Welcome to my bell ringers.  My Bell Ringers and many of my Youtube videos star Cowboy Rufus Aloysius. Yes, that is the name his mother gave him; but his friends just call him Cowboy Rufus. Cowboy is a pretend freshman again in High School. He has been in the 9th grade for several years. He is in several clubs, and will play sports if he can get his grades up? He works down at the Burger King on the french fry machine. Cowboy is NOT the brightest math student I have ever had. He was talking and playing during much of his elementary math classes so he is far behind. However, if he works hard, pays attention, he will make some progress. Mr. Clark

A.  The FREE IDIOT TEST

Cowboy Rufus has never taken an idiot test, but he is sure he can pass one. He decides to sell pencils to his classmates to earn the money. He buys pencils at .03 and sells them for .15 . How many pencils should he sell to get the five dollars for the FREE idiot test?

B. Cowboy's Coffee

Cowboy really likes his morning coffee! Cowboy Rufus recently paid $18.96 for 3 pounds of coffee.
a. What is the cost per pound for this coffee?
b. How much coffee could he buy for $1.00? (try a proportion)
c. Draw a graph in the coordinate plane of the relationship between the number of pounds of coffee and the total cost.

C. Cowboy's Paper Airplane

      Cowboy Rufus violated our class’s general rule: “Try not to act like a third grader!”  He threw a paper airplane across the room. Cowboy might soon be in detention or ISS, but it gives us the following math fun:
a. Write an equation and solve it to find the straight distance (x)  the plane traveled if it traveled at 6ft/sec and it stayed aloft for 2 seconds.
b. Determine the DOMAIN and RANGE.
c. Sketch an X-Y GRAPH to approximate the flight.
d.  If the plane flew in a curve would we need a different type of equation? JYA!

D. Cowboy's Day Dream
     Cowboy is staring at the clock in math class.
He wants to divide the analog clock face with two
straight lines so that the sums of the numbers in
each part are equal. Is there more than one solution?
  

E. Cowboy Hates Triangles!
Mr. Clark likes them and gave the class the problem below.
Assume that the center point of the intersection is X.   
If a point is randomly chosen on the square shown, what is the probability that it will be in triangle ABX?          2) triangle ADB?

F . Cowboy's Blazer
Mom bought a blazer for cowboy. Now he has to bring his little sister to school everyday. SUVs depreciate as they get older. Suppose a Chevy Blazer that originally cost $25,600 depreciates by one-sixth of its value every year.
a) What is it worth after two years?
b ) When is the Blazer worth half of its value?

G. Cowboy's Jerseys

Cowboy Rufus has a soccer jersey (d) that is somewhere between 25 and 30.        25 ≤ d ≤ 30
and his basketball jersey (e) is somewhere between 22 and 25.
     22 ≤ e ≤ 25,

Mr. Clark has a favorite number (that might be a fraction) so to find his favorite number we need to find the set of all possible values of  d jersey/ e jersey.

H. Rufus Takes Modine for Pizza.

Modine bought 1 slice of mushroom pizza and 2 slices of cheese pizza for a total of $4.
Rufus bought 2 slices of mushroom pizza and 3 slices of cheese pizza for a total of $7. 
1) What is the cost of one slice of each?


What cowboy thinks during a Math Test.

I. Cowboy Plays Poker.
Because his math skills are lacking Cowboy losses much of his Burger King money when he plays cards. A card is chosen at random from a standard deck of 52 playing cards.
a)  What is the probability that the card is an Ace?
b) What is the probability that the card is a 5?
c) What is the probability of drawing 3 queens in a row?
d) What is the probability of getting 4 aces?

J. Cowboy Rufus Digs for Mr. Clark

Mr. Clark is getting a new pool. He is too cheap to have it professionally installed so Rufus and five of his friends are getting paid to dig the hole for the pool.  With 6 students, it will take 30 hours to dig the hole.
a. How many students are needed to complete the job in 15 hours?
b. How many students are needed to complete the job in 10 hours?
c. If Rufus and 2 other students are all that show up, how long will it take?

K. Cowboy works at Burger King$$.
Cowboy makes 12.25 an hour at the Burger King.
1. What does he earn in the summer when he can work 40 hours in a week?

2. Cowboy like everyone else in our country pays taxes (19% tax bracket) and social security (12.7%). Burger King charges him $2.50 a week for his clean shirts. How much does Cowboy Rufus clear for his forty hours?

L. Cowboy Plays Baseball

F So J Se Left 4 3 5 4 right 3 4 1 2 F So J Se Left 4 3 5 4 right 3 4 1 2

Mr. Clark went to watch Cowboy Rufus play Baseball. Rufus is a freshman, right handed, and plays left field. He went 3 for 5 yesterday. The chart represents the 26 man team.
1) What is the probability of picking a senior?
2)  What is the probability that a randomly chosen player is a junior OR a right-handed batter?
3) What is the probability that a randomly chosen player is a junior AND a right-handed batter?

