Mixed Couple:

X
2
-5X+6=0

Use one of the two answers to decode
our message:

K fkfpv fq kv, k ecpv dgnkgxg vjga
vjkpm k fkf kv. K ycu cv jqog ykvj oa
htkgpfu. Uq kv ecpv dg og
-Okzgf Eqwrng

MATHWARD BOUND

Decrypted message made by Justine, Mathis
- FRANCE -

We, The Modals, couldn't have done it.
At the time of the crime we were at the
cinema watching The Amazing
Spiderman two.
After the movie we went to The
Amsterdam Dungeons.
We left the city at about eight o'clock.
The crime happened at six o'clock, so
this proves that we couldn?t have done
it.
We are innocent.

I didn't do it, i can't believe they think i
did it.
I was at home with my friends.
So it can't be me -Mixed Couple

The first key is 5
The second key is 2

MATHWARD BOUND

and/or witnesses...

The Calculators:

x
2
-15x+54=0

Subtract the smallest number from the
largest number to decode our message:

Zh vdz wzr erbv uxqqlqj zlwk sdshuv lq
wkhlu kdqgv. Wkhb orrnhg vwuhvvhg.

The Matrix Boys:

X
2
+7x+12 =0

Multiply the two answers to decode
our message:

FTQ YMFDUJ NAKE PUP EFAXQ
FTQ FQEF NQOMGEQ IQ TMP
BDANXQYE IUFT AGD YMDWE. IQ
TMP EUJ UZEGRRUOUQZF MZP IQ
IMZFQP FA SA FA FTQ FTUDP
SDMPQ. FTMF UE AZQ AR FTQ
DQMEAZ ITK IQ PUP UF. FTDQQ
OTUXPQDQZ SMHQ GE EAYQ
YAZQK FA PA FTUE EA UF IME
EGOOQERGX RAD AGD EQXHQE
MZP MXEA RAD YAZQK.

MATHWARD BOUND

Decrypted message made by Johann, Valentin,
Hugo, Briac
- FRANCE -

We saw two boys running with papers
in their hands.
They looked stressed.

THE MATRIX BOYS DID STOLE THE
TEST BECAUSE WE HAD
PROBLEMS WITH OUR MARKS.
WE HAD SIX INSUFFICIENT AND
WE WANTED TO GO TO THE THIRD
GRADE.
THAT IS ONE OF THE REASON WHY
WE DID IT.
THREE CHILDREN GAVE US SOME
MONEY TO DO THIS SO IT WAS
SUCCESFUL FOR OUR SELVES AND
ALSO FOR MONEY !

The first key is 2
The second key is 12

MATHWARD BOUND

Story #3

FRANCE

Alexis & Valentin

Crazy Murder Stories

In center of Charleville, a murder
was commited.
A policemen investigate on the
crime scene.
It is a bear !
Four persons were suspected :

The Pear
Hellsing The Bat
Mister Lazy
The Raccoon
We have to help the policemen
Mister Bear to find the culprit.
We will use three mathematics
theorem to find him !

MATHWARD BOUND

Theorem : the criminal could take all streets without passing two
times by the same street if there are 0 or 2 crossroads with an odd
number of streets.
According to the plan, The pear is suspect.

MATHWARD BOUND

According to the plan, Hellsing the Bat is suspect.

MATHWARD BOUND

According at the plan, Mister Lazy is not suspect.

MATHWARD BOUND

According at the plan, The Raccoon is suspect.
With this theorem, we can determine three suspects :
The Pear
Hellsing The Bat
The Raccoon

MATHWARD BOUND

In this scene, there are two
buldings. The distance between
these two buldings is equal to x
meters. The bulding A is on the
left. The criminal is ont the
bulding A. The target is in the
bulding on the other side of the
street. For this scene, we will use
the Thales theorem to determine
2 suspects because among the
suspects, 2 have a right distance.
The suspects have to give the
distance BE, if the distance is
false the suspect isn't the culprit.

To determine the culprit, we will
use these distances :
AB BC
----- and ----
AE ED
AB = 5, AE = 20, BC = 5,
ED = 20.
If suspects will say that the
distance BE is 20 meters : he is
culprit.

