Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Elementary Math?

My son came home today with a math problem that has stumped me, and I've had to email it to my husband since he's out of town for a couple more days. I feel so stupid because this is supposed be ELEMENTARY math and yet I don't get it. Here's the problem...

Find a set of numbers that will satisfy the following conditions:
The median of a set of 20 numbers is 24.
The range is 42.
To the nearest whole number the mean is 24.
No more than three numbers are the same.
Show your strategy.

Please tell me this is challenging and I'm not just plain ignorant! Did you have math like this in ELEMENTARY school? I know I didn't. I realize they want kids to think outside the box and that's great, but this is way beyond thinking outside MY box. I think I might need a math tutor to help me help my son.

NEWS FLASH UPDATE: I finally figured out the math problem and, believe it or not, I didn't even need my husband's help... THIS time!

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