This scene deals with the characters trying to defuse a bomb by using a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug to measure exactly 4 gallons of water. There are actually two ways to do this, but the movie does not show all the steps for the method the guys use. It cuts to where the 3-gallon jug has 2 gallons and the 5-gallon jug is full. Challenge your students to get to that point. From there, the solution is easy.
For a nice puzzle site, click here. www/puzzle.dse.nl/logical/index_us.html
Die Hard With a Vengeance ("As I Was Going to St. Ives")
A phone call leads to the old children's rhyme, which actually has its origins in Problem 79 of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. You can stop the scene after the statement of the riddle, and ask students for the answer. It's a good exercise in paying close attention to the question.The trick answer (1) is key to the scene.
For information on this rhyme and the Rhind Papyrus, click here. www.jimloy.com/puzz/stives.htm
Hans Christian Andersen (The Inchworm Song)
As Danny Kaye sings "Inchworm", the children in the background sing their addition facts, consisting of sums of powers of 2. This can be used in conjunction with the old problem that has a person earning 1 cent on Day 1, 2 cents on Day 2, 4 cents on Day 3, and so on, and determining how much the person will make at the end of 30 Days.
Song lyrics can be found here. www.angelfire.com/film/dannykaye/Inchworm.htm
According to Jim (Ruby Studies Her Multiplication Tables)
This humorous scene deals with Ruby learning her 9 times tables. After showing the scene, show students how the 9 times tables follow a pattern: when multiplying 9 by a factor having single digit (3, for example), the product has tens digit one less than that factor (3 - 1 = 2), and the ones digit is the number which when added to the tens digit gives 9 (in this case, 7). So Ruby would have known that 9 X 3 = 27.
Nine is the key to why this puzzle works. http://trunks.secondfoundation.org/files/psychic.swf
The Pajama Game (Seven and a Half Cents Musical Number)
Pajama factory workers led by Doris Day are trying to get a 7.5 cent per hour raise. Show the scene in segments. After Doris and her friend have computed how much extra they will earn in 5 years, stop the tape and ask students to figure out how much extra they will earn in 10 years. Then show that the computation in the scene is correct. Stop the tape again, and ask students to determine how much extra they will earn in 20 years. Then play the scene to find out the surprising result.
In the Navy (13 Times 7 Equals 28)
Ask students to determine how many doughnuts are in seven baker's dozens. Then show this scene. It can be shown strictly for laughs, but you can also work in the idea of place value, especially in the last "computation" done by Abbott, when he adds 13 seven times to get 28.
For more on Abbott and Costello, visit www.abbottandcostello.net .
The Andy Griffith Show Episode "Opie's Charity" (Poor Horatio)
Ask your students to determine the number of boys per square mile in a county of 400 square miles if there are 600 boys living in the county. Then show this scene, where Opie has a bit of trouble understanding Andy's explanation of ratio. (RIP Don Knotts, 2/25/06)
Merry Andrew (The Square of the Hypotenuse)
Danny Kaye plays a teacher with some unconventional methods of teaching science and mathematics. His musical rendition of the Pythagorean Theorem is mathematically correct. There is, however, a historical reference to Einstein in the lyrics of his song that is actually credited to Archimedes, who supposedly ran naked through the streets of Syracuse after he discovered a law of displacement while taking a bath. See www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_11_27_00.html.
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