Section 13.1 Small Number and the Red Kangaroo
Written by: Veselin Jungic and Mark MacLean
Illustrated by: Lila Mohammed
A Tribute to Jonathan Borwein, 1951-2016, one of the founders of Experimental Mathematics
Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief. Once upon a time, he travelled by train through an unknown land with his sister and their grandma.
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When the train stopped on the tracks, Small Number jumped through the window and started running towards the kangaroo. Even from a distance, he could see clearly that the kangaroo was completely red.
In the distance, there was a troop of kangaroos. Small Number was almost certain that all of them were red.
“It looks like that there are many red kangaroos in this country. I wonder if there are kangaroos that are not red,” said Small Number to his grandma and sister when he returned to the train.
Grandma hugged him and said proudly: “You ran away to gain a new insight, discover new relationships, and explore a possible result. When you grow up, you will be a great experimental mathematician!”
Question: Why did Grandma say: “In this country there is at least one kangaroo with at least one red side!”?
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