One fine fall day, Fred, the famous football player, decided to do a little math activity with his favorite sport. So he put his ball down on one of the goal lines of the 100-yard field. He then moved it forward half the distance — that is, 50 yards — toward the other goal line. [...]
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trottermath
The article that you are about to read in this page was written by the staff of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation and published in their Winter 1995 edition of their newsletter MATHCOUNTS NEWS. It is is reprinted here by permission. Mild Turns Wild Every once in a while, tucked deep within a MATHCOUNTS School Handbook or MATHCOUNTS [...]
John has $120 in his bank account and saves $8 each week. Mary has $230 in her account and withdraws $6 each week. After how many weeks will they have the same amount? What will that amount be? Are you having a sensation of “deja vú” just about now? That is, do you feel you’ve seen this before? Well, [...]
John has $160 in his bank account and saves $8 each week. Mary has $270 in her account and withdraws $3 each week. After how many weeks will they have the same amount? What will that amount be? Here is an interesting “real-world” problem that young students can surely relate to, I would imagine. Two individuals have some money [...]
This is a simple arithmetical activity, designed to give younger students an introduction to a topic not normally encountered until high school algebra, as least in a formal, abstract sense: arithmetic sequences. Here is how I present it to my students… Below you see a ladder standing up. The ladder has 7 rung (or steps). On the [...]
When I see a good problem somewhere, I like to investigate its properties further and deeper, with the intention of using it to develope problem solving skills in my students. Such was the case when I saw the two problems that you will see in this page of WTM. I hope you will agree with me that they can [...]
One day while browsing on the Internet, I came across the following problem: A 7 is written at the end of a two-digit number, increasing its value by 700. Find the original number. Well, as I’m always hunting for good problems about numbers, I feel that I have developed a sixth sense for such things. [...]
Here is an interesting problem that only involves basic arith-metic, but with an unusual twist. Find 5 numbers such that when each number is multiplied by the sum of the remaining 4 numbers, one of the following values will result: 44 63 95 108 128 WOW! Did you get that? I hope you [...]
Once upon a time and far away there was a wonderful place called Number Line Land. It was part of a larger world known as Mathematica. The creatures who lived in this place were like nothing you’ve ever seen before. There were two main types: heptoads and tetrogs. They lived in a strange habitat, strange [...]
The history of the measurement of Time is indeed an interesting one. Recently I found a website that discusses this topic which is called horology (the study of time). Appropriately the website’s name is called http://www.horology.com/horology/ However five years ago I wrote up this little activity about Time for my pre-algebra students. I called it appropriately: [...]