Laurel Highlands Mathematics Alliance
Mathematics Riddles
Saint Francis University
March 12, 2008
1. The year 2008 is a leap year. In fact, just a few weeks ago we had a leap day on February 29. Do you know how often we have leap years? They happen every four years, except 100 years, except every 400 years. Based on that information and the number of days in a non-leap year, calculate the length of time it takes for the Earth to make one full revolution around the sun, to the nearest ten-thousandth of a day.
2. You might have seen this one on Jeopardy. The number of states in the contiguous United States divided by the number of other states. Be sure to answer as a question.
3. You might have seen this television commercial. “Everybody sweats. Most people would be surprised to know that they sweat six liters per day. Now I am not familiar with the metric system or any other foreign language, but that’s the equivalent of 300 gallons of sweat per day…” Was Will Ferrell correct? That is six liters is close to how many gallons, to the nearest tenth of a gallon? For a second question, what is the name of Will’s character?
4. Do you realize how early Easter is this year? Easter is a religious holiday and this year is on March 23, 2008. It will not be this early again until the year 2160. It can only occur one day earlier; the last time Easter was March 22 was in the year 1818 and will not happen again until 2285. How is the date of Easter determined?
5 A popular song from a Broadway show musical spoke of the time length “five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes, …, how do you measure a _____. What length of time were they measuring? What musical soundtrack included the music? What is the name of the song?
6. How many cubic meters of dirt are in a hole six meters long, two meters wide, and one meter deep?
7. A man wanted to get into his work building, but he had forgotten his code. However, he did remember five clues: The fifth number plus the third number equals fourteen. The fourth number is one more than the second number. The first number is one less than twice the second number. The second number plus the third number equals ten. The sum of all five numbers is 30. What were the five numbers and in what order?
8. If you take three apples from five apples, how many do you have?