Cut the knot: learn to enjoy mathematics
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Fill-It-In Outline Mathematics

Every text or problem book author faces a task of getting the reader involved in actively following up the text. Learning mathematics is necessarily an active pursuit of knowledge. Many a stratagem have been devised to achieve the goal of enticing the student into the right mood and attitude. One that I personally find very attractive has been utilized by Tony Gardiner in his books, see references below. The gist of his outline solution approach is in supplying almost complete solutions to every problem with crucial pieces of information omitted now and then. The reader - a student - is made to follow and learn from the logic of the mentor and also pass local tests of his or her grasp by filling in the missing pieces.

The problem collection below is an attempt to master the outline solutions approach in the dynamic on-line setting.

Most of the samples below can be classified as Word Problems, i.e. problems presented in a verbal form, which, in order to be solved, should be translated into the mathematical language. Several tutorials for such a translation are provided elsewhere.

    Word Problems

  1. Abdul and 10 Thieves
  2. Billy is twice as old as Sally
  3. Cars and motorcycles
  4. Child and Adult Ticket Count
  5. Coin counting word problem
  6. Crab's Weight
  7. Five siblings
  8. Half an egg wonder
  9. How old is Al?
  10. How old is Karen?
  11. Lemons by Dozen
  12. Problem #24 from the Rhind Papyrus
  13. Sweet Purchase
  14. The ass and the mule
  15. The lucky find
  16. Thirty Clerks

    Logic

  17. Knights and Knaves #1
  18. Knights and Knaves #2
  19. Knights and Knaves #3
  20. Robbery #1
  21. Robbery #2
  22. Robbery #3
  23. Robbery #4
  24. Sons and Fathers
  25. Who Has the Beard?

    Arithmetic

  26. Food of a Lifetime
  27. Insect flight record
  28. M. Jordan and K. Abdul-Jabbar
  29. "Math trick" with two dice
  30. Planeload
 

    Number Theory

  1. AB × BA = 3154.
  2. A Cryptarithm: A + HA = HEE
  3. Primes as differences of squares
  4. Simple division by 7
  5. Smallest multiple of 9 with no odd digits
  6. Three digit twister
  7. When 3AA1 is divisible by 9?
  8. When 3AA1 is divisible by 11?

    Geometry

  9. Angle Subtended by a Diameter
  10. Construction of the Angle Bisector
  11. Construction of the Perpendicular Bisector
  12. Existence of the Circumcenter
  13. Pedoe's Theorem
  14. Square in a Right Triangle
  15. Three Congruent Rectangles
  16. Three Touching Circles
  17. Triangle Areas in a Parallelogram
  18. Triangle Areas in a Parallelogram II
  19. Two Touching Circles

    Practice

  20. Addition practice with small numbers
  21. Addition practice with numbers below 100
  22. Addition practice with 3-digit numbers
  23. Multiplication practice with small numbers
  24. Multiplication practice with 2-digit numbers
  25. Subtraction practice with small numbers
  26. Subtraction practice with numbers below 100
  27. Subtraction practice with numbers below 1000

References

  1. T. Gardiner, More Mathematical Challenges, Cambridge University Press, 2003
  2. T. Gardiner, The Mathematical Olympiad Handbook, Oxford University Press, 1997.

Copyright © 1996-2008 Alexander Bogomolny

28745993Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape


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