that's what they say this is. I don't know. (are there any 5th graders out there? Can you tell us, please?)
so, in digging through my inbox, I found the following in an email from this summer. It came right when we were swamped with stuff, so I never tried it till tonight... I came up with the right answer...can you? Post your answer in the comments and I'll let you know if you're right!
This is a 5th grade math problem. This is not a trick question. This is a real math problem so don't say that a bus has no legs. There is no bus driver.
There are 7 girls in a bus. Each girl has 7 backpacks. In each backpack, there are 7 big cats. For every big cat there are 7 little cats.
Question: How many legs are there in the bus?
heeheeeheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee good luck!
Solution:
ok- I wanted to leave it till this afternoon (it's afternoon here at any rate). Correct answer is...
*cheesy grin, evil cackle*
10,990
Since he so kindly typed it all out and sent it in a message, I'll just paste in Murray P's solution... why break my brain on it again, right? (I was never so fond of word probs in school, either, actually)
bus has 7 girls
each girl has 7 backpacks
each backpack has 7 big cats
7 big cats or 28 legs associated with big cats in each backpack
7 little cats for each big cat or 28 little cat legs x 7 or 196 kitten legs
so then each backpack has 196 kitten legs + 28 big cat legs = 224 legs in each backpack
since each girl has 7 backpacks then 224 legs X 7 = 1568 plus two girl legs for 1570 legs per girl/backpack/cat mess
but there are 7 girls so then 1570 legs x 7 = 10,990 legs
or
7 girls with 7 backpacks is 49 backpacks
7 kittens x 7 big cats for a total of 49 kittens per backpack + 7 cats in each backpack is 56 cats in each backpack
49 packs x 56 cats = 2,744 cats & kittens x 4 legs = 10,976 legs
plus14 girly legs = 10,990 legs
assuming of course that the cats don't have any fleas!
39802
ReplyDeleteDoes any of them have fleas?
ReplyDeleteIf those cats each have nine lives, then how many legs? Mom
ReplyDeleteI see where you got your sense of humor!
ReplyDeleteToo much fun to pass this one up! Not that I ever excelled in math to a great degree, but how about 10,990 - is that anywhere in the ballpark?
ReplyDeleteMiss Kat's CA friend
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ReplyDeletewell I was here... I hear ya (ha- maybe that is where I get my sense of humor, mimisusan... you need to 'meet' my dad, too, though...) I'll be back later to see what's happened. I'll say this though, the answer that Murray P sent me via facebook was right!
ReplyDeleteOK Anita, I LOVE a good math challenge! I also came up with 10,990 legs. That is UNLESS you aren't considering the cats to have "legs" like a human would. Anyway....there are 343 big cats and 2,401 little cats. Multiply that total by 4 legs and then add in the 14 legs from the girls. Am I right?
ReplyDeletesmarty pants Allen wants to know how many seats are there on this bus, because bus seats also have legs!! He also wants to know who's driving the bus?
ReplyDeletehaha Allen... forget the bus seats, worry about the possibility of fleas
ReplyDeleteI think I'll leave this till Mon or so
I decided I'd better pull out the calculator instead of my pencil. I must have multiplied an extra X4 and not even done that right. Anyway I change my answer to 10990, which agrees with an above answer, but something tells me that there must be a fact that is being over looked!
ReplyDeleteHaha...yeah, I remember this one...and since I have a high dislike for math, I let my hubby figure it out...I don't remember if we came up with the right answer or not...and I certainly don't feel like stressing myself out over it again, so I'll just assume we did and leave it at that!:-) I don't remember 5th grade being that complex...of course, where I went to school might explain ALOT!:-) I like your mom's post...makes perfect sense to me!:-)
ReplyDeleteI always hated word problems, and I've been trying to figure out why people are getting such big numbers and so I read it again for the 100th time and it finally sunk in what I was reading over. Is it any wonder my old boss found out I wasn't a very good editor to my own or others work? And is it any wonder I cringed all through the 12 years of school when I got a word problem (I don't think we had any in kindergarten!) Hope all is well there..
ReplyDeleteAnd just when did you plan to give us a leg up on this problem?
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm proud to say, I'd still pass 5th grade math. ;)
ReplyDeleteI figured that was the way to solve it all right, I didn't bother though, but can I still but my name on the spreadsheet...:P
ReplyDelete