817 Math Blog

Once upon a time, there was a little, gray mouse named Vincent. Vincent lived in a person's home. Everyday, Vincent struggles to find food and a safe shelter, there are mouse traps all over the house. Luckily, Vincent was very smart and intelligent, he knew all the routes around the house and how to avoid being caught in those traps. Vincent also had 2 friends, their names were, Vincent and Josh. They were also little, gray mice. Everyday, their search for food was getting worse, but today, their lives are about to change forever.

One day, Vincent was wandering around the house early in the morning, while Liem and Josh were still sleeping. Vincent was searching for food, when he stumbled upon a dirty, rusty treasure chest. Vincent was very confused. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge, until he noticed a little engraving on the treasure chest. He wiped away the dust on the treasure chest, and the engraving said, "(+4)+(+3)=". Vincent ran back to wake up Liem and Josh. Vincent told Liem and Josh about what he found. Liem and Josh got out of bed, and followed Vincent to the rusty treasure chest.

Once they arrived at the chest, Vincent showed Josh and Liem the engraved equation. All three of them were a bit confused until Liem remembered that he learned about negative numbers, and positive numbers. He told them that they were called Integers. Integers was part of math. Liem explained to Vincent and Josh about how to add integers. Adding integers that are positive, is the same as adding numbers normally. Adding two negative numbers, is like adding normally, but your answer must have the negative sign behind it ( - ). Adding a positive, and a negative is a bit different. The integer with the highest value, will have the same sign as the answer. For example:


















So once they all understood about how to add integers, they tried to answer the equation. Vincent said, "Oh I know the answer to this equation, the answer is +7!". Liem and Josh both agreed that the answer was +7. Suddenly, the treasure chest opened and a little purple mouse came out of the chest. The little purple mouse hopped out and said, "Oh thank you guys for saving me! My name is Camille, here is your first stone". Vincent, Liem and Josh were surprised, and they took the stone. "What is this stone for?" Vincent asked. "Once you collect all four, it will take you to a place with all the food you can ever eat." said Camille. All 3 of them were surprised to hear about the food, and started to wonder where the next stone was. "Just follow the arrow on the stone, it always points in the direction of the next stone." Camille explained. "I will see you at the next stone, bye!" Camille vanished into thin air. Vincent, Josh and Liem started to follow the direction the arrow on the stone was pointing to find the next stone.


















They arrived in the washroom, and the second treasure chest was behind the toilet. They went behind the toilet and wiped the dust off the treasure chest. After the dust was off, they spotted another engraving, it said "(-3)+(-7)=?". So they started to think. Liem was thinking hard, this is probably what it looked like in his head.
















"The answer is -10!" Liem yelled out. The treasure chest started to open up. Camille popped out again. "Congrats you guys! Heres your second stone, just follow the arrow to the next stone, see you guys later!" said Camille.They once again followed the arrow on the stone to the third stone.

They arrived in the living room, where there were couches, tables and plants. The next treasure chest was located on the top of the table. They climbed up the legs of the table and crawled over to the treasure chest. Josh wiped off the dust, and read the engraving. "(-3)+(+4), this time the equation has both positive and negative numbers!" Josh said surprisingly. In Josh's head, he started to think integers as money. Positives as how much money he has, and negatives would be how much money he owed. So he started to think in his head.

















"The answer is +1!" Josh yelled out. Liem and Vincent agreed that Josh was correct. The treasure chest opened up, and Camille, jumped out once again, and handing the stone over to them. "Just one more to go you guys!" said Camille. All three of them were really excited to reach the fourth and final stone, and to find all the food they can eat. This time, they rushed to follow the arrow on the stone.

This time, the stone lead them to the kitchen, but they couldn't spot the treasure chest anywhere. They spreaded out and looked all over the kitchen, carefully watching for mouse traps and avoiding them. Vincent found the treasure chest next to the fridge door, on top of the kitchen counter. He called up Liem and Josh. This treasure chest didn't have dust on it for some reason, and it wasn't rusty at all. The equation was indented into the gold plate on the treasure chest. The printing on the gold plate said, "(-4)+(+6)+(-5)=?". They all started to think together, but it was harder than the previous questions. "What if we combined the negatives, with the negatives, and the positives, with the positives" Vincent asked them. "It would make it easier" he stated. So they combined the negatives with the negatives, and positives with the positives.























They solved the problem together and came up with the answer, -5. The treasure chest opened up, and Camille hopped out. "Good job on finding the last stone you guys, now follow the stone to your infinite supply of food. They were all so excited. They grabbed the stone and rushed to follow it.

To be continued...

The stone led them to a refrigerator. Once they arrived, they tried to open the refrigerator door, but it was too heavy. "How are we suppose to open it now?" said Vincent.
"It's a dead end!" said Josh.

Suddenly a muscular mouse jumped down from the top of the refrigerator. "Hello, my name is Nacho. I can help you open the door if you help me find my super gloves".
"Alright!" Liem said.

They searched all over the house, but they couldn't find it, until they went to the T.V. They found a glowing blue box, and it had an integer question on it! "Hey look the question is subtraction this time!" Vincent said. "Don't worry, I know subtraction too!" said Liem. The question was -5-(-6). "This question is in standard form now, it doesn't have brackets" said Liem. "This is how you should look at the problem" said Liem



















"Alright lets return to Nacho and give him his super gloves so he can open the door for us" said Josh. They returned to Nacho and gave him his gloves. "Thank you guys, I'll help you open it now!". He used his mighty muscular arms to open the door. "There you go, bye!" Nacho left. They entered the refrigerator. "It's really cold here, but look at all that food!" said Vincent.
After a while, it began to get really cold. "We're freezing!" said Josh. A fat lazy mouse came out from behind a milk carton. "I'll give you guys these fur coats, my names Donald" said the fat mouse. "But you'll have to help me with my math homework first!" said Donald. They agreed and helped him. His math questions were, -6+8-9 and, 7-(3)-(-7). Vincent thought back of when Liem taught him how to subtract and add integers. Vincent started to think hard.
























After thinking so hard, they finished Donald's homework. "Thanks guys, here's your coats, take care!" Donald left.
After a long, long adventure, they reach their unlimited supply of food. The hard work has paid off.