Mathematic Competiton

1. Divide 30 by ½ and add 10. What’s the answer?

2. A clerk at the butcher shop is six feet tall and wears size 10 shoes. What does he weigh?
3. A farmer has 19 sheep on his land. One day, a big storm hits and all but seven run away.
How many sheep does the farmer have left?
4. Your sock drawer only contains 18 white socks and 18 blue socks. How many times do
you need to reach inside the drawer and take out a sock to guarantee a matching pair?
5. You planted sunflower seeds in your back garden. Every day, the number of flowers
doubles. If it takes 52 days for the flowers to fill the garden, how many days would it take
for them to fill half the garden?
6. Using only addition, how can you use eight eights to get the number 1,000?
7. When Ashley was 15, her mother was 37. Now, her mother is twice her age. How old is
Ashley?

Answers

1. It's 70. You’re dividing 30 by ½, not by two. Thirty divided by ½ is the same thing as
multiplying it by two, which is 60. Plus 10 makes 70!
2. Meat. He works at the butcher shop, so he weighs meat for a living.
3. Seven. The riddle says all but seven run away, meaning there are seven left who didn’t.
4. Three times. On the third time, you’ll get either a white or a blue sock to match with one
of the other two you’ve already grabbed.
5. It would take 51 days. If the number of flowers doubles every day, half the garden would
be full the day before, on the 51st day.
6. 888 +88 +8 +8 +8
7. Ashley is 22. Her mother is 22 years older, so when Ashley is 22, she’s now half her
mother’s age.

MORE QUESTIONS

1. There are seven apples and you take away three of them. How many apples do you
have? The answer is three because that’s how many apples you took.
2. When does 9+5=2. This equation is correct when we think in terms of time: 9 a.m. +
5 hours = 2 p.m.
3. A merchant can fit 10 large boxes or 8 small boxes into a container for shipping. In
one shipment, he sent 96 boxes. If there were more large boxes than small boxes, how
many full containers did he ship? The answer is 11 containers: 7 large boxes
(7×8=56 boxes)4 small boxes (4×10=40 boxes) Therefore, the merchant shipped 96
boxes in 11 containers.
4. Multiply this number with any other number and you will always get the same
answer. What’s the number? The answer is zero.
5. . How many sides does a circle have? The answer is two: inside and outside.
6. One grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went on a trip to the zoo together
and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy? The answer is three. The
grandmother is also a mother and the mother is also a daughter. So, there were only
three people.
7. What is the maximum number of times you can subtract five from 25? The answer is
once. This is because when you subtract five from 25 it becomes 20. So, from here on,
you are no longer subtracting from 25.
8. If you toss a coin 50 times and it always lands on heads. What is the chance that it
will land on heads with your next throw? The answer is a 50/50 chance. There are
two sides to a coin, so every throw has a 50% chance of landing on heads. The
number of throws doesn’t make a difference in the chance of each throw.
9. I am a three-digit number. My first digit is three less than my second digit. My second
digit is four times greater than my third digit. What number am I? (bonus if you can
find two answers!)
There are two possible answers: 141 and 582. For 141, the number 1 is 3 less than 4,
and the number 4 is four times greater than the number 1. For 582, 5 is 4 less than 8
and 8 is four times greater than 2.
10. Solve this pattern equation. If:
2+2 = 44
3+3 = 96
4+4 = 168
5+5 = 2510
Then what is 6+6? The answer is 3612. The answer is the number multiplied by
itself (6×6=36) combined with the number added to itself (6+6=12).
11. Two years ago, I was three times as old as my brother was. In three years, I will be
twice as old as my brother. How old is each of us now? Answer: The older brother is
17, and the younger brother is 7.
12. When does 9 + 5 = 2? Answer: When you’re telling time. 9:00 + 5 hours = 2:00.
13. A boy is 2 years old. His brother is half as old as him. When the first boy is 100, how
old will his brother be? Answer: 99.
14. Use the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the symbols + and = to make a true math equation.
Answer: 2 + 5 = 3 + 4.
15. Mr. Lee has 4 daughters. Each of his daughters has 1 brother. How many children
does Mr. Lee have? Answer: 5 (All of the daughters have the same brother.)
16. What single digit appears most frequently between and including the numbers 1 and
1,000? Answer: 1.
17. Which weighs more: 16 ounces of feathers or a pound of solid gold? Answer: They
weigh the same. 16 ounces = 1 pound, no matter what material is being weighed.
18. Solve this in your head (no writing it down!). Take 1,000 and add 40 to it. Add
another 1,000. Now add 30. Add another 1,000. Now add 20. Add another 1,000.
Now add 10. What is the total? Answer: 4,100.
19. 16. Grandmother died and left half her money to her granddaughter and half of that
amount to her grandson. She left a sixth to her brother, and the remainder, $1,000, to
the animal shelter. How much did she leave altogether? Answer: $12,000.
20. What can you place between 8 and 9 to make the outcome greater than 8 but less than
9? Answer: A decimal (8.9 is greater than 8 but less than 9).
21. If there are 6 oranges in a basket and you take out 4, how many oranges do you have?
Answer: 4 (You took 4 oranges, so you have 4 oranges!)
22. There are 8 apples in a basket. Eight people each take 1 apple, but there is still 1 apple
in the basket. How can this be? Answer: The 8th person took the basket with 1 apple
still in it.
23. Two mothers and 2 daughters each had 1 egg for breakfast, but they only ate 3 eggs
all together. How can this be? Answer: There were only 3 people—a grandmother,
her daughter, and her granddaughter.