Basketballs
(page176)

Here's a solution from that prolific town of Cary, Illinois:

We have attempted to solve Basketballs on page 176 of United We Solve. Our equation/formula is as follows:

x = y(30 * 24)/6/10 or x=12y

where x is the total number of basketballs needed and y is the number of schools in the district.

You need to know how many students are in each school (since there are the same number in each middle school, you multiply the number in each class, 30, times the number of classes there are in each school, 24, and multiply that by the number of schools) and how many students are taking PE at one time (dividing by 6). Divide the result by the number of students per basketball, 10.

A sample table is as follows:

#school	basketballs
1		12
2		24
3		36

Sincerely, Kevin, Brendan, Tommy, Alex, Jason, Joseph Miss Schillaci's Grade 6 accelerated math class Cary, IL

(November 2003)

eeps comments:

Hooray! Again, Cary, Illinois submits the first solution for a problem! Thank you for your explanation. What other kinds of problems use the same mathematics? And, loyal readers, is it right? What do you think?

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