Problem of the Week 2019-1

These problems are for the class sessions on Friday, January 11th. Try them before class and see what you come up with. You can use any strategy.

Elementary

Henry wants to make a chicken run at the back of the house. He buys 12 meters of fencing wire. What is the largest area run that he can make for his chickens?

What if Henry has 60 meters of fencing?

(credit — warning, it contains spoilers: https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/chicken-run)

High School

How many toothpicks in the 8th step? The 16th?

How could you calculate the number of toothpicks in the nth step?

What step has 6,294,528 toothpicks?

(credit: http://www.insidemathematics.org/problems-of-the-month/download-problems-of-the-month)