Start with a number you choose between 0 and 9999:
Gini and Karl Explain the Secret of Numbers: The Number Counter
"Hi!" said Gini the penguin.
"Welcome to our math playground!" added Karl, flapping his flippers excitedly.
"Today," said Gini, "we want to tell you a secret about numbers. A really cool one!"
Only 10 Digits?!
Karl whispered: "Believe it or not, our whole number system uses only 10 different digits!"
They are:
0 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9
"That's it!" said Gini. "No more are needed."
If we have zero things, we write 0
If we have one, we write 1
If we have two, we write 2
And we keep going like this...
Until we reach nine, which we write as 9
"So far, so easy," says Karl. "But then something exciting happens!"
What happens after 9?
"What if we have one more than nine?" asked Gini.
"Do we need a new digit?" a small penguin wondered.
"Nope!" saied Gini. "We start again with 0."
"But wait!" the little penguin interrupted.
"If we write 0 again, how do we know it's not zero things?"
"That's where the magic happens," smiled Karl.
✨ The Power of Places
"We put a 1 in front of the 0," explained Gini.
"And now we write 10!"
"That 1 tells us we've finished one full round from 0 to 9," said Karl.
After 10, we count: 11, 12, 13 …
All the way to 19
Then we start again with 0 at the end and write 20
"And every time the right side reaches 9," said Karl,
"it jumps back to 0, and the number on the left goes up by one."
🚦 What about 99?
The little penguin's eyes got big. "What if we reach 99 and add one more?"
"Good question!" said Gini.
The last 9 turns into 0
The 9 before it also turns into 0
And we put a 1 in front
"And that gives us 100," Karl cheered.
"That means we have ten tens!"
🏁 A Number Race
Karl laughed. "Think of it like a race track!"
Each time we count from 0 to 9, we finish one lap
The right side shows where we are on the track
The left side counts how many laps we've done
"Round and round we go," said Gini,
"but the lap counter keeps us on track!"
🎉 The Big Idea
"And that's why," said Gini,
"we only need 10 digits to write all numbers, even very big ones."
Karl grinned.
"Pretty smart, huh? Math is fun!"
"And now," said Gini,
"try the number counter and watch the digits dance!"
🐧✨
