Maths Challenge

Students of all ages are successfully entered for different levels of the Maths Challenge, a national competition designed to stimulate interest in mathematics. A few questions are included here for you to try. For further examples and more information follow this link:

At half time in a netball match, Jokers were leading Jesters by 3 goals to 2. Seven goals were scored in the second half. Which of the following could not have been the result of the match?

A. The match was drawn

B. Jesters won by 2 goals

C. Jesters won by 4 goals

D. Jokers won by 2 goals

E. Jokers won by 3 goals

Old Martha has 5 children, each of whom has 4 children, each of whom has 3 children, each of whom is childless. How many descendants does Old Martha have?

A. 12

B. 20

C. 25

D. 60

E. 85

An athlete covers three consecutive miles by walking the first mile, running the second and cycling the third. He runs twice as fast as he walks, and he cycles one and a half times as fast as he runs. He takes ten minutes longer than he would do if he cycled the three miles. How long does he take by walking, running and cycling?

A. 60 min

B. 42 min

C. 36 min

D. 30 min

E. 22 min

Annakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi each has some coins in his pocket. If Annakin gave Obi-Wan Kenobi one coin then Obi-Wan Kenobi would have twice as many coins as Annakin, but if Obi-Wan Kenobi gave Annakin one coin, they would each have the same number of coins. Altogether, how many coins do they have?

A. 8

B. 10

C. 12

D. 14

E. 16

5. A tennis club has n left-handed players and 2n right-handed players, but in total there are fewer than 20 players. At last summer's tournament, in which every player in the club played every other player exactly once, no matches were drawn and the ratio of the number of matches won by left-handed players to the number of matches won by right-handed players was 3:4. What is the value of n?

A. 3

B. 4

C. 5

D. 6