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Rosebush Puzzle 2*

Question:

A gardener laying out another bed of roses planted 10 rosebushes in 5 straight lines with 4 bushes in each line.

How did she do it?

Suggested Materials:

paper
pencil
5 sticks of uncooked spaghetti and 10 pennies

or 5 toothpicks and 10 Cheerios or other flat breakfast cereal
or whatever other manipulative is handy to simulate the lines and rosebushes

Procedure:

Place 10 "rosebushes" on your desk or table.

Using the 5 sticks experiment with arranging the "bushes" into 5 lines of 4 each.

Questions to ask yourself as you work:

If there are 4 bushes on each of the 5 lines and the lines are parallel, how many bushes would there be in all?

Since that would be 20 bushes and you only have 10 bushes to place, can the lines be parallel?

Check for understanding

When you place 4 rosebushes on one of the lines, how many bushes do you have left?

How many rosebushes are toward the inside, and how many are toward the outside?

A hint...

Solution

(Don't look 'til you're ready to give up!)

* Thanks to Christine Heffernan, who sent this question to
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