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7/31/2019 The writing on the Wall- Do the Math.pdf
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Math Do the
The Writing
on the
Wall by Wendy Lichtman
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To the memory of Theresa Podmele, the first woman I knew who had a Ph.D. inmathematics. She taught my high school algebra class with passion and clarity, and
nearly fifty years later I still love the subject.
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Chapter 1 Patterns 1
Chapter 2 Three Thirds 15
Chapter 3 The Four Fours 28
Chapter 4 Graphs 35
Chapter 5 Formulas 48
Chapter 6 Codes 61
Chapter 7 Collecting Data 69
Chapter 8 Knives and Fires 80
Chapter 9 Absolute Value 93
Chapter 10 Rate of Change 104
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Chapter 11 Graphic Stories 113
Chapter 12 The Real Story 127
Chapter 13 Coincidental Systems 135
Chapter 14 No Formulas 150
Chapter 15 Family Patterns 164
Chapter 16 Tessellations 179
Chapter 17 Simplifying Expressions 188
Chapter 18
(Which, in Algebra,
Means Change) 201
Chapter 19 Probability: What Are
The Chances? 210
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Credits
Cover Copyright
About the Publisher
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Chapter 1 Patterns T here was this tagger in Los Angeles, Sammy
said, who wrote coded messages about who was
going to get murdered next. He knew that only one
person in the city could figure out what he wrote,
and that person did figure it out, but not until about
six people were already dead. Sammy turned away
from the graffiti wall to face Miranda and me. From
then on, she said, the murders stopped.
Even though Sammy does know a million facts,
shes so dramatic that its always hard to know if what
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shes telling you is accurate or a major exaggeration .
Thats creepy, Miranda said.
We only had about five minutes before school
started, and I wasnt really all that interested in
checking out the graffiti Sammy was so excited
about. But when she said, What Im thinking is that
this could be a warning, too, and that the person who
wrote it knew Tess would understand it, I looked at
the numbers that were painted on the back wall of
the church near our school.
There were about twenty bright green fours in the
bottom corner, styled in a way that made it look like
art all different sizes and shapes but still fours.
They formed a messy circle, so I had to tilt my head
from side to side to figure it out.
Do you understand it? Miranda asked as she
handed me her denim jacket and took my white sweat-
shirt. Miranda used to be smaller than Sammy and me,
but ever since we got to eighth grade shes the tallest one shes about two inches taller than me now, and
Im about two inches taller than Sammy. It doesnt
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really matter, though we still always share our clothes.
I think its the Four Fours problem, I said, slipping
on Mirandas jacket. Its one of Ms. Saltzmans favorite
things she gives us these for warm-up at math team
practice. Youre supposed to be ab le to make nearly any
number by using exactly four fours, I explained.
Like this oneI pointed to 4x4- _ would be
the number fifteen.
Clever, Miranda said.
I knew youd know, Sammy said. What Im
thinking is that maybe this is like that guy in LA,
and someone is telling you the next thing that
Richards going to do to you.
Oh, come on, I said, picking my backpack up
from the ground and tossing it over one shoulder.
Richard probably doesnt even know the next thing
hes going to do to me.
Samm y shrugged. Im not saying for sure; Im just
saying maybe. Stop scaring her, Miranda said as the three of us
headed toward school.
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I had known that Richard would do something to
get back at me for turning him in, but I thought it
would be something big maybe something so
awful that Id want to transfer out of Westlake.
Instead, though, he was making me suffer by doing
a lot of little mean things in the three weeks since
we got back to school from winter break.
In a way, I thought as I opened my locker and saw
the folded piece of paper that had been slipped
through the slats on the locker door, that can be
worse because then youre always waiting for the
next bad thing to happen. Also, you have to spend
your time wondering if hell e ver be finished.
I unfolded the note about five times before I got
to the words that said, Watch out, snitch. Miranda
was standing next to me, and even though I was
trying not to be scared, I could tell that she was or
maybe she just looked that way beca use she wasnt
used to wearing glasses. She had gotten a pair over the break, and after reading the note she looked at
me over the top of her glasses, not through the
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