Tamar had never seen anything like it before.
In the middle of the Israelite camp stood a large tent — it had wooden frames, bright curtains, golden parts, and a tall fence all around.
“What is it?” Tamar asked her uncle, who was setting up the posts.
“It’s a tent for worshipping Jehovah,” he said. “And every part of it has a shape, a size, and a number. Want to learn while we build?”
Tamar smiled. “Yes — but I don’t know any maths.”
“That’s okay,” said Uncle. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
Uncle handed her a short stick.
“This is one cubit long,” he said. “That’s how we measure everything here.”
“What’s a cubit?” asked Tamar .
“It’s from your elbow to your fingertip — about half a meter.”
“Why, then,” Tamar paused and looked at him, “did Grandfather say his life has many cubits left?”
“Life is a journey,” Uncle laughed. “Come, let’s measure this wall together — one cubit, two cubits, three…”
They counted bundles of cloth.
“There are 25 pieces in one bundle,” said Uncle.
“If we had 10 bundles, how many pieces?”
Tamar thought. “25… and add one zero… that’s 250!”
“Right. That’s multiplying by 10.”
“And what if we had 100 bundles?”
Tamar’s eyes lit up. “Two zeros this time! 25 becomes 2,500!”
Uncle grinned. “Ready for something really big?”
“What is it?” Tamar asked, leaning in with excitement.
“How about 10,000 times 10,000?”
Tamar blinked. “That’s… a one with a huge pile of zeros!”
“That’s how we build big things — one simple idea at a time.”
They looked at a drawing of the Tabernacle.
Like a bird flying overhead.
“It has two rooms,” said Uncle.
“We call them the ‘The Holy’ and ‘The Most Holy'”
One room was 10 cubits long and 10 cubits wide.
“All four sides are the same,” said Tamar. “That’s a square!”
The other room was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide.
“Two sides are longer — that’s a rectangle,” she added.
“Excellent!” Uncle applauded.
“Now let’s find out how big the floor is,” said Uncle.
“That’s called area — it tells you how much ground is covered.”
Tamar blinked. “How do I find it?”
“Imagine the floor is one big puzzle,” Uncle explained. “You just multiply the length by the width.”
““So the area is how many puzzle pieces would fit!”
They worked it out:
Square room: 10 × 10 = 100 square cubits
Rectangle room: 20 × 10 = 200 square cubits
“That’s why we write it with a little number 2, like this: cu²,” Uncle said. “It means you measured two things — the length and the width.”
Tamar grinned. “It’s like counting puzzle pieces!”
Uncle stood and pointed at the tall walls.
“Now we add height to our measurements.
That is: how long times how wide times how high.
That gives us volume, or how much space is inside a room.”
They counted:
Square room: 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000 cubic cubits
“All sides are the same,” said Tamar. “That’s a cube!”
Then she pointed at the long room:
20 × 10 × 10 = 2,000 cubic cubits
“This one is longer than the others — it’s a cuboid!” she said proudly.
“We write volume with a little 3 — like this: cu³,” said Uncle. “Because we measure three things: length, width, and height.”
“Ready for another challenge?”
“As sure as sunrise!” Tamar laughed.
“A heavenly city has its length, width, and height equal…”
“A cube!” she shouted, eyes wide with delight.
“Great!” Uncle chuckled. “I think, we’re ready for dinner.”
Tamar gazed up at the Tabernacle, wonder dancing in her eyes.
“I used to think maths was tricky,” she said.
“But this feels like something I can hold.”
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Al-Khwarizmi gave us the word algebra.
“Let us reason together!”
— Isaiah 1:18 —
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Exodus 25-27; Matthew 6:27; Revelation 21:16