The pear said that the
distance BE is 26 meters.
Then, Hellsing The Bat said
that distance BE is 20
meters.
And The Raccoon said the
same thing.
With this theorem, we can
determine two suspects :
Hellsing The Bat
The Raccoon

MATHWARD BOUND

For this part, we will use tne
canonical form to find the
trajectory of the bullet ( equation
of the parabola ).
With plenty of calculations, we
determineted the equation of the
parabola :
y=-1/3(x-2)^2+4/3

During the interrogation,
Hellsing The Bat reveled his
equation :
y = 4(x-1)^2+4/3
The policemen deduce that
Hellsing The Bat was not the
culprit !
And The Raccoon revealed his
equation :
y = -1/3(x-2)^2+4/3

Finally, we
determineted that the
raccoon was the culprit.

Story #4

FRANCE

enim

ZUHAL & VALENTINE

WHAT A CRAZY STORY !
A creepy way to found the guilty suspect. Try it.
- GRAPH THEORY -

I. Inspector presents himself and
explains to you how to do.
II. The testimony of the suspect 1.
III. The testimony of the suspect 2
IV. The testimony of the suspect 3
V. The testimony of the suspect 4
VI. Will you help the policeman to find
the criminal ?

You should know that I'm not
going to talk about cake and
candy, but, I must talk about
something like an investigation.
After all, I'm a policemen, and,
I'm absolutely not good in
cooking and talking about food
except donuts.
In this investigation, we have,
four suspects, and I'm not going
to tell you who's the good one.
You'll have to found it on your
own.

MATHWARD BOUND

The four suspects are, Dean Winshester, Sam Squared, Mr Garth
McQueen and Amanda Geogery.
Right now, I'm going to tell you why this is so complicate. The
criminal can take all streets he want without passing two times by
the same street if there are 0 or2 crossroads, the departure and
arrival points, with an odd number of streets. My name is Inspector
Mat and I'm going to teach you how to found the murderer in a
creepy way.

MATHWARD BOUND

Testimony of the 1st suspect

The first suspect, was an old man,
called Deam Winshester . I've asked
him where he was the day when the
murder was made, and he answer that
he was at Bruxelle, in Belgium place
where the murder was made. Then, I
showed him a map, of the city where
he was, and where the murder was
done. I've asked him to show me how
he would do to go from a place to
another, without passing to times by
the same streets. He toke the pen and
draw on the map what he was thinking
he has to do.

The fact is, that I knew that the
criminal toke all the streets he wanted
and didn't passed two times ago by the
same streets, the criminal was smart,
and knew one thing, he knew the
graph theory. I've asked him a few
more questions. "With who where you
? _I was with my sister. _Where you
went ? _We went to a coffee. _Have
you got any proofs about all of this ?"
He said that he had some and that he
could gave them to me.

MATHWARD BOUND

Testimony of the 2nd suspect

The second suspect, was an old man,
called Sam Squared . I've asked him
where he was the day when the murder
was made, and he answer that he was
at Bruxelle, in Belgium place where the
murder was made. Then, I showed him
a map, of the city where he was, and
where the murder was done. I've asked
him to show me how he would do to go
from a place to another, without
passing to times by the same streets.
He toke the pen and draw on the map
what he was thinking he has to do.

The fact is, that I knew that the
criminal toke all the streets he wanted
and didn't passed two times ago by the
same streets, the criminal was smart,
and knew one thing, he knew the
graph theory. I've asked him a few
more questions. He answer : "I was
with my girlfriend this day, we went to
some shop in Bruxelle, and after that,
we went to her sister's house and me
and my girlfriend looked after the kids
of her sisters while she wasn't home.
I can give you some ticket from the
shop if you want, I could also called my
girlfriend and you can also asked the
kids and the sister of my girlfriend, I
also have ticket from the shop."

I've asked him these things
and after that I went out
taking the map and the
different ticket that he
gaved to me.

MATHWARD BOUND

Testimony of the 3rd suspect

The third suspect, was an old man,
called Mr McQueen, he was about 60
years old. I've asked him where he was
the day when the murder was made,
and he answer that he was at Bruxelle,
in Belgium, place where the murder
was made, like I already know. I
showed him a map, the same as I
showed to the other ones, where the
murder was done. I've asked him to
show me how he would do to go from a
place to another, without passing to
times by the same streets. He toke the
pen and draw on the map what he has
to do. I've asked him a few more
questions.

He answer : "I was, this day, with my
daughter, she is 5 years old, the
wanted to go out, go to the park, where
she was allowed to see her friends,
after that I've buy her an Ice cream,
and we went home straight back about
8.00 PM. "
I toke the map, went out, done some
recherche, and found something pretty
strange to me, he didn't got daughter,
his daughter died three years ago. I've
done some other recherche, and found
out that the old man, was in a
psychiatric hospital since the day that
his daughter and his wife died. He was
out of this hospital only since two
months.

