Kids take a jumble of numbers and end up with an answer of 24

Published in the Home News Tribune 5/11/00

Take the following set of numbers. Using each number one time, add, subtract, multiply and divide them as quickly as possible to get to 24.

Ready, set, go: 3, 6, 11, 21.

Not done yet? Sorry, you're too slow. It took eighth-grader Kwame Frimpong of Jonas Salk Middle School in Old Bridge about two seconds to figure it out yesterday in the "24 Challenge" at Rutgers University.

The "24 Challenge" is a competition, based on a math game created in 1988, that is played at a lightning-quick speed at sites around the nation, from San Diego to the Northeast.

The New Jersey program is sponsored primarily by First Union National Bank, which provided enough funding for game materials to be provided to 3,000 classes and 81,000 public- and parochial-school pupils this year.

Roughly 190 of the best players, ranging from grades 4 and 8, were invited to Rutgers' Busch Campus Center for the championship rounds. The "grand champions" were Eric Smith, 10, from the Princeton Regional School District, Dan Huang, 11, of Holmdel, and Andrew Seaton-Elliott, 14, of the East Windsor Regional District.

Bill Monks of Hamilton Square, who helped run the contest at one table while his son competed at another, said the contest reminded him of a chess tournament.

"It encourages students to develop their critical thinking skills, their quick thinking. Plus they have fun doing it, and they meet new kids. It's a positive experience all around," said Monks.

There were four rounds of play, at more than 40 tables. Monks was the proctor at table 43, where Kwame Frimpong and Tim Siclari from Old Bridge and Pranay Patel of Roselle Park faced off in the second round.

The game works this way: The proctor places a card with four numbers on it at the center of the table. The first player to calculate the answer in his or her head touches the card, then has 15 seconds to explain the answer.

Frimpong's correct answer for the card mentioned earlier - the one he figured out in two seconds - was this: 21 divided by 3 is 7; 11 minus 7 is 4; 4 times 6 is 24.

Even that response time isn't always fast enough. On one card, all three players reached out nearly as quickly as the card was put down. Monks had to take that card out of play, because he couldn't tell who was quickest.

Some cards are tougher than the others, and the player who figures out those calculations receives extra points. The trio stared at this card - 1, 3, 17, 22 - for about 35 seconds before Patel gently touched it.

The answer: 22 minus 1 is 21; 21 divided by 3 is 7; 7 plus 17 is 24.

Patel couldn't describe any tricks that help him solve the number puzzles, but Frimpong said it's a matter of memorizing multiplication and division patterns by being exposed to them so often.

"It gives your mind a challenge," Frimpong said. "And at things like this, you get to meet new people."

"It definitely helps me in math," said Siclari. "In algebra, I'm pulling straight A's. Once you know the patterns, math seems to get a lot easier."

Vito Nardelli, a senior vice president for First Union who works in Edison, said the bank has sponsored the program for the last two years because it has witnessed how enthusiastically the participants respond.

"Just stand back and watch the kids. The speed in which they can get those calculations down and get to 24, it's phenomenal," Nardelli said. "These kids are the future of America."

from the Home News Tribune

Published: May 11, 2000

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