New Math Challenges from Mr. Duff

Updated with the winners — see below. And now you can ask Mr. Duff for the answers.

Based on the student interest in Mr. Duff’s math challenges for the third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders, we thought it would be a great idea to share the contest with the whole school community. Encourage anyone in your family to try their hand at solving these problems. Even if your children are too young to enter, you might take some time and work through the problems together. It’s never to early to instill a love of math!

Do remember that those students who would like to enter the contests must arrive at their answers on their own. (Mr. Duff can spot a helping hand a mile away!) When the winners are announced, we’ll post the solutions and examples of the great student work.

————————————————————————————————————

3rd Grade: What Dessert?

Joni, Dave, Trey, and Ani each have a favorite dessert. The desserts are: fruit salad, chocolate cake, lemon meringue, and apple pie. Each child likes only one of each of the desserts.

• Dave likes a dessert that has no letter a in it.
• Either Ani or Joni likes fruit salad.
• Joni can’t stand chocolate!
• Ani only likes dessert that has fruit.
• Joni likes a dessert that has three of the same letters in it.

Joni_____________ Dave ______________ Trey_____________ Ani ______________

Explain your answer.

————————————————————————————————————

4th Grade: Pottisville

In the town of Pottsville, streets with names that begin with a vowel and end with a consonant run north-south. Those that begin with a consonant and end with a vowel run east-west. Others may run either way.

• If Carter Street is perpendicular to Agnes Street, is it parallel or perpendicular to Sheridan Street, which runs north-south?
• The city has built a new street and needs a name for it. It runs parallel to Markum Street which is perpendicular to Milestone Street. According to the city’s naming rules, make up a name for this street.

————————————————————————————————————

5th Grade: Chess Club

At the first meeting of the Chess Club, the 18 members decided that everyone should play everyone else one time to determine the five best players for interschool competitions. These five players had to then each play each other one more time in order to determine rankings. How many games had to be played?

Explain how you found your answer.

————————————————————————————————————

From left: Fifth Grade winner Chen Junzhang, Fourth Grade Winner Maia Paz, and Third Grade Winner Tatev Gomtsyan. Each answered the challenge for their grade level.