MATHWARD BOUND

Testimony of the 4th suspect

The third suspect, was a women, called
Amanda Geagery, she was about 25
years old. I've asked her where she was
the day when the murder was made,
and she answer that she was at
Bruxelle, like I already know. I showed
her a map, the same as I showed to the
other ones, where the murder was
done. I've asked her to show me how
she would do to go from a place to
another, without passing to times by
the same streets. She toke the pen and
draw on the map what he has to do.

I've asked her a few more questions.
She answer : "I was supposed to see
some of my friend who didn't came
finally, so I've done shopping all the
day and went home after a little party.
" I've asked her if she had any proof of
all those things that she done on this
day, and she told me that she didn't,
she looked a little ill-at-ease but pretty
sure of herself.

MATHWARD BOUND

Now it's your turn to help me, found which map are the wrong ones,
and with one is the good one, and found the one who killed this 15
years old child in Bruxelle. Inspector Mat.

MATHWARD BOUND

number 4 (and 5)

The path of Dean Winchester has four
points with an odd number of roads.
The path of Sam Squared has four
The path of Mr McQueen has four
The path of Amanda Geagary has two
points with an odd number of roads!
This is the only one where a walk is
possible!!

So Amanda Geagary is not
the one!

MATHWARD BOUND

Story #5

FRANCE

I

WHAT A CRAZY STORY !
A creepy way to found the guilty suspect. Try it.
- THALES THEOREM -

Now we have proved that the suspect
number 4 (that means Amanda
Geagery) is not guilty we can searched
who is not the criminal too.
To help us we have another testimony
of each suspect. We know the criminal
was under the roof of the building A
and the target was on the second floor
at the balcony of the building B.
The distance x between the building A
and the building B is 25 meters.

The criminal was at 40 meters of the
ground and the target was at 30 meters
of the ground.
The width of the building B is
150meters.

To find the criminal we
have to use the Thales
theorem, this theorem said
that:
AD AE DE
----- = ---- = ----
AB AC BC
in this configuration.

MATHWARD BOUND

Testimony of the 1st suspect

I said to Dean Winshester to try to
apply the Thales theorem with the
measures he thought.
To help him I gave to him this graph
and explain the letters signification :
A is the criminals position, C the
targets position, B is the middle of the
targets building, E is the corner of the
criminals building and D the corner of
the targets building.

Under my look he applied the theorem
with his measures and found that:
A=40m C=30m.
He said he was not sure of his results
because when he did it the last time, it
was a long time ago.

Theorem of Thales !

MATHWARD BOUND


I said to Sam Squared to try to result
the Thals theorem with the measures
he thought.
To help him I gave to him this graph
and explain the letters signification, A
is the criminals position, C the targets
position, B is the middle of the targets
building, E is the corner of the

He did the theorem and found this
result: A=100m C=10m.
He explained that his results could not
be right because the height of the point
A is too big but I dont know how to do.

Theorem of Thales !

MATHWARD BOUND


I asked Mr McQueen to apply the
Thals theorem with the measures he
thought.
To help him I gave this graph and
explain the letters signification, A is
the criminals position, C the targets
position, B is the middle of the targets
building, E is the corner of the

Under my look he did the theorem
with his measures and found that:
A=56m C=32m.
In contrast to other he was sure of his
results and I saw he had no problems
to solve the equation.

Now that you have the
testimony of the three
suspects, can you help me
to found who did the true
equation so who cant be
guilty?
Thanks for your help!
Inspector Mat

MATHWARD BOUND

number 4 (and 5)

After dismissing Amanda Geagary in
story number 4 we have only three
people left.
Dean Winchester has the correct
measurements because 40/100 =
30/75.
Sam Square doesn't have the correct
measurements because 100/100 is not
equal to 10/75.
Mr McQueen also doesn't have the
correct measurements because 56/100
is not equal to 32/75.

From this we can conclude only one
thing....

MATHWARD BOUND

Story #6

FRANCE

JUSTINE

Part 1 : The Thals theorem

Police report :
In the scene crime, we have two
buildings :
the hostel 'Le canard' and the
restaurant 'La table du pays'.
The victim was in the restaurant when
she was killed, so the killer was in the
hostel.
We have three suspects and we must
find who could kill the victim.

