Kiss those Math Headaches GOODBYE!

Posts tagged ‘Math Problem’

Fun Math Problem #2


Here is the second in my series of “Fun Math Problems.”

Feel free to try these problems. Share them with friends and colleagues. Use them however you see fit! I will post the answer to the problems two days later, after people have had time to respond.

To provide your response, simply send an email to me @ info@SingingTurtle.com
and make your Subject: Fun Problem.
Please show how you worked the problem. Thanks. I will post the names of the first three people who get this right.

The Problem:  Before you go out to lunch, you glance at the clock above your desk. When you come back from lunch, you glance at the clock again, and you notice something strange. The minute and the hour hand have exchanged places from the positions they had just before you went to lunch.

The question is:  how long were you away?

Rusting clock face

Image by The Hidaway (Simon) via Flickr

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Category:

Algebra, Challenge Problem, Formulas, FUN PROBLEM, Integers, Linear Equations, Making Math Fun, Practice Problems, Problem of the Month, Problem of the Week, Puzzles, Turtle Talk, Uncategorized

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NOVEMBER PROBLEM OF THE MONTH


The problem:

It’s your friend’s 73rd birthday. You’ve put together a surprise party and baked a special coconut meringue cake. But at the last minute you realize that — golly gee! — you forgot to get candles.

Rummaging through your drawers with just five minutes before your friend’s scheduled arrival, you find that you do have 14 candles. And being a brilliant mathematician, you realize that you can represent the number 73 with these 14 candles, using every candle. How do you do it?

As a hint, here’s a model showing how to do a problem like this, if you are celebrating someone’s 44th birthday, when you have just 13 candles. Notice that each dot on the top row is one candle.

birthday-candles-potm-image

Note that you may use icing to create the symbols: +, –, x, ÷, and you may also put in exponents, using candles to show the value of the exponent.

Have fun!

Send answers to:

info@SingingTurtle.com

Make the Subject line: POTM

Please include your full name, where you live, and if you don’t mind, describe your connection to math and math education (for example: teacher, tutor, math enthusiast, etc.).

The first person to send in a correct answer receives a $20 gift certificate toward the purchase of any Singing Turtle Press products. I’ll fill the winner in on the details by email.


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Category:

Addition, Division, Making Math Fun, Multiplication, Place Value, Problem of the Month, Puzzles, Subtraction

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