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Title: U.S. Coal Consumption
Level: Intermediate, Middle School
Time: One Day
KERA Goals: 2.12, 2.33
Objective: Use deductive thinking skills to solve the logic puzzle from the clues and the data sheet.
Materials: Duplicate the following worksheet

 
State         
Tonnage         
Rank 4        

Activity:
Your job as a U.S. Coal Inspector is to determine which state representatives belong where on the distinguished panel board above. Be sure to read the clues given below carefully. You may not be able to use some of the clues immediately, but they may prove to be useful later in the puzzle. Use only the figures in the 1989 column when you are figuring out rank and tonnage.

Clues:

1. This state lost its rank in 1989.
2. No one sits on Indiana’s right, but the state that used 90,989 thousand short tons is at his immediate left.
3. The Keystone state is not #1 in Coal Consumption, but its position on the panel board matches its rank if you move from right to left.
4. The state between the 3rd ranking state by U.S. Coal Consumption and the 5th, grosses 32,792 thousand short tons.

Bonus: Add up the tonnage of the six states represented.

U.S. Consumption Ranked by State, 1987-1989
(in thousand short tons) Source: DOE/EIA-0121

1987 1988 1989
Rank State Tonnage State Tonnage State Tonnage
1 Texas 82,915 Texas 86,689 Texas 90,989
2 Ohio 59,350 Ohio 61,096 Ohio 61,016
3 Pennsylvania 55,305 Pennsylvania 58,639 Pennsylvania 58,526
4 Indiana 52,335 Indiana 56,762 Indiana 58,203
5 Michigan 35,865 Michigan 36,435 Michigan 37,186
6 W. Virginia 34,815 W. Virginia 35,355 W. Virginia 34,932
7 Illinois 34,632 Kentucky 35,176 Kentucky 32,792
8 Kentucky 32,023 Illinois 32,979 Illinois 32,374

Provided by Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center