Eighteen apples cost 90 cents and fourteen oranges cost 84 cents. If an apple and orange fruit drink contains equal amounts of each fruit, and 6 in total, how much will its contents cost?

The answer is 33 cents. Not sure how to work it out? Try asking our Year 8 House Mathex teams at the Boys’ School!

Fleet of foot and fleet of mind, the teams lined up from Years 4-8 to out-run and out-calculate each other in the annual House Mathex competition this morning. The event requires a small team to answer a set of 20 problem-solving questions correctly within the allocated time. There is a catch, this is a collaborative effort. One of the team is also assigned as a runner, to sprint back and forth to fetch the questions and return the answers to the front for marking; running a complete circuit to get there. Speed is of the essence – the huge stop watch is counting down the minutes right to the final second!

So, Manu and his brother, Rau, have combined ages of 30. In fourteen years, Rau will be three times the age Manu is now. How old is Rau?

Tricky, eh! Now run your answer to the adjudicators. You should have answered 19! If you got it right, you’ll receive the next question to run back to your team. If not, go try again or elect to ‘pass’ and lose the points.

With other year groups watching and cheering from the stands, the noise was deafening as the excitement built, especially when two Middle School teams raced for the finish in the final seconds.

And one last one...

Of a group of 32 students, fourteen can neither paint nor dance, seven can dance only, and three can paint and dance. How many can dance only?

The final results? Whilst Chalmers won the Middle School event and Cargill won the Senior School, when both sets of results were combined, Hamilton were declared overall winners!

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