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Puzzle Zone
Flex your math muscles with these fun brainteasers!
Ava's Acorns
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On her walk through the woods, Ava stopped at 4 oak trees to gather acorns. She found 5 acorns at the first tree. The second tree had 5 more than the first. The third had 5 more than the second. At the last tree, Ava found 19 acorns.
How many acorns did Ava bring home in total?
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Alien Message
You’ve been hired to decode a message from space! This alien language uses numbers instead of letters. But luckily for you, each number represents a letter in the English alphabet: 1 = A, 2 = B, and so on.
What’s the secret message?
23 5 3 1 13 5 8 5 18 5 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
20 15 16 1 18 20 25! ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Triangulate It!
The numbers at the corners and centers of these triangles follow a rule.
What number goes in the center of the third triangle?
Makayla’s Mask
Makayla bought her Halloween mask using only 2 bills and 2 coins.
Which mask did she buy, and which bills and coins did she use to buy it?
Clockwise from left to right:
Mummy mask: $2.15
Pumpkin mask: $3.60
Cat mask: $1.20
Witch mask: $2.45
Vampire mask: $2.25
ANSWERS: Ava’s Acorns: Ava brought home 49 acorns, 5 + 10 + 15 + 19 = 49 total; Alien Message: The secret message is “We came here to party!”; Triangulate It! The center number is the product of the three corner numbers, so the missing number is 24; Makayla’s Mask: Makayla bought the Mummy mask for $2.15 using two $1 bills, a dime, and a nickel. Another possible answer: Makayla bought the $3.60 mask wih a $1 bill, a $2 bill, a half-dollar coin, and a dime.