Catching Olympic Fever - The Problems
08/16/2004

 

The 2004 Summer Olympics are underway! Check out this problem from the 2003-2004 School Handbook that contains some facts from the 2000 summer Olympics:

 

 

In the 2000 summer Olympics, the women's 400-meter freestyle winner took 4 minutes 4 seconds to swim her race. The 200-meter freestyle winner took 1 minute 57 seconds. If the 400-meter winner had swum her whole race at the same average speed as the 200-meter winner, by how many seconds would she have reduced her time?

Most people are familiar with the Olympic rings on the Olympic flag. There are five interconnected rings; three rings are in the top row and two rings are in the bottom row. Additionally, many people are aware of the five colors of the Olympic rings: red, green, yellow, blue and black. However, probably very few people could place the correct-colored ring in the correct location of the five-ring-formation. What is the probability that just guessing which color ring goes in which position (for all five rings) would result in all five colors being chosen correctly? Express your answer as a common fraction.

The top three winners of each event in the Olympics will get to take their place on the podium that consists of three platforms. The middle of the three platforms is for the gold medal winner (first place) and is the tallest of the three platforms. If the platform for first place is 2 feet tall, the platform for second place is 2/3 the height of the platform for first place, and the platform for third place is 50% the height of the platform for second place, what fraction of 1 foot is the height of the platform for third place? Express your answer as a common fraction.

 

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