Mathematics
Pothole of the Week

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Pothole #30

Because Gary is spending a lot of money on his travels he has to watch his finances. He has made some stock purchases. During the last week one of his stocks was up 1/4 point on Monday, up 5/8 on Tuesday, down 1/2 on Wednesday, unchanged on Thursday, and up 1 1/8 on Friday. What was the overall change in his stock for this week? Gary has 75 shares of this stock. How much did he gain or lose?

Pothole #29

Gary decided that he wanted to ride 30 hours this week. He has completed the first four days and now has to decide how long he will ride on Friday to make his 30 hours. What time on Friday should he stop riding? Explain your answer.

	Start	Stop
Monday	10:00 AM	2:30 PM
Tuesday	9:30 AM	3:00 PM
Wednesday	8:00 AM	2:00 PM
Thursday	10:00 AM	6:00 PM
Friday	11:00 AM	????

Pothole #28

Gary faced some mighty hot weather when he was in the desert areas. For nine days the temperature was over ninety degrees. The temperatures were:

What was the mean temperature?
What was the median temperature?
What was the mode?
What was the range of temperatures?

Pothole #27

In his travels Gary must make some decisions about where he will stay for the night. He comes across a sign that says that there are five campgrounds in the immediate area. Help Gary decide which campground he will go to by rank ordering them from the shortest distance to the longest distance. Change all of the distances to the same unit, for example, make them all fractions or all decimals or all percents. (If you're really ambitious, change the distance to feet.)

Camp Happy	.5 mile
Sunny Haven Camp	.05 mile
Happy Camper	1/5 mile
Wild West Camp Grounds	3/5 mile
Tent Village	25% mile

Pothole #26

In his travels Gary came across a rectangular fishing hatchery that was 100 yards square. A little further down the road, Gary saw a sign for a second hatchery that said the sides of the hatchery were three times longer than the one he had just visited. What was the area of the second hatchery and how many times bigger is it than the first one Gary saw?

Pothole #25

Gary was traveling in Redwood National Park and pulled off at a scenic marker that told that the tree next to it was 304 feet tall. (That's longer than the length of a football field. That's a tall tree!!) It had a diameter of 21.6 feet and it was 1500 years old. (that's even older than your teacher!)

on average, how many inches did it grow in height each year?
on average, how much wider did it get each year?
what is the circumference of the tree?

Pothole #24

Gary's budget is about $1500 per month or about $50 per day.

His plan was to spend	He is actually spending
30% for lodging	15% for lodging
30% for food	40% for food (He's a hungry guy.)
10% for repairs and equipment	10% for repairs and equipment
10% for entertainment and admissions	15% for entertainment and admissions
20% miscellaneous	20% miscellaneous

How much is he spending on each item per day?

What is the difference in what he planned to spend and what he actually is spending on each item?

Pothole #23

Below is a contour map of one of the mountains (really just a hill) in Rocky Mountain National Park on which Gary rode. The outside contour is at 500 feet elevation. At least how high was Gary when he was on top of the mountain.

Pothole #22

This is a tough one! What is the difference between the longitude and the latitude when Gary left Barberton, Ohio, and when he was in Santa Clara, California? It might help you to know that the zip code for Barberton is 44203 and the zip code for Santa Clara is 95054.

Pothole #21

Gary goes 5000 miles per tire. How many tires will he need to buy if he is going 20,140 miles?
Gary's new tires originally cost $28. He has a card with him that will get him a 15% discount on the cost of the tires. The average tax is 6.75%. How much will he pay for each tire? How much will he pay totally for all the tires he buys?

Pothole #20

Gary watched as a traffic light changed every 20 seconds. Gary is 52 years old. Assuming that the light has never lost power, how many times did the light change in his lifetime?

Pothole #19

Gary stopped at the fair in ____________. He spent a total of $25.00. He spent $6 on admission and $9 on food. He went on 8 rides. All of the rides were the same price. Write an equation to find the cost of one ride and then find the cost of the ride.

Pothole #18

Gary went fishing and caught a really big fish. He had only a ruler to measure with and he discovered that the head of the fish was 10" long. The tail is as long as the head plus ¹/₂the body. the body is as long as the head and the tail together. How long was the fish that Gary caught?

Pothole #17

Gary went to a basketball game while traveling through Indiana. (Where else would you go to a basketball game?) He had to leave before it was over, but he read the following statistics in the paper in the morning:
Field Goals # taken	% made	Free Throws # taken	% made
Lions
48	37 ½ %	20	55%
Tigers
40	45%	18	66 ²/₃%
Help Gary figure out who won the game and by how many points.

Pothole #16
In his travels, Gary has met five women: Alice, Barb, Cynthia, Donna, and Eve.

The women are in two age categories.
Three women are under thirty and two are over thirty.
Two women are teachers and the other three are secretaries.
Only one woman over thirty is a teacher.
Alice and Cynthia are in the same age bracket.
Donna and Eve have the same occupation.
Barb is not a teacher.
Cynthia and Donna have different occupations.
Barb and Eve are in different age brackets.

