Posted on 12/12/2013 8:47:50 PM PST by Innovative
There are also traditional word problems. Twitchy has found a word problem that may be the most egregiously awful math problem the Common Core has produced yet.
Take a look:
15. Juanita wants to give bags of stickers to her friends. She wants to give the same number of stickers to each friend. She's not sure if she needs 4 bags or 6 bags of stickers. How many stickers could she buy so there are no stickers left over?
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
The correct answer is, “Have Obama do it.”
Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial!
It’s funny. Do you know the puzzle of the farmer who wants to transport a fox, a goose, and some grain across a river on a raft, but he can only carry one of these at a time, and he cannot leave the fox and goose, or the goose and grain together? How can he do it? Of course, it’s a schematic problem, and one can raise all sorts of quibbles and qualifictions to the problem as stipulated, as I learned first hand as a youth.
My dad built a physical model of the problem with the farmer, fox, goose, and grain represented by pegs, with each side of the “river” represented by four holes for each of the pegs. You had to pull out the pegs simultaneously ( i.e. the farmer and one other ) or else it would buzz, and this was actually a fatal complication for the intent of the project, although occasionally he could do it. This was just straight wiring with a battery and a buzzer.
So what I’m saying is, you gotta go with it, you know?
First lesson!
The topic of these two questions would appear to be, "How to convert repeating decimals to fractions and fractions to repeating decimals".
My guess is that the "0.2" in the first question should really have appeared with a horizontal bar above the "2", indicating that the decimal number consists of an infinitely repeating sequence of that particular digit.
Similarly, I would guess that answer "b" to the second question should appear as a "0.83" with a horizontal bar above the "3", indicating that the digit "3" repeats infinitely.
The addition of two bars would make the questions meaningful and the answers correct.
Do you recall, was that from Dave Barry's immortal "Guide To Guys"?
You win.
1/2, 2/3, 3/5, 5/8, 8/13, 13/21, 21/34, 34/55, ...
... so if we ask, e.g., which is greater, 13/21 or 34/55, we have to compare 13*55/21*55 and 34*21/55*21 or 715/1155 and 714/1155, and continuing in this way the numerator of the later term will always be one less than the numerator of the earlier term, wrt the common denominator.
Typography aside, they go out of their way to introduce unnecessary complexity to an already challenging subject. There are more straightforward paths to guide students through the arithmetic-algebra-analytic geometry-trigonometry-calculus sequence if that's what they're trying to accomplish.
Who knows; perhaps frustrating kids is an end in itself.
Variable friendships? Please be serious.
Subtract Y from both sides. X=10-Y
The "solution" is valid for all values of X and Y, it does take the form of a line.
y=mx+b
Is that a joke... are these hoax questions? Regardless, if I have kids th3 will be homeschooled.
In 0bama’s Amerikkka, mathematics, like policy, is based on the lowest common denominator.
Number 1 is probably a typo... the 2 probably in the 0.2 was meant to have a bar over it as in 0.2222222222.....
X + Y - 10
I believe he meant it as an example of a problem without a specific solution. He probably wasn’t expecting an answer.
Pickles, because cats don’t wear galoshes!
“How can you possibly solve this if you don’t know how many friends there are or how many stickers per bag?”
Duh, the answer is obviously “global warming”
Simple. As many as she needs.
Correction: Make that X + Y = 10, not X + Y - 10.
No, it started a lot earlier than that, back in the early 70’s.. :)
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