EXERCISE:

Class Activity 1: Wolf, Goat and Cabbage: You are travelling through a difficult country,
taking with you a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. All during the trip the wolf wants to eat the goat,
and the goat wants to eat the cabbage, and you have to be careful to prevent either calamity.
You come to a river and find a boat which can take you across, but it’s so small that you can take
only one passenger at a time – either the wolf, or the goat, or the cabbage. You must never leave
the wolf alone with the goat, nor the goat alone with the cabbage.
a) How can you get them all across the river?
b) How many trips across the river will there be before the crossover is complete?

Class Activity 2: Forty sum

Consider the numbers in the 6 by 6 grid shown below. 11 14 5 2 29 4
Write down the numbers in any three boxes that 13 15 24 18 8 26
touch each other at some point(vertically,
horizontally or diagonally) containing numbers that 16 20 12 10 28 30
total forty.
23 17 19 6 22 5

22 21 7 12 3 19

1 6 25 27 9 31

Class Activity 3:Matchstick Triangle

Arrange nine matches to form four small equilateral triangles as shown. Now find a way of
arranging only six of the matches to form four triangles of the same shape and size.

Class Activity 4: Matchsticks Square

Remove three matches from the fifteen in the arrangement shown so that only three squares are
left. Next, try removing two matches from the arrangement so that only three squares are left
(this time the squares need not all be the same size)
ALGEBRA RELATED ACTIVITIES: 3
4
 Partitioning the set of whole numbers; and AP; 7
Some mathematics tricks 11
 Tempting tricks – Impossible 37, Lost Digit, 1089 18
29
Calculation conundrum 47
Ask a partner to do the following: 76
1) Write down any 2 single-digit numbers, one under the other. E.g., 3 and 4. 123
2) Add them and write the sum underneath as the third number. 199
3) Then add the second and the third numbers and write the sum underneath as the
4th number.
4) Then add the third and the fourth and write underneath as the 5th number.
5) Continue doing this until there are 10 numbers in the column.
6) While your partner does this keep your back turned, do not watch.
7) After the 10 numbers are completed turn around and immediately write down the sum
(517, for this example) of the 10 numbers by just looking at a few of the ten numbers.
Ask your partner to add all ten numbers and confirm your answer.
Can you explain how this is done so fast? Does this work always?
The trick is to look at the 7th number written down along the column. Try with other pairs of
single-digit numbers as starting points and find the sums. Now look at the 7th number
(47) and see if you can spot the relationship between the 7th number and the sum (517).
Any clue? y
x+y
Let us try using algebra. Choose x and y as the two single-digit numbers. x+2y
Summing all ten numbers (expressions) gives 55x  88 y which can be written as 2x+3y
3x+5y
55x  88 y  11(5 x  8 y ) .
5x+8y
But the 7th number is 5 x  8 y . So the total of the 10 numbers generated is the product of 8x+13y
the 7th number and 11. 13x+21y
(The secret is to multiply the fourth number from the bottom by 11). 21x+34y

PALINDROME:
A word with a series of letters reading the same backwards as it does forward is called a
palindrome. MOM is a palindrome. So is DAD, and GOD’S DOG (ignoring the apostrophe).

Palindromes aren’t the same as mirror writing, because most letters look strange backwards.
MOM looks the same in the mirror, but DAD looks weird.
Making up palindromes is hard. Longer ones are much harder than short ones and even the best
often don’t make sense. Here are some palindrome words; can you find others, or even
sentences?ANNA BOB DEED DID LIL NOON POP RACECAR SIS

The French engineer who first dreamed up a plan to cut through Central America to make the
Panama Canal was called Ferdinand de Lesseps. A headline in a newspaper of that time might
have said: A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA!-which is a palindrome.

A town called Yreka has four bread shops, but none of them, I am sorry to say, is called YREKA
BAKERY, which would be a nifty palindrome.

Palindromic sum:

The idea of palindrome can be extended to numbers. A number is called a palindromic number if
it reads the same both forward and backward. For example, 31413 is a palindromic number. In
the illustration, a number,96, is added to its reverse, 69, and then the sum, 165, is added to its 96
+69
reverse, 561, and so forth. Repeating this process four times yields a palindromic number.
165
(i) If you begin with any two-digit number, will the process always result in a +561
726
palindromic number? +627
(ii) Find more two-digit numbers for which this process requires 2 steps, 3 steps, 4 1353
steps, 6 steps and 24 steps. +3531
(iii) A student noticed that for several two-digit numbers that require 3 steps, the sum of 4884
the digits of each number was 14. Why?
(iv) For two-digit numbers, is there a relationship between the number of steps to obtain a
palindromic number and the sum of the digits of the original number?
(v) Try some three-digit numbers and look for patterns.

