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The Jabber-notty

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
  • Problem
  • Student Solutions
For this statement, we need not understand what a 'tove' or 'wabe' is, but we do need to understand the conjunctions (twas, and, in) and how negation affects them.

We use De Morgan's Law, which says that for two statements A and B $$ \lnot(A\cap B) = \lnot(A) \cup \lnot(B) $$
So let us denote A as "it was brillig", and B as "the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe".

We then see that $\lnot A$ is the statement "it was not brillig".
And $\lnot B$ is the statement "at least one slithy tove did not gyre and gimble in the wabe".

Combining these together, we find that:

"Either it was not brillig, or at least one slithy tove did not gyre and gimble in the wabe"


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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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