Use numbers in an interesting way
She stared at the piece of paper in front of her, her mind going blank. Her heart beat faster and she began to feel anxiety bubbling up. She knew what she had to do. Just solve the equation before her competitor. But she couldn't move with everyone staring at her! She looked back up at the scree where the equation stared down at her menacingly.
Solve for x:
She took a shaky breath and picked up her pencil. Across from her, her opponent was already hard at work. Hand shaking, she wrote the equation down on the paper and began the problem.
"Subtract 4 from both sides."
5x = -5
2
"Multiply both sides by 2."
5x = -10
"Divide by 5 which gives me-"
Ding!
She grit her teeth in disappointment. She had hesitated too long. She had let her team down. This was the deciding factor and she had blew it!
"Contestant Kelly?" the judge asked.
"The answer is 2!" the other girl said confidently. Her heart leaped in her chest.
"I'm sorry, that's not the right answer," the judge said sympathetically. He looked at her. Contestant Hernandez, if you answer correctly, your school wins the competition.
She took a deep breath in her chest, willing herself to speak.
"The answer is -2," she said meekly.
"Correct! Congratulations to the winners, the Zuni Elementary Math Badgers!" There was a cheer behind her as the rest of her team came forward to hug her. She let out a sigh of relief and looked out in the audience, where her parents were beaming at her with joy.
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