Problem Number 3 -- The Ant and the Crumb

Students in 7th and 8th grade are beginning their third problem.  It is about a hungry ant who is after a cookie crumb.  It is totally within the realm of Middle School mathematicians, yet seems very, very complicated.  Collaboration, creativity and persistence are essential.  Mustard Seed Students are learning these attributes in spades as they tackle problems like this one.  Try it at home.  Share it with your child and spend some time trying to see what "paths" seem profitable.

The Ant

and the Crumb

There was once a very large, rectangular room.  It contained only two things:  an ant and a cookie crumb.  The room had these dimensions:

It was 20 feet tall.

It was 38 feet long.

It was 10 feet wide.

The ant sat 1 foot above the floor in the middle of one of the small end walls.  The cookie crumb is stuck on the middle of the opposite wall, one foot below the ceiling.  The picture below will help you imagine how this looked.

The ant crawls to the crumb along the shortest possible path.  How far did the ant crawl?

 

Big hint:  The shortest path includes both the floor and the ceiling.  Hmmmm…….