Stuffie School

Hey everyone, I found out what the backpack was for!  Today is my first day at Stuffie School.  There are some crayons and a notebook in this classroom.  I am beary excited and I can’t wait to see who my teacher is…

…it’s Uncle Tibbs!

“Hi Ajdin,” he said.  “When you are at Stuffie School, you can call me Mr. Tibbs.  And yes, I am your teacher this year.”  He looked beary intellectual with those glasses on.

“Alright, let’s get to it, shall we?” said Mr. Tibbs.  “Today we are going to learn about the Pythagorean Theorem.  It states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, and it can be written as a² + b² = c².”

I raised my paw.

“Yes Ajdin?”

“Mr. Tibbs, I am confused,” I said.  “I am not sure how this would be useful in a practical situation.  Can you give an example please?”

“Why certainly,” said Mr. Tibbs.  “Let’s pretend you are fishing here by the edge of a riverbank.  And you have a fishing pole.”  He drew a picture.

“What type of fish have I caught?” I asked.

“Umm, salmon I guess,” he answered.

“What type of salmon?” I asked.  “Pink salmon or sockeye salmon?”

“That’s not important right now,” said Mr. Tibbs.  “From the picture, wouldn’t you say that it kind of looks like a right triangle?”

“Hmm…yes, yes it does,” I said.

“Then perhaps using the Pythagorean Theorem, if you know what a and b are, you can solve for side c, or the length of the fishing pole,” he said.  “Plug in 3 feet for a, and 4 feet for b and see what you get.  And remember to show your work.”

After some scribbling, I finally came up with the answer.

“The fishing pole, or c, is 5 feet,” I said.

“Yes, beary good!” said Mr. Tibbs.  “I can see you are beary good at math, Ajdin, especially when salmon is involved.”

I can’t wait to see what else I will learn at Stuffie School this year!