soccer quiz

[slammergirl4]

At soccer practice, each player must kick the ball to every other player present at least once. If there are 17 players at practice, what is the minimum number of kicks required?

[Phil7]

17 x 16 / 2 = 136

[slammergirl4]

thank you!

[whitehill]

Why is it divided by 2, phil7? I'm not criticising, just trying to improve my maths problem solving. Why isn't it the obvious, each player must kick to each other one, so every player must kick 16 times, so 17 x 16 (At this point, my son, a maths graduate, would be sighing and saying Oh mum, surely you realise....... But I rarely do)

[Emu2005]

I agree - i don't think you divide the answer by 2. If the question was how many pairings of players would be required, then you would divide it by 2. But as each player needs to kick to another, all 17 players have to kick 16 times, so the answer is 272. (i think!)