Math Muse '98-'99 Winners and Answers

Beginning with this issue, World Around You will no longer feature a Math Muse section. At long last, our writers, Dr. Laura Blackburn and Dr.Claudia Pagliaro, have retired from creating their imaginative puzzles.

Before closing, we want to congratulate our Math Muse winners and print the answers from the 1998-1999 school year.

Here they are:

September/October

Ben Barnes, Berkeley Lake, Georgia

November/December

Brian Capano, Wesley Kleinjan & Joe Dotson Holdingford High School, Minnesota.

January/February

Justin Barlow, Carla Hunt, Ben Lewis, Amy Siebert, & Juri Smith, Metro Deaf School, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Answers to Math Muse '98-'99

September/October

YES, all of the players can make it to the game in time. Here's how: Players A & B cross first (2 minutes). Player A crosses back alone (1 minute). Players C & D cross (10 minutes). Player B crosses back alone (2 minutes). Players A & B cross a second time together (2 minutes). Total crossing time for all players: 17 minutes.

November/December

There are many ways to solve this problem. Here is one way.
(9-9)*9*1 =0
(9-9)*9+1 = 1
(9+9)/ 9*1 =2
(9+9)/ 9+1 =3
square root 9* (9/9)+1 =4
square root (9/9)/+1 =5
( 9- square root9) * 1 =6
(9- [(9/ 9)+11 =7
(9*9)/ 9-1 =8
(9*9)/ 1/9=9
(9*9)/ 9+1 = 10

January/February

CA WA=763, WA IA= 1816, 1 A NJ= 1116, NJ NC=491, NC NM=1 716, NM CA-1 115; TOTAL=7016 miles

March/April

City, State= Pittsburgh, PA Zip= 15260

Thanks, Laura! Thanks, Claudia!