Equations as Murder Mysteries
A detective solves equations as murder mysteries: one solution (one murderer), infinitely many (we're all murderers), none (the crime is impossible), and a quadratic with a second culprit still at large.
Transcript
ONE SOLUTION: 7 = x + 1. Detective: "Aha! The murderer!" [points to 6]
INFINITE SOLUTIONS: 3x = x + 2x. "We are *all* murderers…"
ZERO SOLUTIONS: x = x + 1. "There is no murderer. In fact, the murder as described is impossible."
??? SOLUTIONS: x² = 3x + 10. [5 is caught] "We found one culprit… but what if another committed an identical crime?"
Content note: Murder-mystery framing.
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Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.
Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2024-09-03-equations-as-murder-mysteries/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)