Choose any four-digit number, reverse its digits, add the two numbers and try dividing by 11. It
is observed that there is a remainder of zero when it divided by 11.

For example .

(i) Try this process for several two-digit numbers, three-digit numbers, four-digit
numbers and so on.
(ii) Make a conjecture based on your results for two-digit, three-digit, four-digit, five-
digit, six-digit, seven-digit and eight-digit numbers and write True/False in the table
below.

Number of digits 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Divisible by 11 (True/False)

Palindromic Difference:
We begin with a number, 723, reverse its digits and subtract the smaller of the two numbers from
the larger. This process of reversing digits and subtracting is continued in steps 2, 3, and 4 until a
palindromic number is obtained

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

723 693 792 594

396 297 495 99

(i) Investigate all two-digit numbers to determine if the process always produces a
palindromic number; the maximum number of steps required; and the palindromic
numbers obtained by this process.
(ii) Investigate three-digit numbers to determine if the process always leads to
palindromic numbers and what is the maximum number of steps required?

Now, answer this riddle with a palindrome: How did the first man mentioned in the Bible
introduce himself to his wife?

MATHBIT 1: Add numbers to make squares:

 1  1  1 1
 1 2 1  4  2 2
 1  2  3  2  1  9  3 3
 1  2  3  4  3  2  1  16  4  4
 1  2  3  4  5  4  3  2  1  25  5  5
 1  2  3  4  5  6  5  4  3  2  1  36  6  6
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  49  7  7
(i) What do you conclude?

(ii) Find the sum of consecutive odd numbers. What kind of numbers do you get?

Why is it so?

 Write down any three numbers less than ten, e.g. 3, 4 and 7.
 Make all the six possible 2-digit numbers using these numbers:
34, 37, 43, 47, 73, 74.
 Find their sum. (308)
 Calculate the sum of the original numbers.
 Divide the first total by the second. 14 308  22
 Answer? 22
 Repeat the operations for other combinations of numbers.
Algebraically: Let a, b, c represent the numbers less than ten.

 10a + b
10a + c
10b + a 22a + 22b + 22c
10b + c = 22(a + b + c)
10c + a 22(a + b + c)
10c + b (a + b + c)
22a + 22b + 22c = 22

Complete this table

Row Sum of each Cubes Average of 1st and Squares

Horizontal Row Last Numbers

1 1 1 1 1 12
2 3 5 8 23 4 22
3 7 9 11 27 33
4 13 15 17 19
5 21 23 25 27 29
6
7
8

Notice the connections!

On 1 August, 1964 (1 – 8 – 64) the day, month and year were all in a geometric series. Each
1 8
term was eight times previous one: 
8 64
How many such dates have occurred, and will occur, this century?

Fibonacci numbers:
Credited to the Italian mathematician Fibonacci (AD 1170 -1250) known as Leonardo da Pisa,
he discovered a sequence which came to be called Fibonacci sequence:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, …. Find up to the 26th term.

 Calculate the sum of the first five terms. What is the difference between your answer and
F7 ? Try the formula: F1  F2  .......  Fn  Fn  2  1 where n stands for the nth Fibonacci
number.
  Find the sum of the first nine terms. Is it 1 less than F11 ?

 Test this principle by making up further examples yourself.

 Verify your results by substituting in the general formula for the sum of n terms:
Fn  Fn  2  1 where Fn means the sum of n terms.
 Find the sum of the first four even-coded Fibonacci numbers ( F2  F4  F6  F8 ) , and
then find the relationship between this answer and another Fibonacci number. Test
with further examples.
 Calculate the sum of the first four odd-coded terms ( F1  F3  F5  F7 ) . What is the
connection with the 8th term? Can you guess the sum of the first eight terms of the
odd sequence, without adding?
a. Evaluate : F2 ÷ F1  F3 ÷ F2  F4 ÷ F3 
Fn
What happens as n increases? As n becomes very large, what value does approach?
Fn 1

b. Complete the following patterns: F2  F6  ... 2

F2  F6  F10  ...  2

F2  F6  F10  F14  ... 2

F2  F6  F10  F14  F18  ... 2
i. Write down the squares of the first eight terms of the sequence.
ii. Add each pair of consecutive squares to make a new sequence. What do you
notice?

Lucas Numbers :
Credited to the Frenchman Edouard Lucas (1842 – 1891) who is known to have given the
name to Fibonacci sequence. Lucas sequence has growth pattern similar to Fibonacci
sequence. 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, . . .
Find up to the 30th term.
Make a list of Lucas primes
Find the Lucas number composed of 3 consecutive digits
Find L1 + L3 + L5 + L7.What is the relationship between the sum and L8?
Find L2+ L4 +L6. How does this relate with L7.
For any four consecutive Lucas numbers (a, b, c, d) show that .
 EXERCISE

Class Activity 1: Use the numbers 1, 9, 5, 7 once only with any of the operations; +, –, and ÷
to obtain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. E.g. To obtain 2, we have,
(5  7)  (1  9)  2.

