ShmoopTube

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So there's this club we want to tell you about

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It's very exclusive.

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Many apply, few get in.

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Here are some of those who have tried to get in and failed to join the ranks.

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but every now and then a candidate comes along who proves himself worthy.

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He's bold

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He's audacious

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He's colorful

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He has earned his stripes and is now an elite member of

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the integer club

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the first rule of integer club is that you do not talk about integer club

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second rule about integer club is that you do not talk about integer club

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third rule about integer club is that we were totally kidding about first two rules

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Go ahead and talk about integer club

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It appreciates the free advertising

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the members of this club to a lot of traveling

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Their main mode of transport?

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a number line

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it sorta like the new york subway but with more stops and fewer muggings

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The integers conductor top-secret business only at their designated stops along the

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line their train doesn't stop at four point eight for example

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as tough as these integers are they wouldn't dare mess with a number of that

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is so shady

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The ringleader of the integer club goes by the name Zero he keeps tabs on both

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negative and positive integers also report to him

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many of them passed through when having their signs reversed in fact zero is

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responsible for distributing those negative signs as positive integers

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passed through his station on their way into the bad part of town

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once in awhile usually when zero owes an integer a favor he'll hook them up with

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even more than one negative sign

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which can make them look rather complex and helps to confuse and disorient

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the enemy

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of course like any quality undercover organization everyone's got a partner

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Eight's partner is negative eight

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Eleven's partner is negative eleven and so on

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they work well together but don't get to hang out very often

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The only member of the integer club without a partner

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zero of course he likes to fly solo

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there are rumors that he used to have a partner back in the old days but well he

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doesn't like to talk about it

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there is no direct way to apply for integer club

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you can submit online and you won't find their headquarters address in the yellow pages

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or yelp

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but whether or not you ever receive a personal invitation to become one of

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them you have to feel better just knowing they're out there

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keeping our math homework safe

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and our algebra teachers happy

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