The duration of a ride on the Shocker roller coaster is 1 minute 30 seconds.  The Shocker has only one train consisting of a series of linked cars, each of which carries a pair of passengers. It takes each group of passengers exactly 30 seconds to board the train and exactly 30 seconds to exit the train.  In one hour 480 people board the train, complete the ride and exit the train. Assuming there is never a seat left vacant, how many linked cars are in the Shocker’s train?

Each summer Radolpho, Lucia and Mya, along with their families, spend two weeks on vacation at their shared lake house.

Mya travels the furthest distance to get to the lake house from her home. Mya’s truck has a fuel tank that holds 12 gallons of gas, and she can drive an average of 22 miles per gallon of gas. If Mya leaves home with a full tank of gas, drives directly to the lake house, and arrives with exactly 1/8 tank of gas remaining, how far does Mya travel from her home to the lake house?

Before Kyra’s school moved to distance learning because of the COVID-19 outbreak, her school building was overcrowded due to a lot of new registered students. Classroom space was a real issue. In looking ahead to next year, the administration figures that if teachers did not stay in their classrooms during their planning/off periods and allow other teachers to come in to use the room, it might free up space and the administration could hire more teachers.

May is National Bike Month, so here are a few problems related to bicycles.

A 6-inch tall flower casts a 4-inch shadow at 5:00pm. One month later, when the sun was at the same position in the sky as it was at 5:00pm one month earlier, the shadow cast was 5 ¹/₃ inches long.

While taxes are said to be one of only two things certain in life, this year demonstrates the actual date of Tax Day can be flexible. While we prepared for an April 15 Tax Day, rest assured that Tax Day 2020 has been postponed three months! 

Surya is competing in a triathlon that includes swimming, bicycling and running.  For the first two segments of the race, Surya swam at an average rate of 4 kilometers per hour and bicycled at an average rate of 40 kilometers per hour. It took 81.75 minutes for Surya to swim and cycle a combined total of 43.29 kilometers, completing the first two segments of the race. How long, in minutes, did it take him to complete the swimming portion of the race?

During the month of February, the 2020 Chapter Competitions took place across the country. Let’s look back at a few of the problems our competitors encountered.  

The Iditarod sled-dog race is run on a trail that was originally a mail-supply route. In 1925, part of the trail became a lifesaving highway for the children who lived in Nome.

The Iditarod is sometimes called “The Last Great Race on Earth.” Every year, it begins in Anchorage, Alaska during the first weekend in March. Each team of 12 to 16 dogs and a musher covers the distance to Nome in approximately 9 to 20 days.

State Competitions are coming up fast! Are you ready to compete? Let’s try a few 2019 State Competition problems to get ready.

2019 State Sprint Round, #18

If C is a digit such that the product of the three-digit numbers 2C8 and 3C1 is the five-digit number 90C58, what is the value of C?