Wow, Mr. Mitchell was desperate to help us learn about closed shapes with 3 or more sides. He told us they are called . He talked a local company into paying for our field trip to Washington DC! We were arguing whether our country’s military headquarters was in a six-sided building called the or a five-sided building called the . Most of us thought the answer was Pentagon but we intended to prove it!
On the way to the airport, the bus driver got a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign. Of course one Mr. Mitchell took the opportunity to ask a silly question. “Oh look,” he started with his ‘you better know this or else’ voice. “The stop sign is an 8 sided polygon called an…” He waited and we all shouted, “!”
It turned out that the bus driver had had too many tickets and the policeman was going to take his license away right there! The bus driver was very embarrassed but Mr. Mitchell was worried since he didn’t know how to drive the bus. He told the policeman that we were superstar geometry students and said, “If any one of my kids can beat you in a polygon naming contest, you will have to drive us to the airport.” For some fool reason the policeman agreed, chose me, and the battle began.
Mr. Mitchell took a small shape out of his pocket. It was a quadrilateral with 4 equal sides and four 90-degree angles. He asked the policeman to identify the shape. The policeman said, “A quadrilateral with 4 equal sides and four 90-degree angles is a .” Mr. Mitchell told the policeman that was good and turned to me.
“What other shape could it be?”
“A square is also a .” I told him, knowing that Mr. Mitchell had left me a chance to win. It was the policeman’s turn to call.
“A rectangle is also a .” The policeman smiled knowing that he had made the hurdle.
“A parallelogram is also a .” I was in the lead for 3 seconds. The policeman agreed that I was right, but felt I should have to go again, since quadrilateral was part of the definition. Mr. Mitchell shrugged and agreed.
“Rats, I have to waste my winner. A square is also a .” I said.
The policeman looked nervous. I don’t think he had remembered that answer. I started to feel nervous too, because I knew we would be moving on to triangles and they are my weakest area.
Mr. Mitchell asked the policeman, “What kind of triangle has 3 equal sides?”
The policeman was relieved, “.” He said and smiled a ‘you can’t beat me kid’ grin at me.
I shrugged and answered before Mr. Mitchell even asked the question! “A triangle with 2 sides the same is an triangle.” Mr. Mitchell grinned and declared that my answer was illegal for not waiting for the question! Whose side was he on? He asked me to tell what type of triangle had no sides the same. “” was my answer and I was right.
“OK Mr. Policeman,” Mr. Mitchell said, knowing he had trapped him. “What 4 sided quadrilateral has only one pair of parallel sides?”
The policeman shuffled and looked at his feet. He didn’t know the answer and was going to have to lose because…
“I know the answer!” I shouted when the policeman’s time was up. “A 4 sided quadrilateral with only one pair of parallel sides is called a !” The whole bus full of kids started screaming and shouting. Everyone was thrilled that we were going to Washington DC. The policeman was such a good sport that while he was driving the bus, we sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and “Three Cheers for the Policeman!” all the way there!