December/January Challenge Question: Chipmunks

As winter approaches, chipmunks begin to gather nuts for the season.  Each nut is in a shell.  Unfortunately, one out of every eight nutshells is hollow in this particular area. The chipmunks can’t tell which ones have nuts and which are empty! 

If a chipmunk collected 40 nutshells this weekend, how many nuts did they save for the winter (remember: one out of every eight nutshells is hollow)?

November Challenge Question: Handshakes

Five students joined a puzzle club after school that had one parent volunteer. If everyone in the room (parent volunteer included) shook hands with every other person exactly one time, how many total handshakes would that be? (Hint: Act this out with people in your house)

November Solution: I think the easiest way to understand this question is by acting it with a few friends. With these 6 people, the first person shakes hands with 5 other people. The second person has already shaken hands with the 1st person, so they only need 4 new handshakes. The next person would need 3 new handshakes (they already shook hands with person 1 and 2). The pattern continues until the last handshake. Then, would add up the handshakes with the equation below. 

5+4+3+2+1 = 15

There would be 15 total handshakes for the puzzle club.