Math Problems of the Week - Apr. 21, 2024 to Apr. 27, 2024

Lower Elementary:

Question:A sheepdog has a litter of 7 puppies and 1 adopted piglet. Each puppy eats 2 cups of food per day. The piglet eats twice as much as puppy. How many cups of food do they baby animals need each day in total?

Answer: 18 cups

Solution: Since each of the 7 puppies eats 2 cups of food each day, all of the puppies eat 2,4,6,8,10,12, 14 cups of food in a day. The piglet eats twice as much as a puppy, and twice as much as 2 cups is 4 cups. So, the baby animals eat 14+4 = 18 cups of food in total.

Upper Elementary:

Question: One farmer sleeps through his alarm clock 3 times every 12 days. Another farmer has a duck that wakes him up 2 out of every 3 days by quacking. Which wakeup method is more effective, the alarm clock or the duck?

Answer: The Alarm Clock

Solution: Since the garmer sleeps through his alarm 3 times every 12 days, he wakes up to his alarm clock 9 times every 12 days. So, the alarm clock is successful 9 ÷ 12 = ¾ of the mornings it’s used. The duck wakes up the farmer 2 ÷ 3 = ⅔ of the mornings it quacks. Since ¾ is more than ⅔, the alarm clock is more effective than the duck.

Middle School:

Question: Esme makes a dollhouse that is a perfect miniature of her own farmhouse. The farmhouse is 12 yards wide. The dollhouse is 18 inches wide. What are the dimensions of a miniature refrigerator that goes inside the dollhouse if the real-life refrigerator in the farmhouse is 3 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and 5 feet tall?

Answer: 1½ inches × 1 inch × 2½ inches

Solution: Twelve yards is 36 feet, and 18 inches is 1½ feet. So, the dimensions of the farmhouse are 36 ÷ 1½ = 24 times the dimensions of the dollhouse. To find the dimensions of the miniature refrigerator, we divide by 24: 3 feet (36 inches) divided by 24 is 1½ inches. 2 feet (24 inches) divided by 24 is 1 inch. 5 feet (60 inches) divided by 24 is 2½ inches.

Algebra and Up:

Question: A pig and a border collie are competing in a sheep herding competition. When the pig approaches the sheep at a rate of 11 mph, the sheep walk away at a rate of 3 mph. When the border collie chases the sheep at a rate of 25 mph, the sheep run away at a rate of 20 mph. Which animal catches up to the sheep faster?

Answer: The Pig

Solution: The distance between the pig and the sheep closes at a rate of 11-3=8 miles per hour. The distance between the border collie and the sheep closes by 25-20=5 miles per hour. Since the distance between the pig and the sheep closes faster than the distance between the border collie and the sheep, the pig catches up faster.