OUCH!!

Ouch!
We certainly had some excitement around here last week. It all started when Blake and Will were visiting last weekend. They were riding their bikes when Blake fell and hurt his hand, so he went to the emergency room to check it out. Sure enough, he had a broken finger! After X-rays and a taped up finger, Blake seemed hardly the worse for wear, so we decided to stop by the local ice cream store on the way home.
"Does it hurt much?" asked Will in a worried tone.
"Only when I forget and try to bend it," answered Blake. "I'm glad it's my left hand too, so I can still write."
"What are you thinking about writing at a time like this?" I asked, taking a bite out of my sugar cone.
"Oh, I was thinking of writing Mrs. Hayes. She's on a trip to Washington D.C. and it will be exciting to tell her about my broken finger – especially if I make up a math challenge about it," said Blake, laughing.
I had to admit that this was true. His teacher, Mrs. Hayes just loves math challenges. "As soon as we get home, I'll get some paper and a pen for you. Do you have an idea already?" I asked.
"Yes, in fact I do," said Blake, smiling a bit. "I was listening to the doctor as she was taping up my finger and I got an idea for it."
Here is what Blake wrote to Mrs. Hayes:

Dear Mrs. Hayes,

I fell off my bike and broke one of the finger bones in my left hand. But I have lots more bones in my hands.

Can you figure out how many unbroken bones I have on my hands?
Here are some clues:

I have 2 bones in each thumb.
I have 3 bones in all the other fingers.
I have 2 more palm bones on each hand than finger bones on each finger.
I have 3 more wrist bones on each hand than palm bones on each hand.

See if your students can figure out the answer and tell how they figured it out!

Blake T.

Party Platters

Food Items and Amounts

Cheese slices 3.02 pounds
Chicken salad 1.5 pounds
Egg salad 2.75 pounds
Ham slices 2.75 pounds
Hot dogs 4.4 pounds
Macaroni salad 2.5 pounds
Potato salad 4 pounds
Sausages 2.37 pounds
Sliced roast beef 2.8 pounds
Turkey slices 2.38 pounds

Party plans are in the works. Samyuth, Whitney, Daniel, and Sidney each bought 2 items from the above list for the party. Not everything on the list was purchased. No two people bought the same thing.
Samyuth bought sliced cheese and 1 of the sliced meats. The sliced meat was the meat that was the greatest amount of all the sliced meats on the list.
Daniel bought meat, but none of it was sliced. The two meats he bought were the same shape.
Whitney bought sliced meat, but it was different from the meat that Samyuth bought.
Sidney bought two salads. The potato salad she bought was 1 and a half pounds more than the other salad she bought.
What were the two items each person bought?
How much did they purchase of each item?
And what was the total weight of the items for each person?

Mitzi's Party

Mitzi is planning to invite 14 people to her birthday party.
She went shopping with her mother for party supplies. They went through the express check-out line because they had fewer than 15 items. Mitzi and her mother bought cupcakes, plates, ice-cream sandwiches, and juice boxes. There were 3 more cupcakes than juice boxes, but the same number of packages of each.
They wanted to make sure that each person at the party got one of each item. They also wanted to have the least possible amount left over.
How many packs or boxes of each item did they buy?
How many items in all did they buy?

One....Two....Three.....

This week you will solve three different problems. You may choose to post your answers all at one time or work on them separately. However, ALL posts must be made by midnight on Thursday! I want to see posts from everyone this week!

PROBLEM 1

Replace each blank with the correct digit.
4 3 _ 2
4 5 _
_ 1 2 7
---------
8 8 9 3

PROBLEM 2

Scientists have just discovered people on Neptune. There are 3 villages, 2 cities and 1 super city on Neptune. These are the populations in 1994 and 1996.

1994 1996

Eilosa 129 204
Vertu 308 292
Pridi 90 50
Dedrun 500 600
Antran 700 693
Maran 1200 1500

List the places in order of increasing size in 1994 and 1996.
In which year was the population of the planet greater?

PROBLEM 3

The Teacher has left a clue for the Students to follow at the beginning of each class. These are the clues that the Students have found:

(1) There is a 1 in the thousands place.
(2) The digit in the tens place is 9 times the digit in the thousands place.
(3) Multiply the digit in the thousands place by 2.
(4) The digit in the ones place is a hand without a thumb.
(5) The digit in the hundreds is 2 less than the number in the tens.

Solve the riddle to find the number!