Tricky Math for Tricky Parents
Here’s a silly quiz I put together to (hopefully) amuse my fellow parents. I know it doesn’t have anything to do with writing, but I don’t think I’ve posted enough here to have a theme anyway. Good luck.
1) There are four children and three cookies. How many cookies will each child receive?
2) A man receives a notice from his child’s school that lice have been discovered in the classroom. How long will it take before his own head itches?
3) This is a two-part question. Two 3-year-olds have just been wrestled into their car seats. One of them announces that she needs a bathroom. Home is four miles away. a) Is it faster to unbuckle both children and hurry them across the parking lot and back into the store or drive home at exactly the speed limit? b) What are the odds that either child will actually use a bathroom when you find one?
4) Two children leave for school at 8:45 am. They have a total of 4 gloves in their coat pockets. When they arrive home at 4 pm, how many gloves will be in their pockets?
5) How often, in an average school year, does a parent need to drive to school to drop off an item that his or her child has forgotten to pack?
6) A woman takes her 3-month-old twins to the grocery store. She has at most 15 minutes before one of them screams to be fed. The woman has not slept through the night for about 6 months. How many strangers can stop her to ask if her babies are twins before she loses her temper?
7) If a mother of four does 3 loads of laundry each week, how many unmatched socks will she end up with after 2 weeks?
8) A 4-year-old does a project at school that involves glitter. How many days will it take before her father stops finding glitter on his hands?
ANSWERS
1) Zero. Mom and Dad each get 1 and a half cookies after the children are in bed.
2) Exactly 1 minute, regardless of whether or not anyone in his family actually has lice.
3) a) Go home because b) there is only about a 20% chance.
4) The best answer is 3, but I would have accepted any odd number.
5) This one is especially tricky. First take the number of miles you live from the school and add the number of younger children you have to drag along, then multiply by the number of things you planned to do instead and divide the result by your child’s age. Round up. (Twice, after that the kid is out of luck is also correct.)
6) 4
7) Trick question. No family of six can get by with only 3 loads of laundry in a week.
8) 5 or more
SCORING
0-2 correct: Try again after you have kids.
3-5 correct: Pretty good. You are almost insane.
6-8 correct: Congratulations! You can juggle numbers with the best of us. Now go find those other socks.
1) There are four children and three cookies. How many cookies will each child receive?
2) A man receives a notice from his child’s school that lice have been discovered in the classroom. How long will it take before his own head itches?
3) This is a two-part question. Two 3-year-olds have just been wrestled into their car seats. One of them announces that she needs a bathroom. Home is four miles away. a) Is it faster to unbuckle both children and hurry them across the parking lot and back into the store or drive home at exactly the speed limit? b) What are the odds that either child will actually use a bathroom when you find one?
4) Two children leave for school at 8:45 am. They have a total of 4 gloves in their coat pockets. When they arrive home at 4 pm, how many gloves will be in their pockets?
5) How often, in an average school year, does a parent need to drive to school to drop off an item that his or her child has forgotten to pack?
6) A woman takes her 3-month-old twins to the grocery store. She has at most 15 minutes before one of them screams to be fed. The woman has not slept through the night for about 6 months. How many strangers can stop her to ask if her babies are twins before she loses her temper?
7) If a mother of four does 3 loads of laundry each week, how many unmatched socks will she end up with after 2 weeks?
8) A 4-year-old does a project at school that involves glitter. How many days will it take before her father stops finding glitter on his hands?
ANSWERS
1) Zero. Mom and Dad each get 1 and a half cookies after the children are in bed.
2) Exactly 1 minute, regardless of whether or not anyone in his family actually has lice.
3) a) Go home because b) there is only about a 20% chance.
4) The best answer is 3, but I would have accepted any odd number.
5) This one is especially tricky. First take the number of miles you live from the school and add the number of younger children you have to drag along, then multiply by the number of things you planned to do instead and divide the result by your child’s age. Round up. (Twice, after that the kid is out of luck is also correct.)
6) 4
7) Trick question. No family of six can get by with only 3 loads of laundry in a week.
8) 5 or more
SCORING
0-2 correct: Try again after you have kids.
3-5 correct: Pretty good. You are almost insane.
6-8 correct: Congratulations! You can juggle numbers with the best of us. Now go find those other socks.
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