Over the weekend, the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, enjoyed his favorite day of the year – Groundhog Day! According to historical data on Stormfax^® Weather Almanac’s website (stormfax.com/ghogday), Phil has predicted a long winter 104 times, and an early spring 18 times from 1887 to 2018 (no data for nine of these years). That makes the odds of Phil seeing his shadow, thereby predicting six more weeks of winter for this year, 52 to 9. Based on this information, what is the percent probability of Phil seeing his shadow?

Chapter competitions officially start this week! Are you ready to compete? Perhaps solving these Sprint Round problems from the 2018 Chapter Competition will help you warm up.  

Sprint #15
By switching two of the digits of the number 123,456, Rodrigo obtains a new number that is 1980 more than the original. What is the product of the two digits Rodrigo switched?

In 2018 the United States is expected to produce 240 million turkeys. That is a decrease of 1% compared to the number of turkeys produced in 2017. How many turkeys were produced in the U.S. during 2017? Express your answer to the nearest million.

In celebration of Veterans Day, here are a few problems based on data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates.

In the United States in 2017, there were an estimated 251,047,650 adult civilians (persons 18 years of age and older not currently enlisted in the U.S. military). If 18,204,605 of those individuals were veterans, what percentage of the adult civilian population of the United States did veterans account for in 2017? Express your answer to the nearest hundredth.

In the town of Newtonville, 60% of the registered voters turned out to cast their votes in the most recent election. If 2814 residents of Newtonville voted in this election, how many registered voters were there in Newtonville?

We are told that 2814 represents 60% of the registered voters in Newtonville. Thus, there are 2814 ÷ 0.60 = 4690 registered voters in Newtonville.

A new school year often means new school clothes, new teachers and new friends. One of our favorite parts of a new school year is the release of a new MATHCOUNTS School Handbook! Download your free copy after solving a few problems from some previous handbooks.

Lily is going to the movies with Abby, Bea and Jaclyn. Abby wants to sit at the end of a row, and Bea only cares that she is seated next to Jaclyn. In how many different ways can the girls be seated in a single row that has only four seats?

Congratulations to the Washington Capitals hockey team on winning the Stanley Cup! To celebrate the NHL champions, we have a few hockey themed problems for you to solve.

In the quest to win the Stanley Cup, the Washington Capitals played in four playoff rounds. During each round, they faced a different opponent in a best-of-seven series, in which the winner was the first team to win four games. What is the absolute difference between the greatest and least number of games that a team could play in four such rounds to become the Stanley Cup Champions?

Derrick received a total of 21 gift cards for graduation. He received gift cards in each of four denominations, $25, $50, $75 and $100. The number of $100 gift cards Derrick got was twice the number of $75 gift cards he received. The total value of the $50 gift cards he got exceeded the total combined value of the $25, $75 and $100 gift cards by $100. How many $25 gift cards did Derrick get for graduation?

Sun City earned its name because it rarely rains there. In fact, it rains only 54 days each year there, on average. What percent of the days in 2018 is it expected to rain in Sun City? Express your answer to the nearest hundredth.

Congratulations to everyone who competed in the 2018 State Competition, especially to the winners who are headed to Washington, DC next month to compete in the 2018 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition! Now that the competitions have officially wrapped up, let’s take a look at a few of the challenging problems from the 2018 State Competition.