10
Standards Link: Geometry: Students make a direct comparison with reference objects.
Long ago, people used a broken clay coin to find out who
had permission to get certain things and information.
Say your uncle had a treasure saved just for you, but he had not seen you since you were a
baby. Your uncle would need a way to know that it was really you coming to get the treasure.
One way to do this was with a broken coin. When you were a baby, he would have given you
half of the coin and kept the other other half for himself. (Well, since you were a baby, he
would have given it to someone to save for you.)
Then, when you showed up years later to get your treasure, you would show your half
of the coin. If it matched the half your uncle had, the treasure would be yours!
Today people use locks with keys or
combinations to keep things safe.
To unlock this
safe, you must
figure out which
combination will
work. Read the
clues and see if
you can "unlock"
this mystery!
Do you have private stuff that you don't want your little
brother or sister to get into? How can you keep others out of
your private stuff?
This is not a new problem. For thousands of years, people
have looked for ways to keep things safe from others.
One of the world's most famous
magicians was Harry Houdini.
He made a name for himself by
escaping from chains locked
around his body, from handcuffs
and other locked contraptions.
One time he was asked to unlock
a bank vault. To make it even
more difficult, he would unlock
the bank vault from the inside.
He was locked inside the bank
vault, and in a short time, he
freed himself.
Houdini always said that there
was no magic in his acts—each
was some sort of a trick. To
discover the trick he used to get
out of the locked bank vault, put
each sentence part in numerical
order from lowest to highest.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension:
Understand grade-level appropriate materials;
extract information from text including problems
and solutions.
6. struggle with the lock, then
2. keep people out, not in.
7. open the door and walk out!
3. The trick was to get them to
4. lock him inside the bank vault.
1. The vault is designed to
5. He simply had to pretend to
No two
numbers are
the same.
There are three
odd numbers.
The only even
number is
greater than 6.
1.
2.
3.
Standards Link: Mathematical Reasoning: Analyze problems
by identifying relationships and sequencing information; check
validity of results from context of the problem.
Official Kids Mag www.kidscoop.comVicki WhitingDecember 2020
