Nanyang Girls High School

Secondary 1 Mathematics
Enrichment 2003
Algebra: Challenging problems
The following questions are taken from an article written by Tom M. Giambrone, from Indiana University
Pennsylvania.
. !mar the "o#e Maker decided to make a ro#e long enough to stretch around the $arth %the
circumference of which is &'''' kilometers(. )aving com#leted the task, he discovered that he
had actually made the ro#e * metres too long. +ow wanting to cut the ro#e %it was somewhat of a
record length(, he decided to #ut the ends of the ro#e together and have all his relatives hel# him
hold the ro#e and equal distance off the ground all the way around the earth. ,hich of these
animals could #ass under the ro#e- %a( ant, %b( snake, %c( !mar, %d( adult ele#hant, %e( blue whale.
*. / contractor constructed a brick wall. )e em#loyed one bricklayer who could build the wall in ten
hours and another bricklayer who could build the wall in 0 hours. ,orking together, the
bricklayers laid ' fewer bricks an hour than is they had worked inde#endently. It took them
e1actly 2 hours to build the wall. )ow many bricks are in the wall.
3. * ferryboats started at the same instant from o##osite sides of a river, traveling across the water at
right angles to the shore. They first met 4*' yards from the nearest shore and, on reaching the
o##osite side, s#ent ' minutes in the sli# before starting back. They met again &'' yards from the
nearest shore. ,hat is the width of the river.
&. / little boy liked to #lay on the 5u#6 escalator of a de#artment store. ,hen he walked u# the
escalator, he counted ' ste#s and the tri# took *' seconds. ,hen he ran down, he counted 2'
ste#s and the tri# took 3' seconds. )ow many ste#s of the escalator were visible at one time.
2. 7onsider this fortunate incident. / girl was crossing a railroad bridge when, halfway across, she
saw a train 2' metres away moving toward her. 8he immediately turned and ran so that the train
missed her by the narrowest of margins. If she had tried to cross the bridge, the train would have
struck her one metre before she could have reached the end. )ow long is the bridge.
NYGH/THK/Enrichment/lge!ra/2003