Once upon a time in a kingdom called Mathematica there lived a princess named Polly Nomial and the kingdom lived in relative peace. But then disaster struck! In the middle of the night Princess Polly was carried over into the land of Double Digitus. The evil ruler, Fractionicus had decided that in order to make math fun he would play a game called find the princess. Everyone knows that it is impossible to make math fun therefore the evil ruler’s plot was regarded as a cruel joke. When news of the princess’s capture reached Sir. Denominator, a brave and loyal knight, he immediately went off in search of the princess. His only clue as to her whereabouts was a riddle which reads as follows.
1 over 2 & 2 over 4
Cannot be put together or she will be no more!
The Denominator can save her if another 2 over 4 is found
So find the secret potion hidden underground.
(The answer is equals your key. . . )
And so our mathematical journey began as Sir. Denominator set off on his quest to find the missing Polly Nomial.
As our hero rode towards Double Digitus he pondered his clue. The only place in the whole world where the people could go underground was the amber mine Ussis so our hero set off to look for the potion there. Handily the amber mine was located between Mathematica and Double Digitus so Denominator did not have far to go.
When he reached the mine Denominator tied his noble steed, Radius, outside and entered the dark tunnels. He searched through all kinds of caverns and holes covered in amber but the potions whereabouts remained unknown as did Polly Nomials. Just when Sir. D. was about to give up hope he spied a shining yellow light in the distance. He followed the dim glow until he reached it’s source and there he found a glittering golden flask with the number 2× written upon it. It was the magic potion! Using the light of the potion to guide him out of the mines Denominator leaped onto his horse and galloped as fast as he could to Double Digitus.
Our hero reached the castle gates in no time and finding them unguarded he rode right on through. Suddenly he spotted two dragons guarding the door to the tallest tower of the castle. The first dragon was very large and upon his stomach was written 1)2, the second dragon was quite small and written on his stomach was 2)4.
"This must be part of the riddle!" Sir. Denominator exclaimed. Sir. D. hurriedly hid behind a tree so that he would not be seen by the dragons and then he got out the piece of parchment which had the riddle written upon it. Thinking hard he wrote down 1)2 % 2)4 ' . . . but in order to find the answer he had to find the common denominator (his favourite part of math). So Sir. Denominator thought and thought and then he remembered that he had to multiply 1)2 by 2 so that he could get 2)4 and only then could he add the two fractions together! Then carefully adding together 2)4 % 2)4 together Sir. Denominator discovered that the resulting number was 4)4 which was the same as having the number 1! The magic key equals 1!
Sir. Denominator laughed and rode closer to the two dragons. He threw the potion of 2× at the dragon called 1)2 and watched as it turned into a dragon called 2)4. The two dragons, which were then identical to each other, disappeared in a poof of smoke and left behind 1 little key. It was the magic key to the tower! Sir. Denominator grabbed the key and rushed to the top of the tower where he found Princess Polly unharmed.
The two rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after in Mathematica.
(The evil Fractionicus went insane due to the overall dislike of fractions in every kingdom worldwide and was locked away, never to be seen again.)