Once upon a time, in a far-off land, there lived a group of mathematical creatures. These creatures were called Numbs and they lived in a world where everything was based on numbers.

One day, the Numbs decided to have a contest to see who was the best at mathematics. The contest was simple: find the mean, median, mode, minimum, and maximum of a set of numbers.

The first Num to go was a naive little Num named Null. Null had never done anything like this before, but he was eager to try. He confidently wrote down the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and asked the judges for their mean.

The judges told him that the mean was 3. Null was thrilled! He thought he was going to win the contest. But then, he was asked to find the median.

"The median?" Null asked, looking confused. "What's that?"

The judges explained that the median was the middle number in a set of numbers. Null looked at his set of numbers and realized that the median was 3. He was still in the running!

Next, Null was asked to find the mode. He looked at his numbers again and realized that there wasn't a number that appeared more than once, so the mode was null.

"Null?" Null asked, looking even more confused. "What's that?"

The judges told him that null meant there wasn't a mode in the set of numbers. Null was a bit discouraged, but he kept going. He found the minimum and maximum numbers in his set and was very proud of himself.

Finally, it was time for the last challenge: find the nearest number. Null was stumped. He didn't know what the nearest number was.

Just then, a wise old Num named Nondeterministic stepped forward. "The nearest number is the number that is closest to all the other numbers in the set," he explained.

Null looked at his numbers and realized that 3 was the nearest number. He was overjoyed! He had completed all the challenges and was now a master of mathematics.

From that day on, Null was no longer a naive little Num. He was a master of mean, median, mode, minimum, maximum, and nearest numbers. And he lived happily ever after, solving mathematical problems for the rest of his days.

The end.

Reflections

1. Who was Null and what did he want to do?
2. What was the contest that the Numbs were having?
3. What did Null learn about mean, median, mode, minimum, maximum, and nearest numbers?
4. How did Null become a master of mathematics?
5. What did Null become after completing the challenges?
6. How do you think Null felt after completing all the challenges in the contest?
7. Can you think of any real-life examples where you would use mean, median, mode, minimum, maximum, or nearest numbers?