Family Mathematics Problem Solving
Sponsored by
The Somerville Mathematics Fund
The Family Mathematics problems are written for adults and children to work on together. They are not meant as another homework to be turned in to your child’s teacher, instead it is an opportunity for you to work together to solve a mathematical problem. This Month’s Family Mathematics Problems makes us think of the upcoming election. We hope you will enjoy working together to solve these problems. The solutions are printed in the Somerville Journal. Enjoy
The Somerville Mathematics Fund was founded in 2000 to celebrate and encourage mathematics achievement in the city of Somerville. We offer scholarships to students and grants to teachers.
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From June 2004    
4th and 5th Grades
6th Grades
7th and 8th Grades



Family Mathematics Problem Solving: 4th and 5th Grades

Senator John Kerry’s Speaking Tour

One of our two senators is running for President of the United States. In order to win the election, he needs to talk to as many people as possible in many different cities and towns to tell them about what he plans to do if he is elected President.

Pretend that you are his campaign manager and need to plan a local speaking tour for him for one morning. He will start and end at his home in Boston and visit Somerville, Malden and Newton.
Other than starting and ending in Boston, he can visit the cities in any order. How many different ways are there to schedule his tour? You go online and find the distances between each of the places he is to speak.
Based on the chart below, decide which of your routes will be the shortest one--after all, gas is getting more expensive.

Communities Distance
Somerville and Malden 4.6 miles
Somerville and Boston 3.3 miles
Somerville and Newton 8.9 miles
Newton and Boston 9.6 miles
Newton and Malden 16.7 miles
Malden and Boston 5.6 miles



Family Mathematics Problem Solving: 6th Grade 7th and 8th Grades
Senator Kerry’s Campaign Tour of the Country

Senator John Kerry needs to speak all over our country, not just in Massachusetts if he wants to win the Presidential election next November.
You are his campaign manager. You need to plan a speaking tour for him that visits every capital city in each state other than Massachusetts.
If you were to write a list of all the different orders to list all 49 capital cities for his visit, how many things would be on your list?
You are a fast writer and you plan to give Senator Kerry a copy of the list so he can choose what order he would like to visit the cities.
If you were to actually list all of the different trip orders, and could write one each second, how long would it take you to write out this list?




Other Problem Solving Sources:
http://mathforum.org/pow/
http://www.figurethis.org/index40.htm
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