CANDY & NUMBERS
According to the text, how many people out of 100 plan to buy candy?
96 people.
A record pumpkin weighed 1,431.5 kg. Is it heavier or lighter than one tonne?
More. One tonne is 1,000 kg.
Name one way to reduce Halloween waste.
Reuse or swap a costume, buy second-hand clothes, or cook with the pumpkin.
Look at the equation 6x + 2 = 14. What invisible mathematical symbol is hiding?
The multiplication sign: 6x means 6 · x.
Simplify 2³ · 2²
2³ · 2² = 2³⁺² = 2⁵ = 32
A small chocolate bar has about 80 calories. How many calories are in 3 bars?
3 × 80 = 240 calories. The text says this is an estimate; the exact amount depends on the product.
A witch’s broom is 3 feet long. How long is it in centimetres? Find the conversion in the text.
3 × 30.48 = 91.44 cm.
If half of the 7 million costumes were reused, how many costumes would be saved from the bin?
7,000,000 ÷ 2 = 3,500,000 costumes.
Look at 4 + 3/5. Where is the invisible maths in this operation? Explain it and calculate the sum.
The whole number 4 has an invisible denominator of 1: 4 = 4/1 = 20/5. So 4 + 3/5 = 20/5 + 3/5 = 23/5
Simplify 5⁶ : 5²
5⁶ : 5² = 5⁶⁻² = 5⁴ = 625
Which is greater: 96/100 or 3/4?
96/100 is greater: 0.96 > 0.75.
A Halloween ribbon is 5 inches long. How many centimetres is that? Find the conversion in the text.
5 × 2.54 = 12.7 cm.
The study estimated 30.43 million pumpkins were bought and 15.82 million would not be eaten. How many were expected to be eaten?
30.43 − 15.82 = 14.61 million pumpkins.
A student says that 5⁰ = 0. Is the student correct? Explain.
No. Any non-zero number to the power 0 is 1, so 5⁰ = 1.
Simplify 6³ : 2³ as a single power.
(6 : 2)³ = 3³
Write 3/4 as a percentage
3/4 = 75%
A haunted trail is 2 miles long. How many kilometres is that? Find the conversion in the text.
2 × 1.61 = 3.22 km.
There are 200 pumpkins. If 52% are not eaten, how many pumpkins is that?
0.52 × 200 = 104 pumpkins.
Find the invisible maths in −x + 3x = 8. What are the hidden or visible coefficients, and what is x?
The invisible coefficient in −x is −1, so −x + 3x = −1x + 3x = 2x. Then 2x = 8, so x = 4.
Calculate (-2/3)²
(-2/3)² = 2²/3² = 4/9
Candy spending is $4.1 billion out of $13.5 billion. Is it more or less than one third of the total? Explain
Less. One third of $13.5 billion is $4.5 billion, and $4.1 billion < $4.5 billion
A pumpkin weighs 10 lb. Approximately how many kilograms is that? Find the conversion in the text.
10 × 0.454 = 4.54 kg.
A group reuses 3/4 of 28 costumes. How many costumes are reused?
28 ÷ 4 × 3 = 21 costumes.
Look at √16 + 3 − 1/2 + x. What three invisible mathematical elements can you identify?
Three examples:
(1) the square-root index 2 is hidden in √16;
(2) the whole number 3 can be written as 3/1, so its denominator 1 is hidden;
(3) x means 1x, so its coefficient 1 is hidden.
Simplify and give the result as a power with positive exponent
(3²)³ · 3⁻⁸
3⁶ · 3⁻⁸ = 3⁻² = (1/3)²