M. Cowboy is seeing stars.

Mr. Clark told rufus to draw circles to separate all the stars from their immediate neighbors.  What is the fewest number of circles required? Cowboy circled every star just in case.

N. Sleepy Cowboy
Cowboy was sleep in Geometry class. Thus his grade is slipping. When he got home he sees this problem, and has no idea??

The figure is made up of 5 equal rectangles. In the small rectangles the length is 3 times the width. If the area of each small rectangle is 192, what is the big rectangle's length and width?

O. Cowboy in Love

Cowboy spent the entire Algebra class flirting with Modine Gunch. When
he got home and saw the first problem he could not even begin. So he called Modine and she had no clue also.

1) How many two-digit numbers have exactly five divisors including 1
and itself?       a. 2   b.9   c. 18     d.24    e. none of these

2) Find the complete Prime Factorization of the number 9100?

P. Cowboy and Distance
He is NOT Mr. Clark's best math student. The only distance Cowboy realy understands is the 225 steps he takes to his lunch room. Lunch is Cowboy's favorite class!

1) Find the distance from (-7,4) and (5, 6)

2) Find the distance from the origin to (- 9, -3)

3) Compare and contrast the Distance Formula and the Pythagorean Theorem.
 

Q. Cowboy make the grade!

Cowboy Rufus received a 92 on his essay and a 70 on his final. He got an 69 on class participation. The essay counts as 30% of his grade. Class participation counts as 20% of his grade. The final counts as the remainder.
What is his average? SYW

R. Cowboy Rufus Aloysius is Rich

Cowboy still works at the Burger King, ($13/hour) but he dreams of being a millionaire some day. In his dream during the first week Rufus made $20. He made 4 times more than the previous week if the week was odd, and 2 times more if the week was even. How many weeks did he work before getting more than a million dollars?

S. Cowboy destroys Mr. Clark's Rubik's Cube

Cowboy took the color cube off Mr. Clark's desk. He could not solve it until he took all the little stickers apart and put them into their proper place. This is the same way he works jig-saw puzzles; the pieces always fit if you use the scissors.

The edges of a large cube are 3 times longer than
the edges of a small cube.
Find the surface area and the volume if each small square is 2 x 2 cm.

T. Rufus Keeps Rope Time
Rufus broke his clock, so now he is determining periods of time with ropes? It takes exactly 1 hour to burn a rope when he lights one of its ends. The rate of burning is completely random, but the final result is always 1 hour.What periods of time can he measure with 2 such ropes?

U. Rufus and the Earth

Mr. Clark has a problem about the Earth. Rufus has a small knowledge of the Earth. All he really knows for sure is that both he and the Burger King are standing on the earth.

If the Earth's radius is twice the radius of planet M, then how much bigger is the Earth's volume? V=4/3 r3

V. Sleepy Cowboy Rufus
Cowboy Rufus keeps falling asleep in math class because he is playing videos games until 4 a.m. That is why he is in detention every Saturday. Maybe this sleep formula will help him.

The hours of sleep need is equal to 34 minus your age divided by 2.  h = (34-a) /2

1) work the formula for your age.
2) Work the formula for a baby. Does the formula seem to work for babies?
3) Work the formula for old people like Mr. Clark (71) Does it seem to work?

W. Rufus Volunteers YOU
Your governor wants a human chain across Missouri for charity. St. Louis to Kansas City is 248 miles. Cowboy Rufus volunteered to do the planning, which means his math class must plan.

How many people will be needed if there are to be no gaps in the chain? What do you need to know?  What else do you need to plan for? Explain your plans for the logistics.

X. Modine Tours Around Town
Modine travels 3 miles from her house directly west to Cowboys house and then directly north for 4 miles from his house to the mall. She then travels home on the road connecting the mall and her house.
1) Draw a sketch of the trip.
(hint: It is a right triangle)
2) What is the distance of the hypotenuse?
3) What is her total distance traveled?

Y. Rufus Fails the Exponent Review
Mr. Clark had these exponent problems on an exit test. Cowboy thought
X-Opponents was something about the MMA or WWE, so he just drew a good looking cat on the test. ( He was sure Ms. Britt would have loved that drawing.) Mr. Clark thought the drawing was funny, but still gave him a zero!     Cowboy Rufus told his mother that he did not think he deserved a zero, because he did not leave the test blank and he tried his best!

1) Express 4 x 10^-5 in standard notation
2) What is equivalent to (x)(x)(x)(x^3) ?
3) Simplify X^7/ x^4

Cowboy Rufus in 3rd grade.

