Mathman 5 -
West Bend Park
 

Terrain: Easy

Difficulty: Depends on math ability

Placed by: The Dragon (Mathman) and his Honors Advanced Algebra students on June 22, 2003

Replaced and Updated: July 5, 2003

Location: West Bend, Washington County, WI

Materials needed: Personal stamp, stamp pad, calculator, compass, these clues

Dragon's Home Page
Mathman Home Page
 
CAMOUFLAGED BOX
 
This box is the fifth in a series of letterboxes with mathematical clues.  The boxes are intended for both regular letterboxers and my students.  This box was developed by some of my Honors Advanced Algebra students for an extra credit opportunity and as an example for future boxes to be created by my students.

These clues rely on the use of matrices to encode/decode clues.  Go to this page to learn how to do this on a free graphics calculator simulator or to do it by hand.
 

Students and parents of students should read my introduction to letterboxing before seeking the boxes.
 

Clues:

First, do the following math problems!

A. 50x = 5, solve for x.  ______

B. Use matrices to decode the following message:

__________________________
 

C. Solve the proportion for x: ______


D. Solve to find the positive solution for t:  2t2 - 856 = 100394  _______

E. What is the greatest common factor of 110X and 12100?  _______

F. Find the root of x2 - 16x + 64 = 0  ______

G. Divide 3x3 - 13x2 + 21x - 24 by x - 3.  What is the remainder?  ______

H. Y varies directly as X.  What is the constant of variation if Y is 1700 when X is 5? ______
 

I. Evaluate: ______

 

J. Evaluate: ______


Insert the numbers/words from the problems above into their corresponding lettered blanks in the following clues, then go and find the box!

To find the park, find the intersection of Park Avenue and North ______ (A) Avenue in West Bend.  This will be near ______________________ (B).  Turn into the park entrance across from this intersection.  Once you're there, park on the west side of the parking lot and take the wide major trail that heads west.  Go to picnic area #______ (C).  Stand on the south side of the picnic post.  Face ______ (D) degrees and walk about ______ (E) paces.  You should be in another picnic area (don't get eaten by ants!).  Stand on the SE side of the pole and walk in a SE direction until you reach the building with _____ (F) sides.

 
Once you get to the building, take the number of pillars and divide it by 2, and go to that picnic site.  To get there, follow the path on the south side of the building you are at and follow it west.

Find the trail between that picnic site and picnic site ______ (G).  Go up this trail into the woods!  At the first fork in the trail take the trail at 255 degrees.  At the next fork, turn to _____ (H) degrees, and walk a few paces and stop when you are in the middle of the intersection of 5 paths. Turn and walk down the left trail.  After 75 paces another trail comes to join it from the right (ignore the offshoot you passed to the right leading to an exercise spot).  Go left then a quick right (after 8 more paces).  The trail narrows.  After a while, take the trail as it heads left downhill.  Walk over the large root in the path, then the other smaller roots as the path continues to go downhill and left.  Pass the large "V" tree on your right at the bottom of the downhill, go over the tree across the path and stop at the tree on the left visited by JB in '89 and Mander in '77.  From there, take 110 more steps down the trail.  There, on your left, you should spot another "V" tree.  The box is in the "V".

BEFORE RETRIEVING THE BOX, BE SURE NO ONE IS AROUND TO SEE YOU TAKE THE BOX OUT!  DO NOT BRING ATTENTION TO YOURSELF OR THE HIDING LOCATION OF THE BOX!

Please be sure to re-hide the box well with leaves!

Before you set out read the waiver of responsibility and disclaimer.

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