In the coming weeks, students will be presented with three additional problems. Then on I Love Math Day, we will celebrate all their great work. We will also welcome some visitors who love math and use it enthusiastically in their daily lives. I Love Math Day will be on Thursday, February 14.
Our first problem is mathematically delicious. Here it is:
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Chicken
Fingers
Finger
Lickin’ Good…
There is a fast food
restaurant near my home that sells boxes of chicken fingers in three sizes:
6 fingers
9 fingers, or
20 fingers
This is the only way they
sell them, so if you want 21 chicken fingers you need buy a box of 9 and two
boxes of 6 (total: 21).
If you want to buy 22,
you are out of luck. There is no
combination of 6, 9 and 20 that gets you exactly 22.
There is a problem with
this arrangement. It slows the servers
down. When someone wants exactly 31 chicken
fingers, the server has to stop and figure out if there is a way to do it. (You figure it out: is there a way to fill an order for exactly 31? See, it takes a couple of minutes before you
know.)
One day, I walked up to
the counter to order 150 chicken fingers for a party. The server instantly said, “Sure!” and began filling
my order.
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Please send any questions to me at glawrence@mustardseedschool.org.Also, send me your solution! I look forward to hearing from you.
