Stumpers: Hit The Books!
Flex your math muscles with these fun brainteasers! Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.
LIBRARY RATIOS
Alana, Giles, and Juan volunteer at the library. They’re discussing which section they should shelve first. There are 8 purple math books, 12 green science books, 24 red fiction books, and 4 blue history books.
Whose statement is correct? How do you know?
Artwork by Serge Seidlitz
Alana:
“It’ll be fastest to put away math books before science because the ratio of science to math books is 2 to 3.”
Giles:
“I want to start with history and then science because the ratio of these categories combined to total books is 1 to 4.”
Juan:
“Let’s put away fiction first since 1 out of every 2 books is fiction.”
PENCIL PATTERNS
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Marian the librarian has 18 pencils she loans to students. In first period, she loans 6 out and gets 4 back. In second period, she loans 5 out and gets 3 back.
If this pattern continues, how many pencils will she have at the end of fifth period?
