The Little Red Brick:
An Additive Tale
by Joshua Gans
This is the little red brick.
This
is a stud.
Bricks click on to each other using studs.
The little red brick walked around looking for
other bricks to click on to.
Some other bricks were building a wall.
“Can I be part of your wall?” said the little red
brick.
“We want more bricks but we each have 16
studs,” the big red brick explained. “You are too
little to fit on our wall. You have only 8 studs.”
Sad, the little red brick wandered off.
There was a smaller little red brick who was also
sad.
They discovered they had the same problem.
“I wanted to click on to the wall too. But I was too
small,” said the smaller little red brick. “I have
only 6 studs.”
They wandered off together.
They found the smallest little red brick. It also
wanted to click on to the wall.
“I have just two studs. I am too small for the
wall,” said the smallest little red brick.
They wandered off together.
Suddenly, the little red brick stopped. The
smaller little red brick ran into its back!
And the smallest little red brick ran into both of
them! CLUNK.
“Look at us now,” said the little red brick. Apart,
we were too little for the wall. But together, look
how long we are.
They counted the studs together. “I have 8 and
you have 6 studs. Together that makes 14.”
“And then you have 2 studs and all together we
make 16. Now we can be part of the wall.”
They went back and explained this to the larger
red bricks.
Now the three little red bricks could be part of
the wall.
THE END