jProblems

Working backwards and act it out

David gave Ian half his marbles. Ian gave Alex half the marbles he got from David. Alex
gave Sandeep half the marbles he got from Ian.
If Alex gave Sandeep 5 marbles, how many did David start with?

Millie came to the school fair with some cupcakes she had baked. She sold half her
cupcakes, plus 1, in the morning. She then gave one quarter of the remaining cupcakes to
her teacher as a gift. That left her with 18 cupcakes.
How many cupcakes did Millie bring to the school fair?

Monique went on a ferry ride. She noticed that at the first stop 6 people got on and 3 got
off. At the second stop 10 people got on and 6 got off. At the third stop 2 people got on
and 9 got off. She then counted 33 passengers.
How many passengers were on the ferry when Monique boarded it?

Six business women meet for lunch and shake hands with each other.
How many handshakes are there altogether?

Draw a diagram or make a model

Margaret was playing with the coins in her purse and she left them in a pattern of 4 rows
with exactly 4 coins in each row. Each row had exactly 1 ten cent, 1 twenty cent, 1 fifty
cent and 1 dollar coin. No row, either horizontal or vertical (or even the diagonals) had
more than one coin of each kind.
How were the coins arranged?

A firefighter stood on the middle rung of a ladder pouring water on a burning building. As
the smoke cleared, she stepped up 3 rungs. But a sudden flare-up caused her to go back
down 5 rungs. Later she climbed the remaining 6 rungs and entered the building.
How many rungs did the ladder have?

For her science fair project, Jayne found three wooden squares in the garage. She
decided to put everything for her project on the three squares. She explained to her family
over dinner that she would put the three squares side by side and then put a band of tape
around the edges of the rectangle the squares will form. That way I will use up exactly 2.4
metres of tape. Her brother asked her “How big are the squares?” Jayne answered “You
can work that out.”
Explain the reasoning her brother had to do.

Matilda can saw a piece of timber into 3 pieces in 12 minutes.

How long will it take her to saw a piece of timber into 6 pieces?
Act it out
Scarlett and Lana receive a total of $25 each fortnight. How much does each girl receive if
Scarlett has $1 more than Lana?
Scarlett has $3 more than Lana?
Scarlett has $5 more than Lana?

Ten 10 cent coins are placed in a row on a desk.

Every second coin is replaced with a 20 cent coin.
Every third coin is replaced with a 50 cent coin.
Every fourth coin is replaced with a one dollar coin.
And finally every fifth coin is replaced with a two dollar coin.
What is the total value of the final row of coins?

Make an organised list

Six people have arrived at Eden Epsom Tennis Club.
How many different singles games could they play?

As Ashleigh was mowing her lawn, she noticed that her neighbour, Robbie, was also
mowing hers. They soon discovered that Ashleigh mows her lawn every 8 days and
Robbie mows hers every 6 days.
In how many days will they both be mowing their lawns together?

A woman goes to market and a horse steps on her basket and crushes the eggs. The
rider offers to pay for the damages and asks her how many eggs she had brought. She
does not remember the exact number, but when she had taken them out two at a time,
there was one egg left. The same happened when she picked them out three, four, five,
and six at a time, but when she took them seven at a time they came out even.
What is the smallest number of eggs she could have had?

Make a table
Pella at 40 years old is eight times as old as her daughter Amber.
How old will they both be when Pella is twice as old as Amber?
In Millie’s farmyard there were some pigs and some chickens. A worm counted 15 animals
and 48 legs.
How many pigs are there?

In the olden days the local post office had run out of all by 3 cent and 5 cent stamps.
Luckily they had many of each.
What amounts of postage can be made with these stamps?
Solve a simpler problem first
How many squares of any size are there in an 8 by 8
chessboard?

Imagine that we paint a 4 x 4 x 4 cube blue on

every side.
How many of the small cubes have 3 blue faces?
How many have 2 blue faces?
How many have 1 blue face?
How many have not been painted at all?

What proportion of the total area of the square is

taken up by the small square in the middle?
How do you know?

Imagine continuing the pattern towards the centre

of the square. If this process could be continued
forever, what fraction of the image would be
coloured blue?

Use logic challenges

If the two subtraction problems give the same result, what are the digits a and b?
4ab 400
-400 -ab4

Six circles are placed symmetrically along the sides of an equilateral triangle as shown.
Place each of the numbers 1 – 6 in a different circle.
Is it possible to do this so the set of three numbers from the sides of the triangle have the
same sum? If so, in how many ways can it be done?

There are three boxes, one with two blue marbles, one with two yellow marbles and one
with a marble of each colour. The boxes are labelled BB, YY, BY to show their contents
but all the labels have been switched. In fact no box has the correct label. You are allowed
to draw one ball from any box.
Explain that this is enough to tell you the contents of the all the boxes.
Look for pattern(s)

Pizza cuts

This pizza maker does not aim to have all the pieces the same size. Instead she wants to
get as many pieces as possible. What is the maximum number of pieces with 5 cuts?
How many squares will there be in pattern number 20?