Of the five women, Gary will visit the teacher over thirty. Who will Gary visit?

Pothole #15
In his travels, Gary meets a "gamer" who wants to shoot dice with him. He said that in the game, they will each shoot two dice (face values one through 6). If the gamer gets a sum of 3, 6, 9 or 12, he earns 100 points. How many points should Gary get each time any of the remaining sums appears to make the game fair?

Pothole #14
Gary says "Hurray for the USA!" In his travels he has learned some interested facts. The official American Flag has a length to width ratio of 1.9 to 1. If the stripes below the field of stars are 36 inches long, how wide is each stripe? (Round to the nearest tenth.)

Pothole #13
The average number of miles that Gary rode in five days was 77. (WOW, Gary! Bet you were tired.) On day 1 he rode 70 miles, day 2 was 76 miles, day 3 was 78 miles, and day 4 was 70 miles. Help Gary to figure out how far he rode on the fifth day.

Pothole #12
Gary wants to buy a burger for lunch. It costs $1.35. He has 20 coins in his pocket, all nickels and times. How many of each kind does he have?

Pothole #11
On Gary's bike, Gear x has 12 cogs (teeth) and turns clockwise at 30 revolutions per minute. Gear Y has 24 clogs and gear Z has 6 cogs. How fast and in which direction does gear Z turn?

Pothole #10
While in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Gary ran across an archeological dig looking for buried treasure of the Anasazi Indians. The archeologists have found five different jars. They also found writing that told that the jars belonged to the Anasazi, the Hope, the Oglala, the Navaho, and the Lakota. Help the archeologists and Gary to determine which names go with which jars.

The Lakota jar is larger than the Anasazi jar
The Oglala jar is not the smallest.
The Lakota jar is not the largest.
Only one jar is smaller than the Navaho jar.
The Hopi jar is larger than the Oglala jar.
More than one jar is greater than the Oglala jar.

Pothole #9
Gary was riding down a road in Iowa when the truck in front of him had a case of eggs fall off the back. Looking at the huge omelet on the road, the driver of the truck asked Gary how many eggs were in the case. Gary said, "When I counted by 2's, there was one left over. When I counted by 3's or 4's, there was one left over. But when I counted by 5's, there were no eggs left over." The driver said he knew there were less than 100 eggs in the case. What are the possible number of eggs that could have been in the case?

Pothole #8
Gary rented a raft to use to float across a river at Isle Royale National Park. The raft can hold 270 liters of water before sinking. During the float, Gary hit a rock and the raft began to leak. It gained 10 liters of water the first mile, 15 liters of water the second mile, 20 liters of water the third, and so on. How far could it travel before it sank—and Gary in it!?

Pothole #7
Gary thought of a plan. If he doubles the amount of time he rests each day, starting with resting only one minute of the first day, how much time will he be resting after 10 days? Is this a good plan?

Pothole #6
In his travels, Gary comes across a (horse) riding stable. The owner tells Gary he'll let him go for a ride if he can help solve a problem. He has an Arabian mare, an Appaloosa stallion, a Palomino pony, an Arabian pony, a Palomino mare, a Pinto stallion, an Appaloosa mare, a Palomino stallion, a Pinto pony, and an Arabian stallion. He wants to have one of every size and breed combination. He wants Gary to tell him which horses he still needs to buy. Can you help Gary?

Pothole #5

Gary had a flat tire. He needed to go to a bike shop that was 1.5 miles away from where he got the flat. He took a taxi to get there. The cab charged $2.75 for the first mile and 55 cents for each tenth of a mile after that. How much did Gary have to pay for his ride to get his tire fixed? (Don't forget, he had to go back to camp.)

Pothole #4
Gary had a can of spaghetti, a can of chili, and a can of Spam in his bike pack. He could make tea or coffee. He also had Twinkies, a Twix bar, or a Snicker bar to eat as dessert. How many different combinations of dinners could he eat? Make a tree diagram and write the sample space for all possibilities. Tell another way you could find the answer.

Pothole #3
Gary camped 20 km from a store. He needed new batteries for his digital camera so he decided to go the store to buy the batteries and some snacks, too. He went 4.75 km toward the store and discovered that he had left his credit card back at camp. He went back to get his credit card and then went to the store. How far did he travel before he got back to his camp sight?

Pothole #2
Gary is sitting outside watching a cricket, a grasshopper, and a frog. All of them started at the same spot. The cricket can jump two spaces each time it jumps. The grasshopper can jump three spaces, and the frog can jump five spaces. After how many spaces will the frog, the cricket and the grasshopper be at the same space?

Pothole #1
Gary would like to get across a river to get a close-up picture of a moose. He meets a mother, her son, and her daughter who also want to get across the river and happen to have a raft. The problem is that the raft will only hold 100 kg at most. Gary weighs 85 km. The mother weighs 54 kg. The son weighs 45 kg and the daughter weighs 40 kg. How can they all get across the river?