Monday, October 22, 2007

Are You Smarter Than A 4th Grader?

Last week Emma brought home the following extra credit assignment. It was taken from her 4th grade math curriculum. Good luck!


Daniel takes orders at the Marvelous Muffin Bakery. The muffins are packed into boxes that hold 1, 3, 9, 27 muffins. When a customer asks for muffins, Daniel fills out an order slip.
• If a customer orders 5 muffins, Daniel writes code 12 on the order slip.
• If a customer orders 19 muffins, Daniel writes code 201 on the order slip.
• If a customer orders 34 muffins, Daniel writes code 1021 on the order slip.


1) What code would Daniel write on the order slip if a customer asked for 47 muffins? Explain.

2) If the Marvelous Muffin Bakery always packs its muffins into the fewest number of boxes possible, what is a code Daniel would never write on a slip? Explain.

3) The largest box used by the Bakery holds 27 muffins. Daniel thinks the bakery should have a box one size larger. How many muffins would the new box hold? Explain.

9 comments:

ADW said...

Answer to all:

Find the teacher and choke the life out of him/her. WTF?

Sophia said...

I'm glad I'm out of school.

Will you promise to post the answers?

Anonymous said...

I love these. Yes, I am a geek. and a former teacher so here I go:

1. 1202 - the number of each box needed reversed.
2. 333 - because it would be the next size up.
3. 81 - they are multiples of three.

Am I right? Do I get a cool million? A dime perhaps? Don't leave me hanging ...
By the way, the word verification is nelvpuss. Isn't that obscene?

Superstar said...

Seee people..this is why I teach reading and writing...~shakes head~
Math...

FYI, I spend 1/2 my year making sure that I cover concepts and teach test taking so that students do well.

*sigh*

Sven said...

Mabel: Well done!!!

1. Correct.
For an order 47 muffins the code would be 1202. The codes goes from largest to smallest in terms of the boxes used.
1 27-muffin box
2 9-muffin boxes
0 3-muffin boxes
2 1-muffin boxes.

2. Correct!
There are several answers to this one but essentially it would be any code with a 3 (or any larger number) ar a code with more than 4 digits.

3. Correct.
The box size increase by a factor of three. 1x3=3, 3x3=9, 9x3=27. Following this pattern the next largest size would be 81 (27x3=81).

Your prize, my warmest personal regards.

Anonymous said...

34 muffins? 47 muffins? These people don't need boxes, they need feedbags.

By the way, I didn't get the answer.

Hareesh-Camarillo said...

Charlie, let me try to explain in simple words and numbers. For 5 muffins the code is 12. Actually the code is 0-0-1-2 meaning ( 0 boxes of 27-size + 0 boxes of 9-size + 1 box of 3-size and 2 boxes of 1-size ). So, 0x27 + 0x9 + 1x3 + 2x1 = 5. Got it ?

Similarly, for 47 muffins, the code is 1202 because, 1x27 + 2x9 + 0x3 + 2x1 = 47. You should get it by now !! :-)

Anonymous said...

Dear Sven,

I have struggled with this problem for more than a year (not 24/7, you understand). It was my daughter's third 3rd grade assignment, following the first and second assignments about place value and <>. When I asked the teacher, she pleaded with me to talk with her some other time than the end of the day. But I work, so that never happened.
I remembered base three from high school and worked out the answer to number 1 from that--47 is 1202 in base 3, but I never got the bizarre extension for completing #2 and #3 on the worksheet.

The internet is a wonderful place, and I wish I'd have searched before this fiendish thing ate me. Thanks for releasing me...

Toni

Anonymous said...

thank ! this post is so useful to me