Class Activity 2: Each letter stands for a digit between 0 and 9. Find the value of each letter in
the sums shown.

x x x
y y y
 z z z
a b c d

Class Activity 3: Four angles of a pentagon are in arithmetic progression of which the first three
terms are represented by 3( x  5), 4x and 2(3x  20). Find the measure of each of the other
two angles.

Class Activity 4: (a) Select a number. Multiply the number by 6. Add 8 to the product. Divide the
sum by 2. Subtract 4 from the quotient.
(b) Repeat this process for at least four different numbers.
(c) Write a conjecture that relates the result of this process to the original number selected.
(d) Represent the original number as n, and use deductive reasoning to prove the conjecture.

Class Activity 5: Each letter stands for a digit between 0 and 9 (inclusive). Find the value of each
letter in the sums shown.
x x x x
x y y y
 x and  z z z
b x a b c d

Class Activity 6: Dwarf and river crossing

In a land of dwarfs, a mysterious dwarf decides to visit three of her friends. She carries
seven (7) mangoes in her sack. To reach her first friend she has to cross a magic river. After
she crosses the river, the number of mangoes in her sack doubles. She then gives her first
friend a number of mangoes. She continues her journey and then crosses the second magic
river. The number of mangoes doubles again. She gives her second friend the same number
of mangoes. She crosses the third magic river. Again the number of mangoes doubles. She
visits her third friend and gives the same number again. This time there are no mangoes left.
What number did she give to each friend? Investigate with different start numbers. What
numbers work out neatly?
Class Activity 7: The School-Bus Problem
When the sixth grade classes went on a trip, one of the two buses broke down and the children
had to crowd on the seats of the second bus. The children were distributed in the bus in equal
crowdedness. Three children were sitting on every 2 seats. The back-seat of that bus had 4 seats.
How many children were sitting on it?

Class Activity 7:

(i) What is the largest square that can be cut from a quadrant of a circle if the diameter is
8 cm?

(ii) A square garden has trees 30m, 50m and 40m at three 50m
successive corners. What is the area of the land?
40m

30m

(iii) What is/are the necessary condition(s) that allow(s) an isosceles triangle to be divided
into two smaller isosceles triangles using one straight line?
(iv) Find the length x if the shaded area is 160cm2.

13cm 14cm

Class Activity 8: In the figure, line AD is parallel to line BC. CAD  630 . What is the value of
( x  y) ?

Give reasons to support your answer. A D

0
63
x

B C
Activity 9: Triangular Frameworks

Joe uses metal rods to make triangular frameworks in which each side has a different length.

He buys metal rods which have lengths 1 meter, 2 meters, 3 meters etc and he always keeps one
rod of each length in stock.

This diagram shows one of Joe’s triangular frameworks.

c
a
b
a, b, c are all integers and c > b > a.

That is, c is the longest side, a is the shortest side and a, b, c are whole numbers.

1. How many different triangular frameworks can Joe make which have a longest side 7
meters long? using the rods he has in stock? Show your work.

2. Investigate this situation for other values of c.

3. Write down any generalizations you can make.

Copyright © 2011 by Mathematics Assessment Resource Service. All rights reserved

SPRING FLOWERS

On her breakfast tray, Aunt Lily had a little vase of flowers - a mixture of primroses and
celandines. She counted up the petals and found there were 39. “Oh, how lovely!” she said,
“exactly my age; and the total number of flowers is exactly your age, Rose!” How old is Rose?

(Primroses have five petals on each flower and Celandines have eight petals on each flower).

Class Activity 4: The Bill

This bill has the correct total, but the digits of the three items have been written down in the
wrong order. For example, 3.19 could be 1.39 or 3.91. Rearrange the items so their sum will be
8.73.
3 . 1 9
Think-Pair-Share 6 . 4 7
8 . 2 5
8 . 7 3

Class Activity 5: Balancing

Think – Pair - Share =

= ?

Class Activity 6:

(i) Can you put ‘+’ and ‘ – ‘ signs in the following so as to make 100? 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9.
(ii) Insert ‘+’ signs only, in 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 to make a total of 1000.
(iii) In amongst a group of people there are some dogs. Twenty-two heads and sixty-eight
legs are counted. How many people are there?
(iv) Five children in a family are weighed and their weights recorded as follows.
Eli and Dave weigh 76kg
Dave and Ann weigh 84kg
Ann and Mark weigh 74kg
Mark and Carol weigh 50kg
Eli, Ann and Carol weigh 100kg.
Find the weight of each person