Ned the Integoolie

Thursday, October 23, 2008
Once upon a time there was a world quite different from ours. This world's name was Inteplanet. On this world there were strange inhabitants named Integoolies. The Integoolies were an extremely advanced and colorful race. No two Integoolies looked the same. Sadly though they were unable to think of anything other than integers. Due to this everything in their lives had to be done by solving integer questions. Even to go outside their front doors they had to solve an integer question.

One day a little Integoolie named Ned decided to go outside for a walk. As usual he had to solve an integer question to open his door. Today's question was a really simple addition question. So simple in fact that he decided to just do the math right in his head.

After he had finished putting his answer into the keypad on his front door the door flung open and he went outside. It was a very nice day and Ned saw his neighbour Paula working in her garden. Of course she wasn't gardening the normal human way. She was gardening by solving integer problems. Ned asked her if he could help. She was glad that he offered to help because there was a very hard question that she had to do for her seed package to open. Ned decided to show her a good way of doing problems with both negative and positive integers in them like the one on her seed package.

Ned found some circular rocks, 5 blue and 3 white, and arranged them in two lines, 1 with blues and 1 with whites. He then explained that a blue rock represents a positive number while a white rock represents a negative number. He also explained that a blue rock and a white rock makes a zero pair and that zero pairs equal zero. After that he explained that all you have to do is make zero pairs and then what isn't in a zero pair is your answer.



Paula used the two blue rocks that represented the answer to the integer problem in the seed package. The seed package opened and Paula was able to plant her plants. She thanked Ned and Ned went on his way.

After a while Ned saw another Integoolie who was trying to open his intezoomer. Ned being the nice Integoolie that he was decided to help the other Integoolie. The other Integoolie said that his name was Peter and that he had been trying to get into his intezoomer all day! Ned took a look at the problem and explained that it really wasn't that hard to solve.

Ned said that an easy way to solve problems with any integers is to use a number line. Ned asked Peter if he had some paper with him. Peter actually did have some paper with him and he also had a pencil. Ned didn't waste any time and started drawing a number line. He explained that zero goes in the middle of your number line and all numbers to the left of it are negative and all numbers to the right are positive. Ned then explained that number lines need scales and for the number line Ned drew he put a scale that went up one (or down when going left). After that, Ned explained that to show your numbers you would go left however many numbers it says if negative and the opposite if positive.

Peter entered the answer on the keypad on his intezoomer and the door opened and it started. Peter got inside, said thank you to Ned and flew off!
Ned was getting hungry from all his good deeds and he decided to go for lunch at Posi-Neg's Diner. When he got there he went to the lunch vendor and of course there was a problem on the vendor that he would have to answer.


Ned decided that since he would have to take out his intecoins anyway he would think about the integers as if they were intecoins. He thought like this: negative numbers I owe and positive numbers I have.


Once he had figured out the problem Ned ordered some intesoup and found a table to sit at. Once he was finished though he heard someone scream "HELP HELP!!!"

Obviously he ran outside and he saw the person who was asking for help. It was Ned's little brother Norman. Even though he didn't seem like he was in real trouble, Ned decided to go investigate. Norman explained that his integame had a question on it that Norman had never seen before.


Ned said to Norman that subtraction is a myth! All you do is add the opposite! Although Norman was puzzled when Ned said this he decided to go along with it. Ned then showed Norman how to do it on his own.

Norman wrote the answer on the bottom screen of his integame and it worked and it let him play. Norman was so happy that he rushed home without Ned. Ned then decided to go with him because he was tired of walking around.
Once he got home he found Norman again who was trying to open their door. The puzzle on it wasn't very hard for Ned because it was just a question with both addition and subtraction.


He did however teach Ned how to do questions like these for future reference.


Ned entered the answer into the keypad and him and Norman stepped into their house. There, their parents greeted them, they had dinner and they went to bed and no they didn't have to solve an integer question...although their dreams are a different story...

3 comments:

  1. Unknown said...

    I really liked the pictures. And also how you made it not so long but not so short!

    October 24, 2008 at 6:06 PM  

  2. Anonymous said...

    Very good Nikki !

    October 25, 2008 at 8:37 PM  

  3. jaymie said...

    That was really cool nicky. (pokes belly)

    November 2, 2008 at 6:00 PM  

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