LOWER ELEMENTARY:
Question: Annie is 3rd place in a lunch line. Jacob is 4 places behind Annie. Paula is 6 places ahead of Jacob. What place is Paula in line?
Answer: First Place
Solution: Since Annie is in 3rd place, Jacob is in 3 + 4 = 7th place. Paula is 6 places ahead of Jacob, so she is in 7 – 6 = 1st place.
UPPER ELEMENTARY:
Question: What’s the area of a square plot of tulips planted into 10 rows of 10 tulips if each tulip is exactly one foot away from the next?
Answer: 81 Square Feet
Solution: Since there are 10 tulips in each row, there are 9 spaces in between. So, the plot is 9 • 9 = 81 square feet.
MIDDLE SCHOOL:
Question: A brand new deck of 52 cards has the Ace of Hearts on top. The next card is the Ace of Spades, then the Ace of Diamonds, then the Ace of Clubs. The 5th card is the 2 of Hearts. If the pattern continues, which card will be 38th? How can you tell without flipping all the cards until you reach the 38th?
Answer: 10 of Spades
Solution: The pattern of the suits repeats every 4 cards. After every 4 cards, the value increases by 1. So, to find out which card is 38th, we divide: 38 ÷ 4 = 9 sets of 4 cards with 2 left over. That means that the 38th card is 2 cards into the 10s. The second suit in the pattern is spades, so the 38th card is the 10 of Spades.
ALGEBRA AND UP:
Question: A trout is swimming downstream in a river whose current runs 2 miles per hour. After 30 minutes, the trout has traveled 6 miles. How fast would the same trout swim in still water?
Answer: 10 mph
Solution: We can solve this problem by plugging the values into the formula d = rt; d is the distance traveled, r is the combined rate of the trout’s swimming and the river’s current, and t is the amount of time the trout is in motion. Since we don’t know how fast the fish swims but we do know that the combined rate is 2 mph faster than the fish’s speed, we can plug in (s + 2) as the value of r:
6 = (s + 2) • 0.5
When we solve the equation for the value of s, we find that the trout’s speed is 10 miles per hour.
Thanks, check back next week for more!
