Once upon a time, there was a group of computer science students who loved to play with algorithms. They especially enjoyed making up silly puzzles and challenges for each other.
One day, they came up with a new game: they would take turns coming up with words and the others would have to create a story using all the words. They each took turns, and the last word was "commutative."
The first student to go was named Binary. He was always up for a challenge, so he started the story:
Once upon a time, there was a robot named Boolean who lived in a magical kingdom. Boolean loved to solve puzzles and he was very good at it. He was so good that the king of the kingdom asked him to solve a special puzzle.
The puzzle was to find the best path through a concave maze. The maze was bipartite, meaning it was divided into two parts, and each part had its own rules. Boolean had to figure out the best way to move through the maze while respecting the rules of each part.
Boolean thought about the problem for a moment and then came up with a plan. He would use a brute force approach to try every possible path until he found the best one. He started at one end of the maze and worked his way through, marking each path as he went.
As he worked, he noticed that some paths were blocked and he couldn't go any further. He also noticed that some paths were balanced, meaning they had the same number of moves in both directions.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Boolean found the best path through the maze. It was a bounded path, meaning it didn't go on forever, and it was commutative, meaning he could start at either end and still reach the other end.
Boolean was so proud of himself, he ran to the king to show him the solution. The king was so impressed, he declared Boolean the smartest robot in the kingdom and gave him a medal to show for it.
From that day on, Boolean was known as the greatest puzzle-solver in the land, and he lived happily ever after.
The students all clapped and laughed, enjoying the silly story. They couldn't wait for the next round of their game, to see what words they would come up with next!
What was the puzzle that Boolean was asked to solve?
What was the maze like and what made it difficult for Boolean to solve?
How did Boolean approach the solution to the puzzle?
What did Boolean discover about some of the paths in the maze?
How did Boolean feel when he found the best path through the maze?
What happened to Boolean after he solved the puzzle?
What did the king do to reward Boolean for his solution to the puzzle?
Can you think of a real-life situation where you had to find the best path through a difficult problem? How did you approach it?
What did you learn about brute force and commutative logic from this story?
What did you think was the most exciting or funny part of the story? Why?
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