I’ve been waiting for this to happen. A grandchild comes home with some math problems I have not an iota of idea how to solve. She’s to write a ‘numbered sentence.’
I’m a writer. A numbered sentence could be the entryway to a dangerous ground – spinning as fast a cockroaches scurry. I could have used this in second grade, when the precursor of the multiplication table reared its ugly head.
If I could have WRITTEN an answer to 12 x 13, I could have concocted a tale involving what happens when a chicken’s dozen eggs were forced to fiddle with a Baker’s Dozen. What would happen? A Bakery Franchise? A war of the yolks? A plea for adding funds to Planned Parenthood, in defiance of the alt-sanity-right movement?
I guess not. I googled [another math term, now viral] and found one answer at http://www.education.com/question/number-sentence/
A number sentence without unknowns is equivalent to a logical proposition expressed using the notation of arithmetic.
[edit] Examples
A valid number sentence that is true: 3 + 7 = 10.
A valid number sentence that is false: 7 + 9 = 17.
A valid number sentence using a 'less than' symbol: 3 + 6 < 10.
If the Kafka's used bugs to demonstrate the numbered sentence to explain to Franz, perhaps the bug of "Metamorphosis" could have been planted.