Valentines Math Quiz All the Math you will

Valentine’s Math Quiz All the Math you will do for Love By The. Math. Mom for The Boston Globe The. Math. Mom. com : Life is a Puzzle, Solve it with Numbers. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 1

Puzzle 1: Cake for his ex? You were planning to make a little Valentine's Day cake for you and your boyfriend, but he's just told you that his ex-girlfriend and her three roommates are joining you for dessert. (Don't worry, they're just friends. ) How can you proportionally adjust the recipe for this crowd? 1. 2. 3. 4. Pick one answer: If #4 is not an option then go for #2. Triple the recipe. You'll have six people eating. double the recipe Your recipe is for two people. Tripling it will triple the recipe get you to the amount you need to keep the quadruple the recipe same portions. dump all the cake butter over his head Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 2

Puzzle 2: A heel dilemma. You are picking up an outfit for your Valentine's date. What heel should you go for? If your date is 6 -foot tall and your height is 5 -foot-7, how high should your heel be for you to dance shoulder-to-shoulder with your date? Pick one answer: 1. 3” 2. 4” 3. 5” Correct answer is 5”. There are 12 inches in a foot. 6’= 5’ 12” – 5’ 7” = 5” 5” would get you to be the same height as your date. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 3

Puzzle 3: An engagement ring. Dude, did you hear the latest gossip about the famous model-singer couple? He was about to propose to her on the Valentine's Day, but she told him she wants a square ring. Jeweler told him it will be more expensive to have a square ring that fits as snuggly as a circular ring without stretching it. Do you think the jeweler is taking advantage of him? Pick one answer: 1. Yes, he's totally being taken advantage of. The jeweler can just use pliers to make square out of the circular ring he bought. 2. No, the jeweler is not scamming. A square around a finger would be bigger than a circle. The answer is: No, the jeweler is not taking advantage of him. The square should contain the original ring's circle inside. You can find the circumference of a circle using the diameter multiplied by Pi, which is about 3. 14. The size around a square is four times the any of the sides. So the circle would be roughly 3. 14 x the diameter. The square would be larger at 4 x the diameter. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 4

Puzzle 4: Lovely reflections. You are prepping yourself to a Valentines night in front of a mirror, winking to your reflection, and singing into a hair brush: "Tonight's gonna be a good night!" Your spouse opens the door and sneaks in to tell you to hurry. Suddenly you see this black crawling creature on the right pocket of your spouse's reflection on the mirror. The kids left the tarantula’s cage open again! Do you scream: 1. Careful: your right pocket! You should be screaming: Careful: your 2. Careful: your left pocket! Mirrors do a horizontal 3. Smash the tarantula on your husbandreflection, so what appears on the right pocket of your reflection is on the left 4. with the hairbrush risking killing both. pocket of the real you. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 5

Puzzle 5: Valentine’s chocolates. You want to bring a box of chocolates to the office. There are 12 candies in the box -- three fudge, three almond clusters, three caramels, and three coconut -- and you would like each person to get three. Then you remember: Mildred is allergic to nuts, Jack has dentures and can't eat chewy foods, your boss would like all the fudge, and nobody will touch the coconut. How many boxes do you need? A: 1 B: 2 C: 3 or more Go for three or more: If everyone is going to get three (and your boss gets all the fudge ones), then one box definitely won't cut it. After figuring in everyone's issues in box two, and keeping in mind you'd like some, you must go to three boxes for everyone to get three or more candies. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 6

Puzzle 6: Love & Diamonds. All those commercials convinced you that nothing says "I love you“ better than diamonds. You decide to venture into the Kingdom of Diamonds outlet and splurge on one for your girlfriend. The store advertised a 30 percent off sale for Valentine's Day. You see that there is a ring that is 1/2 off. You figure, given the additional 30 percent discount you would get the ring for only 20 percent of the original price. True or false? Pick one answer: 1. True – you will get the ring for 20% of the price. 2. False – you will pay a different amount. Correct answer is False: Assume that ring is $100. Half off is $50. Thirty percent from $50 is $50 x 0. 3 = $15. This is 15 percent of the original price. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 7

Puzzle 7: A very large present. Now, in the post-Super bowl and pre-Oscar screen relaxation, you decided to make a special present for your loved one for Valentine's Day and buy a new flat screen 54 -inch TV. Your old TV is also HD but 27 -inches. In the Valentine's card, you want to write how many times larger the area of the new television is. Is it larger by: 27” 1. 2 x. Correct answer is: 4 times. 2. 4 x. TV dimension is defined from its 54” 3. 8 xdiagonal, therefore a 27” diagonal TV is ¼ of the 54” diagonal TV. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 8

Puzzle 8: Vow renewal. Your wedding anniversary was in January of 2012. This Valentine's atmosphere put you in a romantic mood, and you decided to plan a trip to Hawaii and renew your vows for your next year’s Silver Anniversary. You call a travel agent, but you don't have the calendar with you. What day of the week would your wedding anniversary be on in January 2012, if this year it was on Friday? Pick one answer: 1. Friday 2. Saturday 3. Sunday The answer is Sunday: If you divide the # of days in a leap year, 366, by seven (the number of days in a week) you get a remainder of two. As a result every date shifts two days forward each leap year. Therefore, your silver anniversary falls on Sunday in 2013. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 9

Puzzle 9: Kill or kiss? Your husband is telling you that he is going to spend Valentine's eve with his only brother's wife's only brother-in-law's wife. Who is he spending the night with? 1. 2. 3. 4. Your sister Your mom Crazy Aunt Mildred The answer is You: Your brother's wife is your sister-in-law. Your sister-in-law's only brotherin-law must be your husband. Your husband's wife, in this case, would you be you. Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 10

Find more fun pop quizzes, over 270 puzzles and 100 stories about cool math of shopping, dating, travel, parenting, sport, home management and more on: www. The. Math. Mom. com Copyright The. Math. Mom. com 11