The Little Math Puzzle Contest

Tom Murray, the coordinator of the the math puzzle, has been kind enough to give CM permission to run the weekly Little Math Puzzle Contest (inspired by The Great Canadian Trivia Challenge.)

Royal West Academy (a high school) in Montreal, Quebec is sponsoring a little math puzzle contest.

This contest is open to all participants but is designed for students in grades five through ten. English will be the language used for all problems and if their solutions relate to a language, the language will be English.

This will be the last question before Christmas we will start up again when school begins in January. Have an enjoyable holiday.

You can find archives of old questions and winners lists on our web page. We have lost the winners list for the second puzzle and would be pleased to have it forwarded to us from anyone who still has it.

We can also be found on the Web at: http://www.odyssee.net/~academy/mathpuzzle/mathpuzzlecontest.html

Contest Format:

Each week a new puzzle will be presented and the answers and winners from two weeks earlier will be posted. Answers are to be received by 8:00 a.m. eastern time the following Friday.

The answers will then be judged, and a correct answer, along with the winners' names, will be posted with the puzzle two weeks later.

Both individual students and entire classes are welcome to participate.

Do not to send your answers to CM.
Instead, please send all answers to Andrea Pollock and Alex Nazarov at the following address:

math_puzzle@rwa.psbgm.qc.ca

With your solution please include your names, school, grade, and e-mail address, and your city.

Question #13 from two weeks ago was the following:

What are the next two numbers in the set?

30, 27, 9, 12, 9, 3, 6, 3, 1, ___, ___

Answer #13:

The values change with a pattern in the operations with 3:

-3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3 -3 /3 +3=4 -3=1

The Winners - Solvers of Puzzle #13

1. Mrs. Harris's 4/5 class St. Margarets Ont.
2. Mme. Keith's gr. 9B and 9C - Sussex Junior High
3. Steven Weerdenburg - Mrs. Robertson's Gr. 3 Gregory Hogan School - Sarnia, Ont.
4. Frank Spano - Mrs. Pitt's class Gregory Hogan - Sarnia, Ontario
5. Halina Waverchuk's Group 3 Math class, Venture High School, Montreal.
6. Marcheta Gallant's Math Classes 9-1 and 9-3. Labrador City Collegiate - Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador
7. Grade 6A students L. E. Reinsborough School, Dalhousie, N. B. Canada
8. Chris Machado grade 8 Gregory A. Hogan school.
9. Grade 9 Math Class Oyen Public School
10. Mrs. C. Ager's Grade 7/8 Class St. THerese's School - Sarnia, Ont.
11. Chris Zamrykut, Chris Sklepowich Grade 10 Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School - Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada
12. T. Burnie's Grade 7/8 class St Ann School, Toronto, Ontario
13. The Junior Enhanced Learning Class of Mrs. Marilyn Bruton Ellwood Memorial Public School - Bolton, Ontario (submitted by Don Brown, Principal)
14. Abby Stimson, Grade 9 Dalhousie Regional High School
15. RJ Gough, Matt Lindhout Grade 7 Horse Lake Elementary School - 100 Mile House, B.C.
16. Ryan Cook, Vincent Spano, Evan Powell, Andrew Bain Ms. L. Laudonio's grade 5 class Gregory A. Hogan School - Sarnia, Ontario
17. William Heppel, Shawn Proctor - Grade 6 St. Joseph School, Huntingdon, Que.
18. 6D - Ecole St.Avila Winnipeg, MB
19. John Gamble, Katharine Gasbarini - Grade 8 Mrs. Delorme's class Gregory Hogan School - Sarnia, Ontario
20. Meagan Edwards, Sosie Beurklian - Mrs. Valenzuela's class Sherwood Secondary School
21. Kevin Cull, Steven Peckham, Kevin Waterman, Debbie Foley, Grant Wells, Chris Burke, Glen Winsor - Ray Smith and his students Ken Woodward, Hollywood Rd. Middle School, Kelowna, BC
22. Grade 8 Math Class Hedges School - Winnipeg, Manitoba
23. Mike Scheiers grade six. Cathcart Public School - Sarnia, Ont
24. Mr.Burger's Grade 7 class St.Therese school - Sarnia ,Ontario
25. Nick Jacob 12 yrs. old gr. 7 Sarnia ,Ontario
26. Shannon Pronk G6 Mcadam Aveune School in - Fredericton ,N.B.
27. Lisa Ing, Katie Mills, Adam Gaudry, Alida Pokoradi, David McFarland Mr.Czerneda's Grade 6 C.H.Bray School - Ancaster
28. Gabrielle Kern, Kurtis Nelson, Shannon Trainor, Sara Lavoratore, Paul Murray, Keith Lyon, Sam Villeneuve, Adrienne Donkers, James Timmington Mr. J. Cowley's 6TH Grade class. Sacred Heart Elementary School - Sarnia, Ontario
29. Andrew Timmers, Peerke Aarts - Mr. Van Lieshout's Grade 7/8 class St. Peter Canisius School - Watford, Ontario.
30. Daryl Johnson, Danny Weiss in Ms.Robinson's Grade 4/5 Class St.Benedict's School,Sarnia
31. Ashley Parise, Kristen O'Donnell from Mrs.Hamilton's grade 7-1 class Florenceville middle school. - Florenceville N.B.
32. Scott Harris, Michael shynkaryk, Grade 7 Camilla School - Riviere Qui Barre, Alberta
33. Mandy Dizon, Michelle Halsall - Mrs. Quinn-Vaillant's Grade 8 Our Lady of Mercy School - Sarnia, Ont.
34. Jane Scaplen's grade 6 French Immersion class Sacred Heart Elementary - Mrystown, Newfoundland
35. Carla Sadler in 8C, Erica Synnott in 9D, Mrs. Bunn (our Kindergarten teacher) and Mr. Korsunsky (junior high language arts and social studies teacher).
36. Carl, Claira, Kim, Steven - Grade 5 Sheridan Public School - Oakville, Ontario
37. Diana Picanco, Nicholas Martiniuk Mrs. T. Ridland's students Our Lady of Mercy School, Sarnia
38. Jason Stein (6W), Ka Ying Ching (8C) - Onward to Excellence Yorkhill Elementary School - Thornhill, Ontario http://www.interlog.com/~yorkhill/home.html

    And the unspecific

39. Rudi, Jordan, Erika, Andrew and the rest of Mr. Davis's grade five class.
40. Jennifer Kerel - grade 9, math (Mrs. Miller's)
41. Greg Robertson 81, Ryan Neil 81 capslib@sentex.net (Lawrie Key)
42. Nancy.Rohatinsky@ei.educ.ab.ca

Puzzle #15

What are the next two letters in the sequence?

F, M, A, M, J, ___, ___

Send your response by 8:00 a.m., Friday, December 22nd to: