Posted on 05/10/2008 7:05:35 PM PDT by LJayne
The prestigious Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National Competition took place yesterday.
You don't get there by learning Everyday Math crap.
It's the real deal.
The winner of the individual contest was an 11-year-old 6th-grader from Bellevue, Washington, Darryl Wu.
Here was the winning question. Can you solve it?
And, oh, by the way, the question was timed. Darryl came up with the answer in less than 45 seconds.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
I can see how 11 year old could get this.
Wow, got it right. Though it took a little longer than 45 seconds for me. :(
Took me 52 seconds to get it, though I used paper.
Getting the answer is not that hard,....until you put the time limit on it....
“Show your work” ......
FANTASTIC!
I was able to get it easy enough, but I failed because I was unable to explain it to my daughter in 45 seconds, and eventually she put on her headphones.
Math for me is mostly transfering skills to the next generation.
The wording was a bit tricky and the question didn’t mention we were talking decimal rather than binary or some other numerical system. I could have come up with a lot of different correct answers without that info. That doesn’t diminish this child’s accomplishment. Looks like he won’t be stuck in Irak.
Show my work? You can't get distinct numbers with the same digits otherwise than by lengthening the list of digits. The smallest will be the list that "fills up" from the shortest to the longest needed. 1 digit long through 4 digits long only sums to 10 digits, so you will have to go to 5 digit length to get 11 all told and remain distinct. Thus the answer will be the 5 digit plus the minimum way of using the remaining 6, which means the answer is 11111+111+11+1 = 11234.
Well it took me about two minutes to figure it out, but I also got it right. No bad for someone whose grades in Algebra II were 3 D’s and a C. I should say a few years later I did much better including a couple of A’s in calculus (probably a bit of grade inflation-it was the 60’s after all).
So...how about posting the problem? Michelle has one of those screwy sites you can’t back out of, which is why I don’t go too often.
11234
. . . or -11111111111
Took me about 20 seconds, and I did it in my head.
(You need paper to add 11,111+111+11+1?)
I’s a cute little problem. And it’s real math. Unlike the “math” problems I’ve seen on “Are you smarter than a fifth-grader”, which seem to be mostly nomenclature.
Q: If a fraction has a denominator of five, what would its numerator have to be for it to be a unit fraction?
There’s no math in that, it’s simply a question of whether you remember the definition of “unit fraction”.
Here is my favorite math question given to me by a crazy chemist at my first job....
An inchworm travels on an infinitely elastic rubberband with an initial length of eight inches. The inchworm crawls one inch every minute. At the end of each minute the rubber band instantaneously stretches 8 inches in length. How long (if ever) does it take the inchworm to reach the end of the rubber band, and how long will the rubber band be.
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