Level 1 · Ages 6–8
Read it again any time, including while you work through the exercises.
Have you ever played battleship or chess? On these games, the board is a grid: standing columns and lying rows that cross to form squares. To say where a ship or a treasure hides, you give a code: first the column, then the row.
For example, square (3, 2) is in column 3 and row 2. To find it, put your finger at the bottom of column 3, then go up to row 2. Your finger is on the right square!
Watch out for the most classic trap: order matters! Square (3, 2) and square (2, 3) are not in the same place at all, just like house number 3 on Second Street is not house number 2 on Third Street. You always read the column first, then the row.
On a grid you can also move around: going right makes the column number grow, going up makes the row number grow. That is the secret behind treasure maps, city maps and even video games!
A treasure is hidden in square (4, 2). How do you find it?
(4, 2) : colonne 4
I read the first number: 4. That is the column. I put my finger at the bottom of column 4.
(4, 2) : ligne 2
I read the second number: 2. That is the row. I slide my finger up to row 2.
colonne 4 + ligne 2 = case trouvée
Where column 4 crosses row 2, that is the treasure square!
Result: The treasure is where column 4 meets row 2.