Chapter 1Jordan Waters let out a contented sigh as helooked around his fifth-grade classroom. He feltlike things were finally back to normal. The schoolyear had started off very badly. Jordan and Justin Grant,his best friend since kindergarten, had been put intoone class. The other half of the Math Kids, StephanieLewis and Catherine Duchesne, had been placed in Mrs.Wilson''s class. To make matters even worse, Mr. Miller,his new teacher, had made it quite clear he was not a fanof anything to do with math.
Luckily, the Math Kids had been able to use theirmath skills to prove that Mr. Miller''s son had been falselyaccused of reckless driving. To return the favor, Mr. Millerhad pulled a few strings and got Stephanie and Catherinemoved into his class. The Math Kids were reunited, andthings were right with the world. Mr. Miller had put themin the same math group, and now they had time to worktogether on difficult math problems. There was nothingbetter than a tough math challenge as far as Jordan andhis friends were concerned.
This time the problem came from Catherine''s dad. Hetaught math at the college and had even written some ofhis own math books. Mr. Duchesne knew his daughter andher friends loved math and always had a new problemfor them to solve. In fact, it was solving a math problemthat first introduced them to the math professor. WhenMr. Duchesne had been kidnapped, he wrote Catherine asecret message that she and her friends solved using theFibonacci series, a famous math pattern. The Math Kidshad figured out the clue and were able to rescue him.
That was also when the four friends had met FBI SpecialAgent Carlson, who had been assigned to the kidnappingcase. That introduction had led to the agent asking theMath Kids to assist the FBI on a cold case involving abank robbery, and from there an unlikely friendship haddeveloped between them."Okay, here''s the problem," Catherine said as she readfrom a sheet of paper. "The new ice cream store has sixteenflavors of ice cream. How many ways can they make athree-scoop ice cream cone?""Does the order of the scoops matter?" Stephanieasked."That''s a great question, Stephanie," Justin said. "Thatmakes a big difference when you''re counting up the totalnumber of possible combinations.""It says the order of the scoops doesn''t matter, justthe flavors that end up in the cone," Catherine answered.
"So, two scoops of chocolate and one scoop of vanillais the same no matter how you stack them up?" Stephanieasked."Well, obviously that''s not right," Jordan chimed in."You should always put the vanilla scoop in between thetwo chocolate scoops.""Can we stick to the math and not your taste buds?"Justin asked.Stephanie made her way to the white-board. She hadthe best handwriting, so she usually ended up being theone who wrote down the group''s thoughts."We could do it the hard way," Jordan said. "We couldwrite down all of the combinations and count them, butI have a feeling there''s an easier method.
""I think you''re probably right," Catherine said. "My dadis usually trying to teach some lesson when he gives us aproblem like this. I think we should make a table and seeif we can come up with a pattern."Stephanie started a table on the white-board.Flavors Possibilities Combinations1 1 aaa"I used letters for the flavors," she said. "The first oneis pretty easy. Boring, but easy.""I don''t know," Jordan said.
"A three-scoop chocolateice cream cone doesn''t sound boring to me.""We probably shouldn''t do ice cream problems rightbefore lunch," Justin said. The other Math Kids laughed."Okay, back to work," Stephanie said. With the help ofher friends, she filled out the next few rows in the table.Flavors Possibilities Combinations1 1 aaa2 4 aaa, aab, abb, bbb3 10 aaa, aab, aac, abb, abc,acc, bbb, bbc, bcc, ccc4 20 aaa, aab, aac, abb, abc,acc, bbb, bbc, bcc, ccc,aad, abd, acd, add, bbd,bcd, bdd, ccd, cdd, ddd"Wow, the number of possibilities really goes up fastwith each new flavor," Catherine said. "It will take usforever if we have to keep writing down all of the possiblecombinations. Does anyone see a pattern yet?"The four friends stared at the board, hoping somethingwould jump out at them.
Stephanie jotted some numberson a sheet of paper, then just as quickly scratched themout in frustration. Jordan spent his time trying to figureout the number of possible combinations for five flavorsof ice cream, hoping the extra piece of information wouldallow him to figure out the pattern. Justin closed his eyes,trying to get into his "zone." When he got into the zone,he usually came out with an answer, but this time he cameup blank.Catherine looked at the sequence of possibilities. "1, 4,10, 20. There''s something familiar about that pattern, butI can''t quite put my finger on it."The lunch bell rang, interrupting their work.
They putthe problem out of their minds as they ate lunch. Instead,they discussed Catherine''s upcoming art show."Are you entering one of your drawings?" Stephanieasked."No, I''m trying something a little different this time,"she said.Stephanie''s eyes widened. In her opinion, Catherinewas a great artist, but Stephanie had never seen her doanything but sketches. "What are you doing?" she asked."Painting?""I thought about that.
I have been reading a book aboutWassily Kandinsky. He was a pioneer of abstract art.""Abstract art, huh?" Justin interjected. "That''s justshapes that don''t make any sense. In my opinion, if I cando it, it''s not art.""I think you''d actually like Kandinsky," Catherineretorted."I doubt it.""What if I told you his art was full of math?" Catherineasked.
"Well, that might make it a little more interesting.""He used shapes--especially circles and squares--inmost of his works. It is amazing to see how much expressionhe could get out of such simple shapes.""How can you get expression out of a square?" Justinasked. His look said he wasn''t buying it.Stephanie ignored Justin. "So, you''re doing an abstractpainting?""No. I am using shapes though.
But unlike Kandinsky,my entry is going to be three-dimensional. I''m going to."Catherine grew quiet and smiled. "I just rememberedwhere I saw that pattern," she said. "I''m pretty sure Iknow how to solve the problem now."Before she could say anything more, Jordan''s phonebuzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and stared wide-eyed at the screen while his friends looked on."Your art project is going to have to wait," he saidtensely.
"I just got a text from Agent Carlson. He''s introuble!".