Math Question from Karate Kid
Last week I wrote about the “What Number Am I?” problems Daegan has been enjoying, and asked you to send along any questions you or your kids made up. MamaGames sent us a wonderful question from her son, KarateKid, who is about the same age as Daegan. (Daegan loved seeing KarateKid break a board with his bare hand—go check it out yourself here. I will be registering Daegan in karate at our local community centre come fall.) Here is their question:
GoGoGirl loved to play with dolls. Her mother, on the other hand, really wanted to go to this neat museum. But GoGoGirl always got bored with museums. Finally, she struck up a deal. The deal was that they would stay home and let GoGoGirl play for one half hour. GoGoGirl agreed. We weren’t keeping track. After KarateKid, her brother, felt it was close to a half hour, he went in and asked her how long it had been (she had covered up the clock). Here are her clues.
1. I have been playing for more minutes than there are pennies in a dime.
2. I have been playing for less minutes than there are pennies in five dimes.
3. I have been playing for more minutes than there are pennies in one quarter.
4. The two digits add up to one less than ten.
5. The units digit is one more than the tens digit.
I printed off the question and a hundred board, found on page 8 here, and Daegan got right to it:
He kept at it, eliminating possibilities with each clue:
and was soon finished:
And broke into what he called “a karate dance of celebration”:
Saying a “karate thanks” to KarateKid:
Both Daegan and I enjoyed this very much. Thank you MamaGames and KarateKid for giving us a fun math activity. Daegan thought it very neat to get a question from another homeschooled kid, just like him, living many miles (kilometres here in Canada! <g>) away.
P.S. For anyone still under the illusion that we homeschool Moms have it all together, I draw your attention to my son’s stained shirt (I actually believe he slept in those clothes), the cluttered countertop, including the not-yet-put-away dot-a-dot painters we used weeks ago and I blogged about here, the hundred board that has fallen on the floor and needs re-taping to the wall, the dying Mother’s Day flowers that need throwing out, etc. We live in reality too! 