417 words
26 minutes (give me a break! I'm rusty!)
One magic number
"Mom? Mom!"
Margaret rolled her eyes and sighed. "In the kitchen, Charlie!" She forced herself to smile as her curly-haired five year old dynamo flew through the swinging door. "Slow down!"
"Mommy! I'm bored."
Margaret cringed. "I know, Sweetie. But I'm busy right now. Did you do the math homework your tutor gave you?"
It was Charlie's turn to sigh and roll his eyes as he held up his spiral notebook. "Hours ago! See? What else can I do?"
"How about a little science experiment?"
"Cool! What?"
Margaret walked to the junk drawer and pulled out a tape measure. "Have you heard of pi?"
"Pie?" Charlie glanced at the tape measure in confusion. "Like lemon or apple or cherry?"
"Nope, Sweetie. Pi is a magic number."
Charlie scowled. "I don't believe in magic, Mommy."
"Well, try this. I want you to measure as many circles as you can find. First, measure the circumference..."
"The cir... circum... what's that?"
Margaret laughed and got a glass from the cupboard. She wrapped the tape measure around the glass. "The circumference, honey. It's the distance around the outside of the circle. Now you write that number down."
Charlie looked at the tape measure. "Ten n' a half inches, right?"
"Right. Now write it in your notebook. And measure across the circle, right at the middle. That's called the diameter."
Charlie squinted at the tape measure. "It's about three n' a third."
"Good! Now write that next to the circumference."
"Okay. Now what?"
"Go find as many circles as you can and write down their circumference and diameter. Then come back and I'll tell you what to do next."
"Okay, Mommy! See you later!"
Twenty minutes later, Charlie returned, a whole page of his notebook filled with pairs of numbers. "Now what?" he demanded.
Margaret shifted the phone to her left ear and raised her right index finger. Charlie had seen that signal so many times he knew his mom was telling him to wait a minute. He sat down at the table and looked at the numbers. Suddenly, he could see it. His eyes widened as he began to write a third number next to each pair of numbers. Always the same. Give or take a little for mistakes in measuring.
When Margaret hung up the phone and turned back to look at him, she smiled. "You see it, don't you, Sweetie? You see the magic number. That's called pi."
Charlie nodded, awestruck. "You were right, Mommy. It IS magic."