Testimony 1 (Mister Golf) :
He says 'The distance BI equals 40
meters. I'm sure!'.
Testimony 2 ( Miss Raven) :
She thinks the distance is 44 meters.
Testimony 3 (Miss Lully):
She supposes the distance is 40
meters. So Miss Raven is not a culprit.

Thales theorem :
The suspects have to give
the distance BI, if the
distance is false the
suspects is not the culprit.
To determine the culprit
we will use the distance JB,
JI,BC, ID:
JB = 10 m JI = 40 m
BC = 10 m ID = 40 m

MATHWARD BOUND

Part 2 : Ballistic with quadratics

Police report :
We have two suspects and we know
just one is a killer but we don't know
who.
However we have the trajectory of the
bullet who killed the victim : Miss
Apple.
So we must use the quadratic theory by
find the murderer.
Quadratic theory : A forensic scientist
says the trajectory of the bullet equals :
y= x+7x+12.

Testimony 1 (Mister Golf) :
He explains : ' When I saw Miss Apple
I think she was located in (-5,0)'.
Testimony 2 ( Miss Lully) :
She tells at the inspector :'I just say
that, the last time I have seen Apple
she was in (-3,5;-0,25)'.
One suspect give the good coordinates,
find him and help the inspector
Laggaf!

If you are find the good
soluces I think you must
say that the murderer is :
Miss Lully! When she is
stopped she just said :'I
hate apple because she is a
very good mathematician!'.

MATHWARD BOUND

Story #7

FRANCE

enim

ALEXIS V. & MATHIS

The Montreuil lady found shot on a carpet
At Montreuil, District of Salt Lake City In the 28th
Mormons avenue Related by Mr Offisquare

An investigator Police Officer Mr
Offisquare who relates :
I remember an important day on my
career. A crime occured in Montreuil
and the victim was white woman,
about 50, 60 years old.
The police founded her dress in her
nightgown on the carpet, the head full
of blood.
We identified the victim : she was
called Annie B. Shes a 55 Years old.

There were 4 suspects :
- Sabine M
- Nicolas H
- Mathis Q
- Alexis V
The Police cut the investigation in 3
stories.

The Montreuil lady found
shot on a carpe.

MATHWARD BOUND

Story 1: based of the graph theory

Conditions:
At first, we knew that the murderer
couldnt use two times the same street
in his trave,l because we saw footprints
in the killers path.
According to the graph theory, the
criminal might take all streets without
passing two times by the same streets,
if there are 0 or 2 crossroads with an
odd number of streets.

I interrogated the suspects. I asked
them about the way they took. We
knew the killer way with the
investigators clues.

The path of the killer

MATHWARD BOUND

MATHWARD BOUND

From these clues, we could affirm that
Sabine M isnt the criminal. Then they
remained 3 suspects Nicolas H. / Alexis
V. / and Mathis Q. !!!

MATHWARD BOUND

Story 2 : measurements of the
range

A few weeks before the crime, the
sniper, who pretended to be a
surveyor, took measurements in the
street.
He used a riflescope to get the angle
and applied the Thales Theorem.
- We interrogated, with my assistant
Mr Smith, the 3 remaining suspects (-
Nicolas H / -Mathis Q / -Alexis V) -
The 3 suspects met each other at the
28th Mormonts Avenue in Montreuil.
Mr Smith, assistant of Offisquare, chief
inspector had interrogated the
suspects one by one.

- Nicolas H was rightly at this number
but to go to the swimming pool at the
5th floor and had made this calculation
for fun (confirmed by witnesses)
- For Alexis and Mathis they also went
to the 28th, but they reached the 5th
floor where was the gunshoot !! So it
remains 2 suspects both are fans of
guns !!!
we founded them in possession of
calculations about the distance
between a window of the 5th floor of
this building and the 10th floor of the
opposite building here was killed
Annie !!!...the range (SV).

About calculations found in
their pocket : Using Thales
theorem

MATHWARD BOUND

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, si
dici consectetuer adipisci elit
mpendere integre.

The sniper prepared the measure of
the trajectory of his rifles bullet (SV).
The point S is the position of the
snipers rifle at the 5th floor.
The point V is the victims position on
the opposite building at the 10th floor
The point O is the point of view of the
riflescope.

Obtained measures with laser of
riflescope:
= 30
OH1 = 70 m
H1H2 = 50 m
Calculation of OS with trigonometry
cos = OH1/OS
OS = 70/(cos(30))= 70/0,866
=80,83 m
Then they remained 2 suspects :
Alexis V.
Mathis Q.

