Monthly Archives: December 2014

248. Fair decorations

Here is a quick cake conundrum for you.

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Two girls are decorating the christmas cake. It is a square fruit cake. They share the icing such that one girl ices the top and one face. The other girl ices the remaining three faces. What possible dimensions of the cake will make the icing areas equal?

247. The Elf Challenge

It was the month before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring – except for the senior elves who were on the brink of all out war. Father Christmas had picked up some leadership strategies on his travels and decided to send his management elves on a team building day … paintballing!

Don’t be fooled – this is no simple Christmas time-filler. This task requires problem solving strategies, two-way tables, averages, data analysis and logic. In fact, you might want to have a go yourself. There is a task sheet, support sheet and solution.

The Elf Challenge (pdf)

Enjoy the puzzled faces and watch the arguments when students try to justify their answers.