Z . Rufus at the Pool Hall
Fifteen billiard balls fit into a triangular rack. What is the largest number of the billard balls that fit into the rack when its side lengths are

a. decreased by 20%? b. decreased by 40%? c. decreased by 60%?

AA. Rufus Skips School

Cowboy skipped school and got home to this????? Maybe he should have been in class for the explanation!

1) Factor 8 x y^2 — 4xy 

2) Simplify      12x^5 y^6

3)Simplify       21 x y^2

CC.        Mr. Clark's New Ride

Cowboy Rufus wants to drive Mr. Clark's new ride. Mr. Clark said yes he could if he could work the following problem. A car travels 81 miles in 3 hours. If it continues traveling at the same rate, how many miles would it travel in 5 hours and 20 minutes? Rufus is still driving his 79 Pinto!

DD. Cowboy Rufus Walks to School

Rufus is still walking, but Mr. Clark said he might pick come by in his Nissan and pick him up some morning if he is standing out front. Cowboy now needs to figure when to be outside his house which is halfway between Mr. Clark's house and HHS. He always leaves his house and starts driving at exactly 4:45 a.m. If he drives on cruise control at 42 mph, he arrives at 5:03. If he sets his cruise to 50 mph, he arrives at 4:57.

1) At what speed should he travel to arrive at HHS at exactly 5:00?  
2) How far away does Mr. Clark live?
3) If he travels at the speed you solved for in problem 1, what time will he go by cowboy's house.

EE. Cowboy's Cookies


Cowboy wants to make cookies for food class, but the math is past him! Cowboy Rufus’s sugar cookie recipe calls for 2 &1/4 cups of flour. It makes 2 dozen cookies.|
a. How much flour should he use to make ⅔ of a batch?
b. How many cookies is that?
c. How much flour should he use to make 7 batches.
d. How many cookies in 7 batches?

FF. Riding Cowboy

Can Rufus Ride a Horse? Yes, of course. When your mother names you Cowboy Rufus Aloysius, you learn to ride well.  This problem was found in a 5th grade math book published in 1881. “See if you are smarter than a fifth grader?

If a horse trots 3 miles in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, how far can he trot in an hour at that same pace?

GG. Modine & Beta Club

Rufus can't spell ' Beta Club' ; howevr, Modine is the vice-president. Modine has to work 75 hours of community service for her Beta Club. She has already worked 15.75 hours. How many hours a week will she have to work for the next 11 weeks in order to complete her community service.

HH. Cowboy Can Play a Guitar!              

On a website, Cowboy sold his old guitar for $228.50. The website took out its fee, which was 6.57% of the selling price, before transferring the rest of the money to the musician. How much money did Cowboy receive?

His new guitar cost $456.20, the tax rate is 9.75% and the shipping cost is 7% of the cost of the guitar. How much will this guitar cost in total?

II. Cowboy Guesses at Mr. Clark's Wallet

Cowboy Rufus wondered how much money Mr. Clark has in his wallet. Mr. Clark would not tell, but he had the following riddle.

Suppose Cowboy saved up a whole week (40Hr. @ 17.50 hr. of his Burger King money. The government deducts 12% social security and the 18% tax bracket. )Then suppose Modine has 254% as much money as Rufus.  If both of the above were true, then Mr. Clark would have 54.86% of Modine’s money.
a. How much does each have?
b. What is the sum of their money.

JJ. Rufus's Lunch Box

There are 15 grapes in his lunch box. 8 grapes are green, 4 are purple and 3 are white. Cowboy eats 1 green and 1 purple.
a. What is the probability that a purple grape is selected at random from the box and is eaten next?

b. What is the probability of eating a white one next?

KK. The Rectangle?

Rufus has a favorite Rectangle, it is a candy Bar.

He has never bothered to get a ruler and measure it. So he has no idea how to work Mr. Clark's Bell ringer.
The length of a rectangle is 3 times its width. If the perimeter of the rectangle is 56 centimeters, what is the rectangle's area, in square centimeters?

LL. Cowboy Rufus visits the Farm

Mr. Farmer raises Ducks and Cows.
a. In the Blue Pen there are 29 heads and 72 feet.  How many of each animal are in the Blue Pen?
b. In the Green Pen Rufus counts 20 heads and 84 feet. Why is this impossible?

MM. Cowby's Favorite Line.

Cowboy Rufus has a favorite line to ride the Screaming Eagle Roller Coaster at the amusement park, he thinks that line has tons of people, but no coordinates. So today Mr. Clark's bell ringer makes no sence!

Consider the line in the coordinate plane that passes through the point (-7, -3) and the origin.
1) Find the slope this line.
2) Find the slope of a line perpendicular to this line.

