Monday, December 21, 2009

Pirate's Will

An old and rich pirate who retired in Hawaii and had spent his time
growing fruit trees, left the following will for his kids:
"A treasure is burried under one of the trees on my property. Number all
six trees in my garden in the following order: cherry tree - 1st, pear
tree - 2nd, apple tree - 3rd, coconut tree - 4th, plum tree - 5th, date
tree - 6th, and walk around while continuing to count these trees in this
order, such that in the next round the cherry tree is now numbered 7, pear
tree - 8, apple tree 9 etc. You will find the treasure under the tree with
the count 10,004."

Do you think kids could find the treasure without going around in 10,004 / 6
circles?
What tree is the treasure under?

Enter your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon page. Solve three and get a prize!

2 comments:

Kim said...

I think the kids should get some exercise and circle those trees. But it's going to take them a while, because

10,004/6 = 1667.33 - so 1667 trips around the tree with two trees left to count...

Once they are all done circling the trees, they can sit down and do the math to check their work.

Remainder 1 gets cherry tree, then
Remainder 2 gets you pear tree -- so they should dig under that pear tree!

If they aren't convinced they have it right, they can test using some smaller numbers. Using 7, for example, 7/6 = 1 with a remainder of 1, and that would be the cherry tree.

Maria said...

Kim is IM-Possible to beat!

Kidss make 1667 circles, ending with the count 10,002 on the last - date - tree. One more count - 10,003 - is a cherry tree, and the target count of 10,004 is a pear tree. This tree is hiding the treasure.

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.