Calculation of SV with the
Thales theorem :
OH1 OS
------ = ------
H1H2 SV
70 80,83
--- = -------
50 SV

SV = 57,74 m

MATHWARD BOUND

Story 3 : Ballistic

This part is about the ballistics part
leading to the guns choice and the
appreciation to the gunshoot
- Only Mathis was in possession of
those following informations ..!!:
The 1st sketch (not included) shows a
parabolic trajectory of a little rock
thrown by a slingshot.

He said that he wanted to aim for
pigeons located in the opposite
building..!!!
His 2nd sketch , with calculation, is
much more serious or impressive and
scary !!

It is about ballistic
Kalachnikov AK-74
5.45 x 39 mm caliber ??!!

MATHWARD BOUND

In this case, we can find a uniform
rectilinear motion with a possible
dispersion on target of a few mm !!
With t = time taken for SV,
We have :
SV = V0 * t 57
SV = 970 * t
t = 57/970
t = 0.0588 or 5.8 /100 s !!

- But the police inspector Mr
Offisquare doesnt like when Mathis
ensures maliciously that he would like
to try this AK-47 founded in the
Grand-dad cave .. always for his
pigeons shooting !!!
- Mathis is arrested and jailed for
murder with premeditation !!!
Mathis yells his innocence !! but
anything to do.
Alexis is free !!

For long range shooting :
On the 100 first meters The
curvature of the parabola Is
similar to a line.

MATHWARD BOUND

Epilogue

A few weeks later , Mr. Smith, in fact an
agent of the CIA, shows to the inspector
Mr Offisquare a "top secret" folder from
New York.
- Annie B. , the victim returned from
Mongolia, where she met E. Ochire a
member of the former KGB !
She had signed his death sentence !
it is a secret agent (Sabine Meline really
Malitov from the new FSB replacing KGB)
was ordered to kill Annie B.
- A search of the home of Mrs. Sabine
leaded to the discovering of the
" FA -MAS 5.56x45 " which is the murder
weapon ? !

- Yes, because the inner helical scratch
bullet of " AK -74 5.45x39 " is not the
same as FA -MAS ! scratch marks on
the bullet confirm !
Sabine knew the AK -74 bullets are
compatible with the FA -MAS and
hoped mislead investigators ....
- she was therefore imprisoned .... and
Mathis released, exonerated ..... but
the story does not tell the end of AK -
47 !!!

will there be a following
episode .. ???

MATHWARD BOUND

A World
Without Maths

MATHWARD BOUND

The story of NoPi

O

nce upon a time there was a city called NoPi. The
people who lived there had a very strange lifestyle:
they didnt have units of measurement, they didnt
know the time or the day, they didnt even know what
bus to get and they didnt have that strange school

subject called...what was it called again? Ah, right, Math! There was no such
thing as Math, and even though children were very happy, it wasnt a really
good thing for them... ...WHAT HAPPENS IN AN ORDINARY FAMILY ON
AN ORDINARY DAY...?
Mom: CAMERON GET UP! YOULL BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!
Cameron: But mooom...what...what time is it?! Mom: Its...Its...well, just
get ready!
Cameron: Whatever
So Cameron prepared himself for school, but when he was packing his
backpack
Cameron: Moooom, today I have. Italian, English and, oh gosh, I dont
remember. What day is it today Mom?
Mom: Its ... Its Cameron, go at the bus stop or youll be late! Cameron
Every day its the same story! I never know what subjects to bring!
Cameron just puts some random books in his backpack and goes to the bus
stop. While hes waiting for the bus Noah arrives.
Noah: Hi Cameron, what bus are we getting today?
Cameron: Uhm, well yesterdays bus ...
Noah: OH, right! But what day was it yesterday and what was yesterdays
bus?
Cameron: Lets call Echo and ask her.
Noah gets his phone and tries to call Echo.
Cameron: Wait, how are we going to call her?
Noah: Oh gosh, I have no idea! How do you usually call her?
Cameron: I dont call her I usually ask her on Facebook.
Noah: Ok, lets just ask the bus driver.
A bus arrives and Cameron and Noah ask the driver if that bus would take
them to their school.
Bus driver: No, Im sorry, if you want to get to Avery Morgasten High School
you have to get, well, not the next bus, but the one after the next bus.
Cameron: Huh...ok.

