Lower Elementary
Question: Adult movie tickets cost twice as much as child movie tickets. If the the total cost of for 2 adults and 3 children is $42.00, what is the price of an adult movie ticket?
Answer: $12
Note:  Most students will use the guess and check method.

Upper Elementary
Question: When a six foot tall man is outside with his son, his shadow is 15 feet long. If his son’s shadow is 10 feet long, how tall is his son?
Answer: 4 feet
Note: The man’s shadow is 2 1/2 times longer than he is tall. So his son’s shadow will be 2 1/2 times longer than he is tall.

Middle School
Question: What is the difference between the smallest 5-digit numerical palindrome and the smallest 5 digit number?
*Hint – A numerical palindrome is a number that reads the same backward as forward. Ex: 9889.
Answer: 1
Note: The smallest 5-digit numerical palindrome is 10001. The smallest 5 digit number is 10000. 10001 – 10000 = 1.

Algebra and Up
Question: Working together a carpenter and his apprentice can build a staircase in 3 1/5 hours. If it takes the carpenter 4 hours to build the staircase on his own, how long will it take his apprentice to build the staircase working on his own?
Answer: 16 hours
Note: Let t1 = time for carpenter to do the job, t2 = time it takes the apprentice to do the job, t = total time. Then, using the work equation 1/t1 + 1/t2 = 1/t, solve for t2.

  1. t1=4
    t = 16/5
    1/4 + 1/t2 = 5/16 => 1/t2 = 1/16 => t2 = 16.