Math Genre: Mystery (Really Hard Version)
An equation retold as a mystery story.
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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/2025-05-27-math-genres--math-genre-mystery-really-hard-version/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
Mystery (really hard version): x⁵ − 1 = x [x in sunglasses] "Who was this mysterious X? No one knew. And honestly, no one expected to figure it out, except as a rough approximation. Some mysteries are just like that."