MATHWARD BOUND

The two friends waiting for the next
next bus (the bus after the next bus)
and then they got on it.
They arrive at school after a very long
ride and they finally get in class. When
they enter, the teacher was explaining
History.
Noah and Cameron: Sorry teacher,
but we didnt know what bus to take
Teacher: Dont worry, I didnt know
either!
At the end of the lesson Cameron and
Noah went back to their houses.

AT CAMERONS HOUSE
Mom: So how did it go? Cameron:
Great! The teacher interrogated me!
Mom: And how did it go? Cameron:
I got a high mark! It was..well..I dont
know, maybe very good!
Mom: Oh, ok, great!
Cameron: Well, Ill go to bed now.. I
think its late.
Mom: Yes, sure, goodnight!
So Cameron went to bed, and the next
day, it was just like yesterday again, it
was always like yesterday!
So, my friends, I know you dont like
Math, but, think about it..Maybe a
world with Math is much better!

a story by Alessia Dragone
and Camilla Gnocchi-
ITALY

MATHWARD BOUND

The cooking contest

O

nce upon a time there was a little town where Maths
didnt exist... Maths? What is Maths? Anyway, in this
town every month there were cooking contests, and
useful prizes were awarded to the best dishes. The
problem was that nobody knew the recipes to
make good

dishes, because measurement units werent known.
People were looking forward to the contest. My dad used to take part in the
competitions, so he tried his dishes on us children, but unsuccessfully because
he always forgot all the right doses.
Sometimes the cakes were too sweet, or too bitter, or completely flavorless.
The dish of the April contest was the chocolate cake. You cant just imagine
how many times my Dad tried!
He tried every day, but it was a disaster everyday! Suddenly he had an idea
He wrote down all the doses in his diary so he didnt make any mistakes the
next time. It was so hard to understand the right proportions but after a lot of
attempts the sweet started being better.
The first day the sugar was insufficient and the eggs exceeded. The second day
sugar was definitely too much, and the eggs were few. The third day, daddy
got the right proportion of eggs and sugar, but the flour was too little.
He took a cube of sugar on each finger. Then he started again. He draw (drew)
10 cubes on his diary, as many as he had on his fingers. The quantity of sugar
was good the third time, fortunately. After he took one egg in each hand, and
he drew it in the diary. In the end he did the same with the flour.
Daddy wrote everything with a lot of precision. The awaited day finally
arrived. My dad woke up very early to prepare the tools and the ingredients
that he would bring to the contest.

MATHWARD BOUND

My friends dad was one of the judges,
so he told me that all the contestants
had made rubbish, their dishes werent
even worthy to be looked at. All of
them, except my dads pie.
He had cooked the perfect pie and so
he won the competition.
He was the fastest to end, too. My
family was so happy and proud, also
because the prize was a big new house.
Judges said my dads pie was THE
BEST PIE EVER IN TOWN

My dad told everybody what he had
done to win, so since then all the way
of cooking of the citizen turned in
better.
This was maybe the only contest we
won.
When the secret of Maths (my dads
name) was revealed, everybody was
able to win ever after.

a story by Emanuela
Annarelli, Gaia Lupo and
Giulia Cea - ITALY

MATHWARD BOUND

A strange world

H

ow would be the world without Maths? Surely it
would be better!, thought Tom grouchy, keeping in
his hand his test with a big F written on it.

He took another poor mark. It was useless, he couldnt understand Maths, he
hated it. That bad mark ruined his day.
I wish that Maths disappeared from the whole Earth!, thought Tom while he
was coming back home from school.
Neither the lunch made by his mom could pass his anger for the bad test. After
the lunch he started to do his homework for the next day. He decided to
engage the problems head-on and the subjects from wich he began was Maths.
He opened the copybook and he immersed into the pages full of numbers,
expressions, additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, figures... It
was all so boring! He couldnt understan anything, even if he tried it hard. He
started getting angry. He closed the copybook and hurled it far. I cant do this
anymore!, thought Tom throwing himself on the bed. Life without Maths
would be better! No numbers, no calculations, no problems! How I wish that
it didnt exist... He remained on the bed for a little time, as long as he decided
to stand up and to try to conclude his homework, finally.
He took the copybook again, sat at the desk and opened it. He was writing,
when he noticed that the page was completely empty. He turned all the pages
and all were white. Maybe I took the wrong copybook, thought. But he wasnt
wrong: on the cover was written MATHEMATICS, in so many words.
Without understanding what was happening, Tom watched quickly the clock
to know the time... Something was wrong! He seized the clock to watch it more
carefully and... Oh! He couldnt see the numbers on the ring anymore! He also
watch the calendar, and the numbers disappeared on it, too, replaced by
empty spaces. What was happening? Maybe someone listened my wish and
Maths is really disappeared!, thought Tom happy. With Maths disappeared
also his problems: no more numbers, calculations, homework, bad marks... It
was perfect! All hot about that amazing news, Tom thought that he shouldve
tell his bestfriend Joe. He seized the mobile and he was digiting the number,
but he stopped immediately because the numbers on had disappeared.

