REMINDERS: Answers in red. Solvers (submitted/correct) in blue. (Forgive any omissions, but feel free to inform.) Comments in green. For further elaboration, please feel free to ask!
- Mary’s mother had three daughters. The first two were named April and May. What was the name of the third daughter? Mary. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- A cheetah was clocked running 550 feet in 10 seconds. About how many miles per hour is that? 37.5 mph Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis. Partial credit – Rita Barger.
- Find a three-digit perfect square whose last two digits are its square root. 625 Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- Ninety-six is 37.5% of what number? 256. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- What is a) the mean and b) the median of the first 10 prime numbers? a) 12 b) 12.9 Frank Green, Rita Barger, Alexis Avis. Partial credit – Amy Ragsdale.
- Two dates are called ‘reciprocal dates’ if, when written as fractions, each is the other’s reciprocal. E.g., October 6 (10/6) and June 10 (6/10) are reciprocal dates. Not all dates have reciprocal dates (Sep 21, e.g.), and 12 days are their own reciprocal dates. (6/6, e.g.) In any given non-leap year how many days do NOT have reciprocal dates? 221 days. Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale.
- A triangle’s hypotenuse is 13 units. One of the legs is 12. What is the triangle’s area? 30 Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- A history/culture trivia BT: Name a) the man and b) the woman who has/have appeared on the cover or TIME most often. (I mean, what is Google for, right?) a) Richard Nixon. b) The Virgin Mary, Lady Diana, or Hillary Clinton (apparently depending on your source). Frank Green, Alexis Avis. Partial credit – Amy Ragsdale.
- My double exceeds my half by 2. Who am I? 4/3 Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale
- Find three consecutive integers whose sum (adition) equals their product (multiplication). 1,2,3 See Bonus 2 for more correct answers. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- Is it possible for a year to have two consecutive months with a Friday the 13th? Yes, but only in Feb/Mar of non-leap years. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- True or false? An 8″ (radius) circular pizza has over twice as much pizza as a 6″ pizza of the same thickness. (Partial credit for correct answer [only]. Full credit for explanation.) False. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale. Partial credit – Alexis Avis.
- (Repeat?) Can you find FIVE consecutive integers, none of which are prime? Yes. An infinite number of correct answers. The FIRST set occurs at 23,24,25,26,27. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale, Alexis Avis.
- If you draw a card from a ‘normal’ 52-card deck (no jokers), what’s the probability that the card you draw will be EITHER a heart OR a king? 16/52 or 15/52 (depending on your usage of the word OR [inclusive or exclusive]) Frank Green, Amy Ragsdale.
Determine the value for “?” in the equations on the left. (Easier than it might look.)
15. (above) 16 or 17, depending on interpretation of icons in lines/quations 3 and 4. (Amy Ragsdale cleverly noticed that there are two mugs each in line 3, but only one mug in line 4!) Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale.
16. Did you see the GARFIELD cartoon (see 10/24 at link) shared recently (today, for some of you) ? For an easy almost-freebie, how could the wish of the kid on TV have backfired on him? Multiple answers, but if the bad-at-math genie had said ‘that’s your three wishes’ or ‘you have ONE more wish’ or the like, he’d have lost a wish. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale.
17. Multiple interpretations taken. One interpretation was to count the ‘crossing’ points, making the question mark = 4. Frank Green, Rita Barger, Amy Ragsdale.
18.
18. (above). Frank Green noted there is no arithmetic sign here, but assuming addition, the digits (from upper left to lower right) are 0 (or blank), 9, and 0.Frank Green.
Bonus #1: How many states’ names can you string together so that the last letter of one becomes the first letter of the next? E.g., WyominG, GeorgiA, AlaskA, , . . . etc. (We’ll keep ongoing records here and everyone who sets, breaks, or ties a current record in a new way will be listed later.) Amy Ragsdale found TWO strings of 12! (Ask, if you wish to see them.)
Bonus #2: See #10 above. There are actually THREE sets of triplets that satisfy this condition. Can you find the other two? The three triplets are (1,2,3), (-1,0, 1), and (-1,-2,-3). Frank Green, Rita Barger, and Amy Ragsdale
Bonus #3: See #13 above. What’s the largest such string (of non-prime [composite]) integers you can find? (The focus here is on YOU. Multiple correct answers possible.) Rita Barger found a string of 17. Amy Ragsdale found strings of 13 and 19.
Fascinating Math Fact: It turns out here you can find a string of any length you want!! If you want to find a string of 1000 whole numbers without a prime in it, you can do it!! A million? Check. Any arbitrary (whole) number you want!! (And it’s relatively ‘easy’ to demonstrate.) In my mind, one of the Five (Maybe 6) Most Fascinating Facts in Mathematics!! 🙂
Bonus #4: See #17 above. What other attritbute(s) does/do the 3 numbers there share? (Guess what? Multiple answers possible.) Assuming the answer of 4 above, all 3 numbers are perfect squares. (Among other attributes.) Amy Ragsdale.