Every dog has its day

On a school day in the late 1700s, a teacher, for unknown reason, ordered her pupils to add up all the numbers from 1 up to 100.

The children immediately started adding except the future prince of mathematics.

He thought about the order for a few seconds and proudly announced result.

What a glorious day for little Carl Friedrich Gauss!

Fast forward to the late 1970s when I was a high school student.  On a hot summer day, factoring was taught to us first, then an order was given:

„Factor all expressions on page 18, only 88 of them“

The students went to work immediately. But I got a funny idea of doing something else.

While pretending I was factoring, I stated peeking at the illustrated book „Ring of  Nibelungs“ by Arthur Rackham. I had brought it to school and hide it under the dull textbooks.

What an sixteen years…