Summer math curse By Adam Silverstein

This summer, I had the best time of my life! First, I went to London with my family. Second, I rode my bike around a famous castle in Paris. Third, I got to watch 3 of my favorite shows’ season premieres and finales. But, somehow during all this fun, I got the math CURSE!!

TRIP TO EUROPE We left home to get to the BWI airport at 6pm. We were going to London, UK. It took us 1 hour to get to the airport,1 hour to get through security, 3 hours for plane delays, 7 ½ hours to get to London, and 1 hour to get to the hotel. What time did I arrive to my hotel in London, in London time? (Hint: London is 5 hours ahead of Maryland time.)

HOW TO GET THE SOLUTION: Add up all the hours in Maryland Time, then add 5 more hours to the Maryland Time answer. I landed a plane!!!

BIKE RIDING IN PARIS My family and I rode bikes around the grand canal of the Versaille castle. The path around the grand canal is about one mile. It took us about 20 minutes to finish the ride. How many miles per hour did we ride our bikes?

HOW TO GET THE SOLUTION: There are 60 minutes in an hour, which is three times the amount of time it took us to ride around the grand canal. To get the solution, multiply the 1 mile we rode by 3.

MY FAVORITE SHOWS There were 3 television shows I wanted to watch. Each show was 30 minutes long. I ended up watching 2½ of the 3 shows. If all the shows together lasted 90 minutes (1hr 30 min), how many minutes did I watch TV?

HOW TO GET THE SOLUTION: Multiply 30x3. Then, calculate what’s half the time of one show, and subtract that from the number you get after multiplying 30x3.

ANSWER KEY TRIP TO EUROPE: 12:30pm in London Time. BIKE RIDE IN PARIS: 3 miles per hour. MY FAVORITE SHOWS: 75 minutes.

After all of my hard work with these math problems, I FINALLY broke the math CURSE!!!!!!