Questions by my students : answer key and detailed solutions are below.

By Aayush, a 5th grader in FL

1.

Mr. Green measures his rectangular garden by walking two of the sides and finds that it 15 is steps by 20 steps. Each of Mr. Green's steps is three feet long. Mr. Green expects two and a half a pound of potatoes per square foot from his garden. How many pounds of potatoes does Mr. Green expect from his garden?

2.

A circle of radius 8 is inscribed in a rectangle as shown. The ratio of the length of the rectangle to its width is 8:7. What is the area of the rectangle?

3.

Ray's car averages 280 miles in eight gallons of gasoline, and Tom's car averages 20 miles per gallon of gasoline. If Ray and Tom each drive the same number of miles what is the cars combined rate of miles per gallon of gasoline? Express your answer as a common fraction.

4.

Say an ant is dropped on a log, which is exactly a meter long, and the ant walks at a rate of 1 cm per second in any direction and goes straight in that direction once it is dropped. What is the maximum time you have to wait to be sure that the ant is off the log?

5.

Continue with the previous question. What if you dropped more than one ant? What is the maximum time you have to wait to be sure that all of the ants are off the log if when an ant bumps into another they both turn around and start walking the other way?

6.

There is a bag of 4 red marbles, 20 white marbles, 14 blue marbles, and 7 black marbles. What is the least amount of marbles you must take out to be certain you have 9 of marbles of the same color? (from Airika , a 9th grader in NY)

7.

There are 45 questions in a contest. Each right answer is worth 4 points and unanswered questions are worth 0 points. For each wrong answer, 2 points are deducted from the overall score. John got 114 points. If John left no question unanswered, how many questions did he get wrong? (from Airika)

8.

Tossing 3 dice, what is the probability that the sum is a multiple of 7? Dont forget to simplify if needed. (from Wesley, a 6th grader in CA) If a pool takes 6 hours to empty and two hours to fill up, low long does it take to fill up the pool if the drain is unplugged? (from Wesley) There are 2 standard dice on a table. Emily rolls one of the dice, while Evan rolls the other. What is the probability that Emily's number is greater than Evan's number? Express your answer in a common fraction. (from Adi, a 3rd grader in OH)

9.

10.

Answer key and detailed solutions by my students : Thanks a bunch!! #1:

#2:

#3: Solution I: If Rays car averages 280 miles in eight miles so it drives 35 miles in one gallon. That means Rays car drives 35 miles in a gallon and Toms car only drives 20 miles in a gallon. So we first the LCM of 35 and 20 which is 140. So, we say that they drove 140 miles each. That would take 4 gallons for Ray and 7 gallons for Tom. That means altogether it took them 11 gallons to drive 280 miles. So they used 280/11 gallons, which is 25 5/11 gallons. Solution II: Total miles times total gallons (similar to Aayushs way)

Solution III: Harmonic mean : Rays speed is 35 miles per gallon and Toms speed is 20 miles per gallon This only works when the two distances (segments) are of the same length.

#4: Solution : We go to the worst-case scenario, which is when the ant is dropped on one end of the rock and he starts walking towards the other end of the log. Because he is walking at a rate of 1 cm per second, and he has to walk 100 centimeters, it will take him 100 seconds until he is off the log.

#5: Solution: We can look at the problem in a different perspective saying that two ants can pass through each other. So if the ants can pass through each other, then each ant is independent, so it will still only take 100 seconds until you can be sure there is no ant on the log. Or, once the ants bump to each other, they switch identity and become the other ant. That way, it still takes them 100 seconds.

6.

Answer: 28 marbles (Thanks, Airika !!) Explanations: You can solve this problem using the "worst case scenario." There aren't nine red or lack marbles in the bag so you take out 4 red and 7 black = 11 marbles. Then imagine you are very unlucky and take out 8 whites and 8 blues, which is one less than the nine same colored marbles that you want = 16 marbles. The next marble you take out will either be white or blue. It will make nine of the same color = 1 marble For a total, you will have to take out 28 marbles.

7.

Explanation: There are two ways to do this type of question. First Way (Algebraically) You can make the number of right answers "x" and the number of wrong answers "y." Because John left no question unanswered, you can take that part out. 4x - 2y = 114 Right answers (x) are worth 4 points and wrong answers (y) are worth -2 points. They add up to John's score of 114. x + y = 45 There are 45 questions, so the number of answers should equal to 45. Solve this algebraically: x = 45 - y 4(45 - y) - 2y = 114 180 - 4y - 2y = 114 -6y = -66 y = 11 So John got 11 questions wrong.

Second Way With the second method, you can do this question using mental math. Make all the answers right answers. 45 x 4 = 180 180- 114 = 66. Substitute a right answer with a wrong answer, so divide 66 by the difference between number of points for right answers and the number of points for wrong answers. 66/6 = 11. Note that the difference is 6 because wrong answers get points deducted. John got 11 questions wrong

8. (Wesley, thanks !!) number number of outcomes 3 1 4 3 5 6 6 10 7 15 8 21 9 25 10 27 11 27 12 25 13 21 14 15 15 10 16 6 17 3 18 1 9.

of the pool per hour (filled)

pool per hour (empty) = pool per hour, so it takes 3 hours to fill the pool.

#10: Solution: Emilys number could only be larger than Evan if she rolls a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. If Emily rolls a 2, Evans number can be 1, so 1 way. If Emily rolls a 3, Evans number can be 1 or 2, so 2 ways. etc If Emily rolls a 6, Evans number can be 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, so 5 ways. The answer is