Hello!
As someone who will celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in a couple of weeks, I thought you might enjoy this seasonal problem!
Did you know…?
There are 8 days of Hanukkah. For each of the 8 days, a candle is lit and placed in the menorah – one on the first day, 2 on the second day etc. Sounds simple, right? Well, yes and no. By the end of each day, these candles burn out and have to be replaced, which means that there are many candles used throughout the 8 days of Hanukkah. To top it all off, each of these candles is lit by another candle, called the shamash, which is then places in the centre of the menorah.
So. If you had to buy enough candles for this year’s Hanukkah celebration, how many would you buy in all?
Young children might enjoy using materials to model and solve the problem. Older students might use some Gauss-and logic and/or ideas around triangular numbers to generate a solution…
Happy holidays, everyone!
Carole
Great problem solving question, Carole. Since I have taught at a Jewish Day School for 15 years, we quiz the students on this every year. By great 6 or 7 I wonder if they’ve memorized the answer? I’ll find out today….