A wagon box is 2 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? One busehel = 2150.42 cubic inches.
So I copied it down to Google it later, and sure enough, I had seen it, but not where you might expect:
This is the 8th grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.It makes the rounds on teh internets, with the sender or poster or blogger usually commenting something along the lines of "Imagine a college student who went to public school trying to pass this test today, even if the few outdated questions were modernized." (but not always; thanks, snopes.com for having faith).
Well, I can imagine, because our students did. Our Hawks from SECME and Mu Alpha Theta got up early on a Saturday morning and drove an hour, to competed in a mathematics tournament. These math-elites rock at a level of Mount Rushmore level of awesomeness. Take a second to recognize:
- Captain Caitlin Miller,
- Duncan Miller,
- Yiro Shimabukoro,
- Joe Pavicic,
- Arnold Juan Banner,
- and alternates Ronit Liberman and Edwin Keo
And students from MAθ:
- Raquel Redondo,
- Robyn Exclusa,
- Summer Roque,
- Mitch Vasquez
- Joe Swierzko-Vickers
- along with Dr. Mary Jo Murray, of the Seminole Ridge High Math Department
Here some other questions they tackled:
(8 pts) Solve:
+x -4y - 4z - 3u = -4
-3x + 0y +4z + 2u = -13
+2x - 2y + 2z + 0u = 10
-5x + 2y + 1z + 0u = 16
(4 pts) Suppose a 250-lb parent climbs a muddy 45 degree hill. Calculate the force tending to make the parent slide down the muddy hill.
[A SOLUTION IS HERE, but my students converted into kilograms and answered in Newtons, because that's how we roll in Physics).
