Small Number and the Red Kangaroo

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Section 13.1 Small Number and the Red Kangaroo

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Written by: Veselin Jungic

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Illustrated by: Lila Mohammed

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A Tribute to Jonathan Borwein, 1951-2016, one of the founders of Experimental Mathematics

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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.

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In the distance, there was a troop of kangaroos. Small Number was almost certain that all of them were red.

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“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.

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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!”?