Friday, June 5, 2009

Solving Historical Elementary Mathematics Problems #1

Hi children of 5 Diligence,
I hope you have enjoyed your holidays so far. To make you think and exercise your brain this holiday, I have decided to post a series of Historical Elementary Mathematics Problems here. I will post a new question every 2-4 days and the answer will also be shown with the next question. Please show your explanation or working clearly when you post your comment and remember to identify who you are.
You can inform your classmates to take part in the discussion if they are not aware of it yet.
So here we go......

Question #1
Multiply a number by 5. From the answer, subtract one-third of the answer, then divide by 10. Thereafter, add one-half, one-third and one-quarter of the original number in this order to get 68.
What is the number?

(Bhaskara, 12th century, India)

21 comments:

  1. Zhi Xian and Zhi TingJune 5, 2009 at 2:43 PM

    The answer is 48,right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zhi Xian and Zhi TingJune 5, 2009 at 2:58 PM

    We find out the lowest common multiple of 2, 3,4 and the multiples is 12, 24,48. Then you try them. the answer is 48!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Saw Qing Fang's comment.There are 12 H1N1 cases in Singapore!

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Hi Zhi Xian and Zhi Ting,
    48 is correct!
    That's good way of solving the question! Trying out the multiples of 12 is a good idea as you know that 68 is a whole number.

    Anyone else has a different way to solve the question?

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's so boring during the June Holidays! Anyway, I have a maths riddle for you all:
    How much dirt is in a hole 6 and a half feet wide, 8 feet deep, and 5 feet long?
    Answer will be revealed at 11:15a.m. later on!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The answer is now revealed!
    Ans:None, there's no dirt in a hole!

    ReplyDelete
  8. There is now 14 case of H1N1 in Singapore!

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  9. Where do you get all those number of H1N1 cases in singapore from? But there's really something about it. H1N1 never did start from a pig. Scientist found strands of pig, human and alas bird virus so it probably started from either birds or humans... And if it really came from the pigs, the Scientist should only have found strands of pig virus...:o

    ReplyDelete
  10. Zhi Xian and Zhi TingJune 6, 2009 at 4:26 PM

    You can get it at straits-times-newspaper at the side of this page.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey everybody! Check out my newly made blog!

    www.whystonfrilly.webs.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Zhi Xian and Zhi TingJune 6, 2009 at 5:18 PM

    Anymore questions?we would want to try one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think I've got one! Here is it:
    Bob and John

    Bob and John form a team together. Bob is as old as John will be when Bob is twice as old as John was when Bob was half as old as the sum of their current ages. John is as old as Bob was when John was half as old as he will become over ten years.

    How old are Bob and John?

    The answer will be revealed at 8:55 later...

    ReplyDelete
  14. What???
    ...

    ...

    ...

    So confusing...I read halfway through, I go dizzy.
    0
    :o:

    ReplyDelete
  15. The answer is:
    John is 30 and Bob is 40

    ReplyDelete
  16. Zhi Xian and Zhi TingJune 7, 2009 at 9:36 AM

    There are 15 H1N1 cases in Singapore!

    ReplyDelete
  17. No more questions?

    ReplyDelete
  18. You can find many riddles here on: http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&rlz=1W1GFRE_en&num=100&q=maths+tricks&meta=cr%3DcountrySG&aq=0&oq=maths+tr

    ReplyDelete