NN. The Shirt
Cowboy Rufus's father owns a shirt company. Rufus does not understand business. He has no interest in today's bell ringer; he just wears the shirts. He does not understand why, but this shirt makes Mr. Clark laugh.

Aloysius Shirts L.L.C.  sells sweatshirts for $39 and T-Shirts for $24. The daily fixed cost is $7800. The cost of producing the sweatshirts is $7 each, and the cost for the T-shirts is $3 each. Let X represent the T-shirts and Y represent the sweatshirts. Find an equation for the break-even point for the daily sales. Then find the XY Intercepts (or zeros).

PP. Rufus buys Modine a Coat

Modine is taking advantage of a 25% off sale for Rufus to buy her a new coat.
1) If the coat's sale price is $135, what was the original cost?
2) If the tax rate is 11.75 % how much tax will Cowboy have to pay?

QQ. Mowing the Yard

Cowboy Rufus mows the front lawn, which is a 7m by 10m rectangle. The mower cuts a 1m wide strip. If Rufus starts at the corner and mows around the lawn in a spiral toward the center, how many times around must he go before he has mowed the entire lawn?

RR. Rufus Still Hates Triangles

If the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 10 inches long and one of its legs is 8 inches long, how long is the other leg? (Hint: Draw the triangle and label the sides.)

Remember Pythagorus:
a squared + b squared = c squared

SS. Rufus Hates Squares Also

Rufus grew up in a square house, and his mother made him spent much of his time standing in corners. Now you know why he dislikes squares and triangles.

The area of a square is 484 square inches.  How long is each side?  No Calculators. How could you solve it?

TT. Time for Cowboy the Review

UU. Rufus should be reviewing for the EOC Test, but he is writing Modine a note. Might be why he has been a frweshman so long!
.

VV. Rufus Looks for an Angel

Mr. Clark's worksheet told the class to find the degree of the angle; however, Rufus thought it said angel. He was searching the room for Holy beings while everyone else was getting a protractor and a pencil.

Angle y is 11 times larger than angle x. Find the measure of angle y and x.

WW. Rufus Know the Bus is Yellow

The question is to estimate how many tennis balls can fit in a school bus? Cowboy Rufus guessed 72 because the yellow bus holds 72 people and each could hold one tennis ball. How could you model this problem for a solution more accurate than Cowboy?

XX. Cowboy's Sandwich

Mr. Clark told the class that when you multiply binomials you use FOIL. Cowboy Rufus knows all about aluminum foil as that is how he wraps his sandwich every morning. He also knows that bi means 2, but he has never had two sandwiches with nomial. Rufus is willing to try that because lunch is the only class he passes most days.

Multiply (foil) (4x - 5)(4x + 5)               (3x -5 ) and (9x-7)

YY. Duck Tape and Cowboy

Cowboy has a roll of duck tape that is 60 meters long. Cowboy does not understand meter or yards, all he understands is that duck tape is real sticky. When he was little he used a couple rolls of it on his bedroom door to keep people out. Later, when his mother called him to supper it took him 2 hours to get to the table. An angry mother and a cold supper are not a good combination!

a. How many cm. does have? 
b. How many more meters of duck tape does he need to make a kilometer? 
c. How many yards does he have?

ZZ. A logic puzzle.

The class was told to work a logic puzzle so Cowboy went to get the scissors and a hammer. That is how he works jigsaw puzzles at home. If the pieces do not fit use the scissors to cut them or the hammer to force them together.

Let P = (M + N)/2 and let Q = 2MN/(M+N)
If P = Q, which of the following must be true?

AAA. Cowboy and his Dad Drive to Nashville.

Wednesday  Cowboy and his dad are driving a New 18-wheel truck full of T-Shirts to Nashville. Rufus always wondered why they called it an 18-wheeler because if you count the steering wheel it should be 19!

The empty 18 wheeler weighs 31000 pounds. The palets of shirts will weigh 18000 pounds. 
a. How many tons in the total weight?
b. How many ounces is that?
c. How many kilograms?

BBB. Rufus Gets Taken

Cowboys grandfather once told him one of the reasons he should learn math is so that bad people can not take away your money. He ignored that comment. Recently, he got into a game at the pool hall where he would owe a dollar if the coin came up heads and receive five dollars if it came up tails. Rufus played that game for a couple hours and no tails were ever flipped. Eventually he lost all his Burger King pay check.

What is the probability of getting all heads with the flip of a 5 coins?

CCC.

a. What is the slope of line segment AB?
b. What would be the slope of a parallel line?
c. What would be the slope of a perpendicular line?

DDD.
The sum of N consecutive integer numbers is 2090.
The smallest number is 101.   
Find N.

EEE.
What is the sum of the Z members from 1-100?

Below this point is still under construction!! Come back soon so see if I am working hard?