Scavenger Hunt

The National Math Club (of which we are members) encourages clubs to have a math scavenger hunt. Here's what we do. Take a picture of something that represents one of the hunt terms below. Then we will need to come up with a clever word problem using that photo. We only need to do this for 12 things, but maybe we could make better problems if we had more photos.

I'd like you to email me photos you take for these, I'll put them on a google slideshow, and we'll work on this. :)

Scavenger Hunt Terms List

acute angle average circumference congruent consecutive integers diameter dilation fraction frustum hexagon middle obtuse angle

parallel parallelogram pattern prism pyramid quadrant ratio reflection rotation sector symmetry tessellation translation unit of measure volume

Here's the finished example:

Diameter

The diameter of a circle is a segment that connects two points of the circle and goes through the center of the circle. Spheres also have diameters.

Diameter also can refer to the length of that segment.

Consider the top view of a basketball going through a basketball hoop. What is the approximate ratio of the diameter of a typical basketball to the diameter of a standard basketball rim?

A. 9:10 B. 4:5 C. 2:3 D. 1:2

SOLUTION

The interior diameter of a basketball rim is a standard 18 inches.

The circumference of NBA and WNBA basketballs must be within ranges when inflated, rather than being an exact amount. (Interesting!) We will use a circumference of 29.5 inches, which is the NBA minimum.

The circumference of the ball (or sphere) is the product of its diameter (d) and , so d = 29.5 inches. Dividing both sides by , we have d ≈ 9.390 inches.

This results in the ratio 9.390/18 ≈ 0.522 ≈ 52%.

A. 9:10 (or 90%) B. 4:5 (or 80%)

C. 2:3 (or 67%) D. 1:2 (or 50%)

It seems that successfully shooting a basketball should not be so difficult!