We have begun our journey into the world of the Number Devil. Today we were introduced to the main character (Robert) and his dream world antagonist, The Number Devil. Robert is relieved to be spared from the annoyingly horrible dreams about huge fish gobbling him down, or endless slides to nowhere...but now he has encountered a new nemesis. This Number Devil has quickly presented himself as quite the expert...possibly even creator of numbers as we know them. He comes off as a rather irate teacher that has one sole focus...mathematics. Robert is wary....very wary, but he lets the Number Devil explain how all numbers can be created from "1". Starting simply this begins with the idea that any number no matter how large can be represented/created with 1's. Five million, seven hundred eighty eight thousand, nine hundred and forty three can in fact be created by merely adding up 1's: 1+1+1+1+....etcetera.
Then the Number Devil presents 1's in yet another fashion in creating the rest of the digits we currently use. This begins with 1x1=1, then 11x11=121...there being created the number 2...all from using 1's. 111x111=12321, 1111x1111=1234321, 11111x11111=123454321, and the pattern continues until 111111111x111111111=12345678987654321...thus creating all the digits one through nine all from the use of just 1's. This is as far as we have gotten in the book...not quite to the end of chapter one (The First Night), but we will continue and find more patterns, gain more number sense, and maybe....just maybe have a little fun!!!
Then the Number Devil presents 1's in yet another fashion in creating the rest of the digits we currently use. This begins with 1x1=1, then 11x11=121...there being created the number 2...all from using 1's. 111x111=12321, 1111x1111=1234321, 11111x11111=123454321, and the pattern continues until 111111111x111111111=12345678987654321...thus creating all the digits one through nine all from the use of just 1's. This is as far as we have gotten in the book...not quite to the end of chapter one (The First Night), but we will continue and find more patterns, gain more number sense, and maybe....just maybe have a little fun!!!