Technomaths

I wonder if you’ll find this challenge too hard??  Also, due to popular demand (mostly from Gracie!!) Marty has his own page here now…..and an ANIMOTO slide show….very groovy..I’ll have to do a poll to see what you think of the footage and music…go on, off you go scroll down to ‘Pages’ and click on Marty..

Looking forward to doing footy maths in the next few weeks?

If so, lets kick off our theme with this new challenge; and as per usual, post your answer here at Technomaths and also on your own blog!

A set of football matches is to be organized in a “round-robin” fashion, i.e., every participating team plays a match against every other team once and only once.

If 21 matches are totally played, how many teams participated?

So, a few days have passed by, and now there are 10 thoughtful comments in relation to this question.  When everyone has had a chance to solve this footy problem (and footy is a problem ; P…), I will post the very complex (?) solution…….

And here it is……

Answer
7
Solution:

If 7 teams participated, then the first team plays matches against the other 6 teams. The second team has already played against the first team, and so has to play matches against only the other 5 teams. In this manner, the second-last team has to play against only one team, and the last team has already played against all the teams. Thus, the total number of matches is

6 + 5 + …….. + 2 + 1 = 21 .

If 21 matches are totally played, then 7 teams participated.

Well done to those who posted their responses here, and who got the correct answer to this week’s challenge………stay tuned for the next one! I love reading your responses…

Bertie Beetle Battles

In the last holidays, my nephew came over to stay with me in Warrnambool.  The weather was pretty bad, so we spent a lot of time indoors playing games…..but there was a sweetner attached to this fun, and we each earned a few yummy Bertie Beetles.

Everyday, at 11am we would play a game of chess. Whoever lost the game owed a Bertie  Beetle to the other. After the last game we played (that was the day he had to leave), we counted the number of games each of us had won and lost.   Drats! He had won more than me.

So, I handed him 18 Bertie Beetles… though I myself was the winner in 6 games.

How many days did my nephew spend at my house in Warrnambool?

The answer will be revealed at the end of the week….post your thoughts here at Technomaths and also on your maths page on your own blog.

Since this question has been posed, two comments have been posted.  Could the answer be something different to 24?  And if so, how?

 Read the question carefully…..

So, here is what you’ve all been waiting for!  The answer and solution…..

Answer

30

Solution: 

I won 6 games. Since my nephew got 18 chocolates, he must have won 18 games more than I did. So, he won a total of 24 games.
Thus, the total number of games that we played was 30. Since we played a game each day, that was the number of days my nephew stayed at my house! (Thank goodness that was a hypothetical question!)  30 days is a long time to stay with an Aunty…….even a cool aunty like me!

This weeks challenge has been set…..and now solved!  Check the comments to last weeks maths challenge for the solution to this problem….

How many different squares of all sizes are on a checkerboard?

Well done to RE for being the first person to solve this problem correctly!

This week we will be concentrating on percentages, decimals and a bit on fractions.

In addition to your Maths Mate homework this week, your challenge is to hunt in the newspaper and catalogues for sales and discounted items.  Bring them along to school for us to make a ‘bargain’ book, where we will work out the cost of sale items and how much can be saved on a range of items.  And remember, if you need help with your work, please don’t hesitate to ask for it……chances are, other kids are needing help just like you!

Well done to those super organised people who have done their online graph test and have replied to our science question of the week, ’Why do people have different coloured eyes?’

In class we have discussed the improvement of a number of students in relation to their angles and lines test………….so once again, Well done!

To help you achieve your best and experience success in maths, can you please send me a problem that you would like me to solve for you.  Its got to be a problem you’re not really sure how to answer, and one you’re wanting to be able to solve all by yourself.  Create a problem with a friend if you want. 

I will send you a reply, and point you in the direction of how to find out more about this kind of mathematical problem, and show you the steps you need to go through to solve it.

Happy Blogging!