Friday, November 30, 2007

Stump the Chump

Okay, can anyone help me solve this math puzzle? I keep thinking I've got the answer only to get shut down. And, as your math teacher always said, "show your work." I want to know where I'm going wrong.
ArpatubesPuzzle

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apparently, it works like this:

7 kids x 2 legs = 14 kids' legs.

49 rucksacks x 7 big cats = 343 big cats. Multiply by 4 to get 1,372 big cat legs.

343 big cats x 7 small cats = 2401 small cats. Multiply by 4 to get 9,604 small cat legs.

So 14 + 1,372 + 9604 = 10,990 legs.

Anonymous said...

I did it backwards:

start at the end, 7 small cats for each big = 7 * 4 = 28

Each big cat is associated with 28 legs.

There are 7 big cats, therefore, you have 7 * 28 = 196.

But don't forget to add on the 4 legs for each of the 7 big cats, 196 + 28 = 224.

So each sack has 224 legs.

There are 7 sacks per kid, so 7 * 224 = 1568 legs that go with each kid.

There are 7 kids so 1568 * 7 = 10976.

Then you just add two legs for each of the 7 kids and get 10976 + 14
10990 legs