Writing a math answer for a Problem of the Week is very different from writing an essay in English class or a term paper in History class, so we would like to give you some guidelines. You write only one document, but we receive sometimes as many as 300-400 (or more) answers per week to [...]
While Ms. Powers was leading a class discussion about square numbers, Absent-minded Alvin was in another “world”, looking for interesting patterns in the topic. Shortly, he raised his hand and said, “Ms. Powers, I’ve found something rather nice. Look. If I take 2 consecutive squares and subtract them, the difference is always the sum of [...]
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 $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 [...]
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. [...]
No, that is not someone’s telephone number up there in the title of this piece. It is the name of a numerical puzzle guaranteed to spark wonder and amazement in the minds of your students. It is called Kaprekar’s (pronounced kuh-PREE-kur) Constant*. This little, mysterious math activity is one of a family of math procedures called [...]
Knowing quickly whether one number is divisible by another is a basic math skill which is very useful and serves many purposes as one studies mathematics at all levels, high or low. For many readers, this page will contain much information that you already know, but I think if you will bear with me, you will [...]