MATHWARD BOUND

Uhm, that could be a trouble...,
thought him puckered. But there
wasnt any problem, he could text
Joe... No! If numbers were
disappeared from the whole Earth, all
telephone numbers were disappeared,
too. Now Toms mobile was completely
useless. So Tom wanted to enter on his
Facebook profile to contact Joe from
there. He switched on the computer
and started to digit on the keyboard
but he remembered that to write his
email adress he needed numbers... And
on the keybord there werent numbers
anymore! Tom was getting annoyed,
but he didnt want to give in to Maths!

I will show you that I can live well
without you, Maths!, thought Tom
determined. He sat on the armchair
and took the remote control to turn on
the TV, but there werent numbers on
it, too.
I can play a videogame... There
shouldnt be numbers, there...,
reflected Tom. He switched on his
PlayStation but it wasnt working. He
pushed the button one, two, three,
infinite times, but it remained off.
Why this was happening? Tom didnt
think that all electronics objects that
were in his house and in the whole
world needs Maths to be made.

MATHWARD BOUND

Its the most important thing! Circuits,
cards, programs... Everything is based
on Maths algorithms! Tom started to
get worried about that situation. He
tried to switch on again his mobile and
his computer, but neither those were
working. Stupid devices!, thought Tom
angry. But the worst had to come yet!
His anger became quickly fear when
his posters and his pictures on the
rooms walls began to melt before his
eyes. What is happening? Why is
everything melting?, thought Tom
scared when also other objects began
to melt like butter

Of course! All the things that are
around me have got a form... A
geometric form!, reasoned Tom. And
he was right! He never tought that
with Maths also Geometr disappeared!
Everything that is around us, every
single object has got a form. And now
everything was going away before
Toms eyes, he was helpless. Wait a
second... My house is made by forms,
too!, examined Tom. He turned back
and saw clearly that also the walls, the
doors and the windows were melting!
Tom was very scared and he went out
from home and ran across the street.

MATHWARD BOUND

All the buildings around him were
melting, everything was disappearing
because... Maths is everywhere!
No! I want Maths to come back! The
world doesnt work without it! It cant
exist a life without Maths..., thought
Tom, running desperated.
He repented for wishing that Maths
disappeared, he wanted that it could
return...

Tom opened his eyes and stood up
quickly. It was all a dream! Luckily he
was still at home, on his bed, at safe.
He dashed on his Maths copybook and
he whispered for the relief.
The numbers were still at their place,
in lines between the little squares on
the paper.
He lived just a terrible nightmare! Yes,
a nightmare... Because it cant exist a
life without Maths. The world couldt
go far without it.
And finally Tom got it!

a story by Francesca
Rinaldi and Martina
Santospirito-ITALY

MATHWARD BOUND

The man who saved
maths

O

nce upon a time there was a mathematician called
Lorenzo who liked experimenting with new algebraic
formulas. He loved playing with numbers and
changing them into long expressions and logic
riddles.

One day, by mistake, he changed all the numbers into letters thanks to a magic
potion made by his friend, who was a chemist.
As soon as he realized the disaster he had made, the poor man turned pale and
immediately tried everything to find a remedy. But it was useless. He had got
into trouble and he couldn't get out of it.
He had deleted Maths from Earth forever. Everything seemed to vanish
around him, for example the posters and the blackboard on which he had
written his formulas, because they no longer had a well defined perimeter.
How could he make it right?
He left the lab just in time to save his life, because all the buildings were
falling down and the lights were turning off as well. People wondered what on
earth was happening.
But they couldn't find a solution to this big problem, so they asked for
Professor Lorenzo's help. Shocked by the unforeseen question, he tried to give
a plausible answer. He couldn't think of anything else other than formulating a
new potion to solve the case. What confused him was the lack of chemical
instruments suited to this kind of experiment. They had also disappeared from
the face of the Earth.
So he decided to call a council meeting, inviting the most important
mathematicians of his time.

