Samantha Spinner and the Perplexing Pants by Russell Ginns

Author:Russell Ginns [Ginns, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

Samantha sat down at her desk. Then she put on the purple glasses, held up the photo strip, and stared at the plaid rectangle at the bottom.

Nothing.

She took them off, rubbed the glasses against her sleeve to clean the lenses, and put them on again.

She stared. And stared. And…nothing.

“Ugh,” she said. “Of course.”

Of course it didn’t work. Uncle Paul hadn’t left a message in super-secret ink on Nipper’s souvenir photo. It was just a picture…taken by accident…of his butt.

Samantha felt dumb…and frustrated…and was staring at a butt.

This was a total waste of time….Again.

She took the glasses back off and let out a heavy sigh. She set down the photo and glasses and leaned forward.

Thump.

She let her head hit the top of her desk.

“Everything okay?” Mr. Spinner asked.

Samantha lifted her head and turned to see her father in the doorway. He looked worried.

“No, Dad,” she told him. “Everything is not okay.”

She held up the photo strip.

“The pattern is in the plaid,” she said quietly. “And I’m…lost.”

“Wait,” he said, stepping into the room. “One minute.”

He took the photo strip from her and stared at it.

Samantha could tell he was looking at each photo, one by one, starting at the top.

She knew when he reached the third photo, because he chuckled. He was definitely looking at Nipper.

Then her father reached the photo at the bottom, and he squinted.

His lips moved silently. Then, still squinting at the picture, he said, “One, one, two, three…”

Her father was counting. Samantha started getting excited. Had he found a clue?

“Five, eight…,” he continued.

Samantha held her breath.

“It’s the Fibonacci sequence,” said Mr. Spinner.

“The Fib-o-what?” she asked.

“It’s a famous math pattern,” he answered. “It’s hidden in the pattern in this photo.”

Her father put the photo strip on the desk in front of her and tapped one of the squares in the plaid.

“If you count the groups of stripes that run up and down, you get one, one, two, three,” said Mr. Spinner.

Samantha nodded at him, then went back to looking at the photo.

“Now count the groups of stripes that go from side to side,” he told her.

Samantha studied the square carefully.

“Five…eight,” she replied.

“Exactly,” said her father. “That’s the Fibonacci sequence. Every number is the sum of the two numbers before it. You start with two ones to make the number two. Then you add two and—”

“Wait,” said Samantha, standing up quickly.

She pushed her chair back under her desk.

“Come with me and explain it. I want to write it all in my journal.”

He smiled and nodded, and together they headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.