The rather strange racetrack owner and the MASSIVE lorry

Image by AndreasIken from Pixabay

For week 25 (of the countUP) here is a neat bit of horsey maths from one of my favourite YouTubers.

I can’t think of a reason why you would need to work out which are the three fastest out of 25 horses, but maybe you can. And anyway, let’s suppose that’s the case.

OK, you have your 25 horses and you take them to a racetrack. Hey, that’s a MASSIVE lorry you have. Does it need a special licence to drive it?

The racetrack owner says, ‘Please use my racetrack but only 5 horses at a time please. Oh and I need it back, so be as quick as you can.’

Right then! 25 horses to be raced 5 at a time. What’s the smallest number of races it will take? Go!

Don't try this at home!

Just a bit of fun for week 24. Click the link for a 10 minute peek into the world of Tommy Turvey and Pokerjoe.

The first draft of Horse of the Same Colour is getting close to complete and although neither Megan nor Amy gets up to any of the antics shown, some of the things that happen come close.

Have you ever met someone with the same birthday as you?

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images

Have you ever been in a group of people and discovered that someone else shares your birthday? Does that seem like an amazing coincidence? 

Not so, it’s just chance. 

In any group of 23 people, there is a 50-50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday. Click the link below for an explanation of why.

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

 

Week 23 of the countUP

Animated Horses

Just for fun this week here are 22 horse animations:

For those who are counting, this is week 22 of the countUP 

It might look impossible, but it's not

As this is week 21 of the count up *and* it happens to be the 21st of the month, here is a problem involving the number 21:-

9 + 10 = 21

Is that impossible? 

Turns out it’s not. 

In fact there are many ways to make it true, but they involve dealing in number bases. So if number bases are not your thing, forget that side of things, and just enjoy this video from Presh Talwalker for its fascinating insight into the history of numbers.

And this is why we're doing a countUP

A really weird sum

If ONE costs £1 and TWO costs £2 and ELEVEN costs £11, would it seem obvious to you that TWELVE costs £12?

And could you show why?

Here’s a handy hint: if you rearrange the letters in this: “TWO PLUS ELEVEN” you can make this “ONE PLUS TWELVE” and both answers are the same.

And here’s Presh Talwalker talking through the whole story:

For those who are counting, this is week 20 of the countUP 

Some useful tips for GCSE English Language

Last week we looked at GCSE Maths and some useful tips to get good marks. Here’s Jake again talking about English Language

For those who are counting, this is week 19 of the countUP