Short story for kids written by: Edgardo Luciano Camarero.

In a faraway kingdom there was a prince who really loved maths, he was always solving mathematical problems in his notebook, and never used a mathematical calculator.

One day his father, King Wallace, said:

– “Dear son, you should go out and enjoy our garden and take some fresh air. It´s important to have friends and disconnect by breathing fresh air and by getting to know people. Please don´t spend all day solving mathematical problems in your room.”

-“Ok, but I don´t think I will enjoy it as much as I enjoy maths” – replied the prince.

The prince barely knew his castle, he was always worried about his maths problems and never looked further forward. He had never discovered the world outside his room, the number of corridors and doors and he didn´t know which door led to the back garden. Suddenly he saw a big wooden door at the end of one corridor. “That might be the exit”, he thought, and so he opened the door.

But it wasn´t the correct door. The prince had entered a dark place and he couldn´t see anything. After taking two steps he heard a voice saying:

– “You have just entered the most dangerous crossroads ever. You must solve three problems to get out of here.  If you make a mistake, you will never see daylight again. And the first question is: multiply 489 by 360?”

– “176,040!” – exclaimed the prince.

– “Correct!” – the voice exclaimed – “You can continue”

The prince realized that it was only about mathematical problems so he kept walking from the crossroads, observing everything around until he arrived at a steep cliff that had no exit. The voice said:

-“Now I have three questions for you, a step will appear for each one you solve and then you will be able to cross the cliff to the other side, but if you fail one of them, the steps will disappear and you will fall into the deep chasm and be devoured by snakes and poisonous spiders. And the first question is…How much is 92 divided by 2 minus 4 by 1 by 5 minus 8 by 3?”

The prince thought about it before answering.

After three seconds the prince said: “Two!”

– “You are right!, here is the first step”

The young prince obeyed the voice, who immediately said:

– “The second question: How much is 64 divided by 8 plus 3 by 2 plus 6 by 5 plus 9 divided by 3?

– “61” – said the prince sure of his answer.

-“Correct!” – said the voice, and added – “Walk to the next step and pay attention to the third question…How much is 43.126 multiplied by 89? you have just 5 seconds to solve it”

The prince knew that the question was really difficult, and thought it was going to take him more than 5 seconds…He made a great effort, and three thousandths of a second before the time finished, he exclaimed:

– “3.838.214!!!” ………

TO BE CONTINUED…

CLICK TO READ THE MATHEMATICIAN PRINCE (PART 2)

 

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