And the winners are...
Mrs. Blivet's final exam turned out to be quite challenging for non-Mathvillians. None of the respondents got all the questions right, so Mrs. Blivet threw out one question, and this yielded 4 qualifying entries, with 7 responses each. One first place and 3 second places were drawn randomly from these entries.
The winners are:
Peter Kleeman -- $30 gift certificate to the PVCC bookstore.
Seth McElroy -- $15 gift certificate to the Mermaid cart.
Robert Porter -- $15 gift certificate to the Mermaid cart.
Alexander Mertz -- $15 gift certificate to the Mermaid cart.
Winners must pick up their prizes at the library by December 5th at 4 p.m.
And now for the answers to all eight questions.
What USA state is surrounded by the most water?
Hawaii. The clue is in the question. "Surrounded" means "all around." Only Hawaii has water all around.
You have only one match. You enter a dark room in which there are an oil lamp, a wood burning stove, and a candle. Which would you light first?
The match, of course.
There are 100 houses on Protractor Road. House numbers are 1 to 100. How many houses have the number 9 in their address?
19 houses.
The Sun is about 100 million miles from the Earth. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, and light takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth. The sun rose at 6:11 this morning. A warp in the space-time continuum causes the speed of light to double. What time will the sun rise tomorrow?
Approximately 6:11 am. The speed of light does not influence sunrise. The rotation of the Earth does.
If five thousand, five hundred and three dollars is written as $5,403, how would fifteen thousand, fifteen hundred, and fifteen dollars be written?
$16,515 (15,000 + 1,500 +15= 16,515)
Why are 2001 dollar coins worth more than 1999 dollar coins?
Because 2001 coins are two more coins than 1999 coins.
A train leaves Octagon Station exactly on time. The train conductor leaves the driver's cab and walks the length of the train, taking half an hour to do so. He then returns to the cab at the same speed. When he arrives at the cab, the train is pulling into Cartesian Station, which is 60 miles from Octago. How fast was the train moving?
60 miles per hour. The speed of the conductor is irrelevant for this problem. You only need to know the time elapsed and the distance traveled.
If half of 5 were 3, how much would one third of 10 be?
It would be 4, because if 3x3 = 5, then 3x4=10, and if we divide 3x4 into 3, the two 3s cancel out and we get 4.
Stand by for the next Mathville puzzle!
