This is a sampler of randomly chosen word problems from the "Primary Mathematics Challenging Word Problems" series. I'm just going to open the books, and write what I see.

For tonight's problem, pick one and give it to your kid, or try one yourself.

For bonus points, spot the problem that was not written by a native English speaker.

Grade 3: String X is 34 cm longer than String Y. String Z is 58 cm longer than string Y. If the total length of Strings X, Y, and Z is 233 cm, find the total length of Strings X and Z. (!!! OK, that was from the 'challenging problems' section of a 'challenging problems' book. Excuses, excuses)

Grade 4: Jane has 70 balloons. 1/10th of them are green, and 3/5 of them are orange. How many more orange balloons than green balloons does she have?

Grade 5: A man bought a dozen sacks of rice at $18 per sack. Each sack of rice weighed 20 kg. He packed half of the rice into bags of 5 kg and sold them at 6.50 per bag. He sold the rest of the rice at $1.50 per kg. Find his total profit.

Grade 6: Henry has 3/4 as many paper clips as Joyce. Joyce has 4/5 as many as Claire. If the three girls have 96 paper clips altogether, how many fewer paper clips does Henry have than Claire?

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Comments

Hey!

I did that Strong problem!

I've done all 270 problems in Challenging Word Problems Book 3.

I've mentioned this before; I've done so many bar model problems now that bar models pop into my mind's eye when I read word problems.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2005

That's great! Can you post the bar model solution to the string problem?

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Jun 2005

I would actually do that in a completely different algebraic way. That problem is quite a doozy for third grade!!!

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Jun 2005

A serious doozy!

Yes, you've goaded me into action.

I've been meaning to get these dang things written up and posted.

I may have to post it in SUPER-SIZE form--

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2005

Can you output them as HTML? The HTML-maker will just turn the equations into jpegs which you can then attach,

If you can't, you can send the word doc to me.

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Jun 2005

So far I'm not having luck outputting as HTML.

I've got the page; I'll email it to you, and then see if I can OUTPUT.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2005

I just emailed it.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2005

I didn't get it!

Can you output the page as a PDF? The HTML is messed up. :(

-- CarolynJohnston - 23 Jun 2005