MATHWARD BOUND

After many years of hard study they
understood Maths could also be
practiced in a different way.
Since they couldn't use the old
numbers any more, they invented
other numbers formed by ...
intermingling letters.
The mathematicians had a lot of fun
and they felt strong relief for solving
this big enigma. Very soon everything
returned as before.

The day after all the families woke up
in their houses intact!
Everybody found the peace and
happiness that seemed to be part of a
time far in the past.
Lorenzo resumed his old work in the
laboratory and never again had
anything to do with chemical potions!

a story by Bruna
Marroccoli and Raffaella
Festa - ITALY

MATHWARD BOUND

To the open market
It was a Saturday morning
when little Nick woke up of his
grandmothers and his granny
told him: Come on, Nick. Get
up. Well go shopping at the
open market. Nick, who was
still sleepy, answered, Leave
me alone granny. I feel sleepy. I
dont feel like going to the
market. No, Nick. You must
get up and well go shopping
together. Its a long time since
we last did so. After little Nick
got up and got ready, his
grandma said to him, Now
write down what we need to
buy Tell me Well, one kilo of
potatoes, two bunches of spring
onions, one kilo of mince, meat,
bananas, apples and some rice
Ok, grandma. Ive written
them down. Lets go shopping

When they got to open market,
they could hear the vendors
advertising their goods. Here
are the best onions Here are
the best lettuces Grandma,
look! There are lots of onions
here! Nick said No, Nick, she
said They arent so good.
When we want to buy
something, we look at it
carefully. We are careful about
the quality of the item and, of
course, its price. The man at
this stall has fresh spring
onions but he sells 3 spring
onions for 1.00 euro whereas
the man at the next stall sells
the same spring onions for
0.50. So well buy spring
onions from the next stall
because we will earn 0.50. did
you understand, Nick? Yes,
grandma Now lets buy some
potatoes. Which shall we buy?
his grandmother asked. I
know. Well buy those to the
right stall because they are of
good quality and cost 1.00 a
kilo whereas those on the next
stall are 3.00 a kilo and look,
some of them are rotten.
Thats right, Nick. shall we
do the same with the
mincemeat, grandma? No,
my boy, the mincemeat has a
specific price, so you pay
according to the quantity you
buy. But we will buy mincemeat
at Mr. Thymios, who is our
fellow-villager and will
probably sell it at a cheaper

MATHWARD BOUND

to the open market
from Chrysa Pliakou-Greece

Now well choose the best and the
cheapest bananas and apples, too.
Finally we will buy rice When they
got to the grocers, Nicks grandma
said, half a kilo rice, please. Here
you are. Its 1.50, please. Nick, take
a five-euro note from my valet. Here
you are Mrs, Nick said Here is your
change and the receipt, the woman
said. Just a moment, said the
grandmother. You gave me back
4.00. You should have given me
3.50 instead. You must have made a
mistake. Yes, youre right. Im sorry
its ok. You should be more careful
with the mathematical calculations,
otherwise youll lose money

Grandma, you must have
been good at maths at
school! said Nick. Look,
Nick, your mind should
always work if you dont want
to be a victim. After that,
youll get me to like maths
and be careful myself. Nick
said meaningfully.

MATHWARD BOUND

A MONUMENT TO HONOR
THE GODS"

Once upon a time in ancient Greece,
Pericles was sitting under a tree and he
was thinking about building a
monument to honor the Gods. But, he
couldnt decide which one. Eventually,
he was between Aphrodite and Athena,
because both of them helped him when
he was in need. Then, suddenly the two
goddesses appeared in front of him.
Both of them wanted it very much and
they were very competitive. Because
Pericles couldnt find a solution to a
problem, he decided that whoever
found the solution to his mathematical
problem first would be the winner and
he would devote the monument to her.

So, he said: The perimeter of the
monument is 200 meters. I have to put
there 50 columns with a diameter of 2
meters each. How much space do I
have to leave between them? As soon
as Athena heard the problem she
started counting. But, Aphrodite
wasnt very good at mathematics, so
she tried to charm Pericles with her
extraordinary beauty. He was about to
fall in love with her but that exact
moment Athena shouted We have to
build the columns leaving a distance of
2 meters between them and then she
started explaining how she found it
out. Pericles was amazed of her
mathematical thought and decided to
dedicate the monument to Athena!

Written by
Katerina Parasxou
and
Dina Sidiropoulou
Greece

MATHWARD BOUND

Babel

Mathward Bound

by the Greek team

Lorem Ipsum

End

Mathward Bound

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MATHWARD BOUND. WHY?

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