Challenge

Problems
Chapter
Numbers and Number Sense 1
1. There is a number x that is 6 units away from 10 on a number
line. What are the possible values of x?

2. What is the sum of the solutions of x − 6 = 10 and x + 6 = 10?

3. Which of the following statements are correct?

a c a +b a c a −b
A. + = B. − =
b d c +d b d c −d

a c a ×c a c a ÷b
C. × = D. ÷ =
b d b ×d b d c ÷d

a c a d
E. ÷ = ×
b d b c

4. Which is greater, − 100 or −100 ?

5. If x − 6 = 10 and x + 6 = 10, is it safe to conclude that

x − 6 = x + 6 ? If yes, What is the solution to the equation?

6. What is the sum of the numbers in the given array?

6 8 10 12 14
8 10 12 14 16
10 12 14 16 18
12 14 16 18 20
14 16 18 20 22
1
 7. What digit is the units place in the sum of 35 + 55 + 25 ?

8. If thrice of 45,132 is divided by 100, what is the digit in the

tenths place?

9. What is the sum of

 1 + 2 + 3 + 4   1 + 2 + 3 + 4   1 + 2 + 3 + 4 
 +  ?
 2 + 4 + 6 + 8   3 + 6 + 9 + 12  +  6 + 12 + 18 + 24 

2
Solutions
1. The problem can be restated as x −10 = 6. We use the number
line to solve it.

6 units 6 units

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Answer: 4 and 16

2. The solutions of x − 6 = 10 are -4 and 16. The solutions of

x + 6 = 10 are -16 and 4. Hence, (−4) + 16 + (−16) + 4 = 0.
Answer: 0

3. Answer:
A and B are wrong. We use the LCD of the fractions to add or
subtract them.
C, D, and E are correct.
Proof for D to get E:
a d a d a d
× ×
a c b c b c b c = a×d
÷ = × = =
b d c d c d
× 1 b c
d c d c
4. We simplify the numbers as − 100 = −10 and −100 = 10i.
We can plot -10 on a number line but not 10i because 10i is
not a real number. Hence, there is no basis for comparison.

5. In x − 6 = x + 6 , we can see that the use of 0 in addition and

subtraction does not affect the statement. Hence, x = 0.
Answer: 0

3
 6. By inspection, the 25 numbers symmetrically arranged in the
array has a middlemost number and that is 14. So, we multiply
25 and 14 to get the sum of the 25 numbers quickly.
Answer: 350

7. In standard form, 35 ends in 3.

55 ends in 5.
25 ends in 2.
Answer: 3 + 5 + 2 ends in 0.

8. We need to multiply 3 to 132 only, instead of the whole number.

We get 396. When we divide 396 by 100, we get 3.96
Answer: The tenths digit is 9.

9. The addition expression simplifies to 1 + 1 + 1 .

2 3 6
Answer: The sum is 1.