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Excursion 8: Clocks

A couple of time teasers this week.....

1. It takes a clock 3 seconds to strike 3 o'clock.   How long will it take it to strike 6 o'clock?

and

2. Half an hour ago it was twice as long after noon as it is from now until midnight.  What time is it now?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Answer to excursion # 7:

Last week you were given a situation, in words, and asked to find the man's age and the woman's age. We showed you how you can take words and change them into math symbols, making problems SO much easier to solve.  We came up with two equations:

m = w + 10 and
m + w = 5 x (m-w),
where m= man's age, and w = woman's age.

We asked you to solve it in anyway you want chose.  Here's one way:

First we substitute things that are equal in order to eliminate one of the letters:

Put w + 10 in place of m.  This is okay since they're equal.

We get:         w + 10 + w = 5 x ( w + 10 - w).

Now, we add the terms that can be added:  2 w + 10 = 5 x (10).

Then:          2w + 10 = 50.

Then:           2w = 40.

And:            w = 20. 

Substituting 20 in for w in the first equation gives us m = 20 + 10 = 30.

So the man is 30, and his wife is 20.

~~

You were also asked to come up with four situations or phrases and see if you can translate them into math.  How did you do? Send them to us.  We'll post the best ones, and give you credit.

Take me to more weekly challenges.

Take me to the classroom challenge.

Take me to SAT/ACT Tip #3, which shows more about translating words into math.

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