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. We hope you will enjoy working together to solve these problems. The solutions will be printed in next week's Somerville Journal. Enjoy.
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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.
For more information, to volunteer, to make a contribution, call 617-666-0666 (evenings)


From March 2004    
4th and 5th Grades
6th, 7th, 8th Grades Problem

Here Comes the Grandparents!

Family Mathematics Problem Solving: 4th and 5th Grades

Grandma's Visit

Grandma's first remark on seeing her granddaughters was "my how much you've both grown! How old are you now?"

Juanita loved to play with number patterns and said: "See if you can figure it out, Grandma. You will say my age, Jessica's age and our cousin Jasmine's age if you count by 2's and you count by 3's. However, if you divide Jessica's age by 5 you get a remainder of 1, my age divided by 5 gives a remainder of 2, and Jasmine's age divided by 5 gives a remainder of 3." Grandma thought about what Juanita had said and then replied, "That's interesting, because if you count by 2's and by 3's you'll say my age and if you divide by 5 you'll get a remainder of zero."

"Humm, that's what Mom said about her age too!"

So, how old are Juanita, Jessica, Jasmine, Grandma and Mom if you also know that Mom is half the age of Grandma?

6th, 7th, 8th Grades Problem: Grandpa's Visit

After listening to all of these puzzling answers, Grandpa inquired about the ages of the three family friends who where joining them for dinner. After a bit of thought, Juanita said "The product of their ages is the same as Grandma's age and the sum of their ages is a prime number."Grandpa thought for a minute and then said he needed some help in figuring out the problem. So just to be helpful, Juanita added, "None of their ages is prime."

How old are the friends who are joining them for dinner?




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