Answer to the March 10, 2003 Problem of the Week

The Snow Problem

• Home
• Meet Mr. P
• What's New
• Humor
• Lesson Plans
• Quotes
• Links
• Puzzles & Games
• Problem of the Month
• Math Facts
• Logic Puzzles

The five storms with the highest snowfall in Winchester, Virginia occurred on Jan. 7-9, 1996, Feb. 11, 1983, Feb. 15-16, 2003, March 5-6, 1962, and March 13-14, 1993.
Use the clues below to list the storms and their amounts in descending order:

1. Two of the storms measured 24 inches.
2. The second most snowfall and the fifth most snowfall occured in the same month.

3. The first and fifth place storms occurred over 40 years apart.
4. One of the February storms measured 20 inches.

5. The average snowfall for the five storms was 25.3 inches.
6. The snowfall from the 1983 storm was more than either of the 1990 storms.

7. The heaviest snowfall measured was 30 inches.

 

---

Solution to the Problem:

Storm	Date	Snowfall
1	March 5-6, 1962	30 inches
2	Feb. 11, 1983	28.5 inches
3	March 13-14, 1993	24 inches
(3)	Jan. 7-9, 1996	24 inches
5	Feb. 15-16, 2003	20 inches

You can determine the five snowfall amounts from clues 1, 4, 5, and 7. Since the average is 28.5 inches, multiply by 5 to get the total amount of snow for the 5 storms. Then subtract the 4 given amounts to get the fifth storm, which is 28.5 inches.

Clue 3 tells you that the 1st and 5th storms must be 1962 and 2003.
Clue #2 tells you that the 2nd and 5th storms must both be March or both be February.
But Clue #4 tells you that the 5th storm must be February, so that tells you that the 2nd storm is February.
Clue #6 then tells you that the 2nd storm was Feb 1983 (since it was bigger than 2 other storms).
Then Clue #3 tells you the highest snowfall was March 1962.
That leaves only two storms which are the 24 inch storms.

Correctly solved by: