How Many of These Maths Problems can you Solve?

Ten maths questions set by the maths department at Dauntsey’s.

Have you ever found yourself baffled by your child’s maths homework? Find out how you would fare in the Dauntsey’s Dodecahedron, an annual maths competition in its 29th year for children aged 12 and under.

1. Each morning Bertie walks to school. When he has gone a quarter of the way he passes the bus station; at five sixths of the way, the railway station. At the bus station its clock shows 7.28, and at the railway station its clock shows 7.49. When does Bertie reach school?

A     7.52

B     7.55

C     8.00

D    8.04

E     8.10

2. How many equilateral triangles of side 1cm will fit into an equilateral triangle of side 12 cm?

A     60

B     12

C     160

D    240

E     144

3. Uncle Trapezium was driving back from Scotland, hoping he’d be back in time to collect Bertie, who was coming to stay for the weekend. The milometer on his car read 15,951 miles.  He noticed that this number was palindromic: it reads the same backwards as forwards.  ‘Curious,’ he said to himself, ‘It will be a long time before that happens again.’  But two hours later, the milometer showed a new palindromic number.  How fast did the car travel in those two hours?

A     50mph

B     55mph

C     60mph

D    65mph

E     70mph

4. For scoring 2,000 points, Bertie gets three chances to zap the evil Ellipsoid. Every hit raises his score by 10% and every miss decreases his score by 10%.  If he hits the evil Ellipsoid two times out of three, what is his new score?

A     2,048

B     2,178

C     2,200

D    2,400

E     2,420

5. To pass a test with 80 questions, you need to get 60% of the questions correct. Sam was just three questions short of a pass.  How many questions did she answer correctly?

A     45

B     48

C     51

D    57

E     77

6. I am 48 years, 48 months, 48 weeks, 48 days and 48 hours old. How old am I in completed years?

A     48

B     50

C     51

D    52

E     53

7. Mr Fractal bought 50 metres of wire in a shop. He did not know it, but the metre rule used to measure the wire was 1cm short.  How much wire did he get?

A    50m

B    49.5m

C    50.5m

D    48.5m

E     51.5m

8. The entire contents of a jug can exactly fill 9 small glasses and 6 large glasses of juice. The entire contents of the jug could instead fill 6 small glasses and 6 large glasses.  If the entire contents of the jug is used to fill only large glasses, the maximum number of large glasses that can be filled is:

A     8

B     9

C     10

D     11

E     12

9. Andy, Jen, Sally, Mike and Tom are sitting in a row of five seats. Andy is not beside Jen, Sally is beside Mike. Who CANNOT be sitting in the middle seat?

A    Andy

B    Jen

C    Sally

D    Mike

E     Tom

10. If 3 circles = 1 square + 1 star, and 1 circle = 2 stars, what do 2 squares equal?

A     2 stars

B     4 stars

C     7 stars

D     5 stars

E     10 stars

Scroll down for the answers…

1: B

2: E

3: B

4: B

5: A

6: E

7: B

8: C

9: E

10: E