The school maths question dividing the internet

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#1420905 4-Nov-2015 15:45

wasabi2k:
surfisup1000: How about this one ... it is a psychological trick rather than a math prob as such.

If a baseball and a bat cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?

I knew this was a trick one - doubted myself, but it makes more sense when you state it as (x+1) + x = 1.10

as for the coin one - the 360 degree thing came back to me... it's only been 15 years since I actually did any geometry.

I think that one is more about his 5 cents worth....

andrew027

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#1420926 4-Nov-2015 16:11

yitz:

In New Zealand the bus would be going towards the right. In the USA I imagine it's going towards the left.

KJClayton

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#1420931 4-Nov-2015 16:21

sbiddle:I would have thought it was fairly basic geometry that the angles off a polycom add up to 360 degrees,

I guess it depends on what sort of Polycom it was. Some of the SIP/VoIP ones might add up to 5060.

Jaxson

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#1420932 4-Nov-2015 16:22

Inphinity:

He's parked in 87.

Spoiler alert...

andrew027

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#1420944 4-Nov-2015 16:24

The one that always got me at school was the "missing dollar" problem - I could get the maths to make sense on paper but I found it so difficult to explain verbally that I'd confuse myself and start to doubt I had actually worked it out!

Sideface

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#1420946 4-Nov-2015 16:25

andrew027:
yitz:

In New Zealand the bus would be going towards the right. In the USA I imagine it's going towards the left.

No, it's going forward (trick question)

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kiwitrc

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#1420947 4-Nov-2015 16:25

Jaxson:
Inphinity:

He's parked in 87.

Spoiler alert...

Not really, in China the number before 88 is considered very unlucky, so they use a numbering system that goes 86-8 to denote 87

stevenk

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#1421033 4-Nov-2015 17:32

sbiddle: I'd love to know where all the people are on the internet that are supposedly stumped by this. I haven't come across any. I would have thought it was fairly basic geometry that the angles off a polycom add up to 360 degrees, so dividing that by 12 gives you the angle of each.

I too looked at it and had the answer within about 5 seconds - but then spent time thinking about it because I'd read everywhere about how hard it was supposed to be.

Reported yesterday in The Age, this question cropped up in this year's VCE Further Maths exam.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vce-maths-problem-can-you-solve-the-50-cent-question-20151102-gkopm8.html

To make it worse, this exam would be sat in Year 12 of the Victorian education system (each state in Australia has its' own education system and exams) which roughly corresponds to Year 13 in New Zealand or NCEA level 3.

gregmcc

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#1421038 4-Nov-2015 17:38

Got to remember they asked year 12 Australian students, what is surprising is that some actually got the answer right.

It is a pretty basic maths question and it only took a number of seconds to actually work it out, If I had of read all the way to the end and seen the multi choice answers it would have been easy to pick the obvious one

hashbrown

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#1421040 4-Nov-2015 17:40

Adding "Dividing the Internet" to clickbait filters.

MadEngineer

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#1421100 4-Nov-2015 18:58

I had this question from when I studied NZCE

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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LennonNZ

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#1421137 4-Nov-2015 20:35

MadEngineer: I had this question from when I studied NZCE

As far as I can work out , pi might be powering it :-)

turnin

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#1421268 4-Nov-2015 22:42

Sideface:
andrew027:
yitz:

In New Zealand the bus would be going towards the right. In the USA I imagine it's going towards the left.

No, it's going forward (trick question)

The bus is supporting its self, therefore it is going towards the right

LennonNZ

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#1421272 4-Nov-2015 22:51

turnin:
Sideface:
andrew027:
yitz:

In New Zealand the bus would be going towards the right. In the USA I imagine it's going towards the left.

No, it's going forward (trick question)

The bus is supporting its self, therefore it is going towards the right

This one is a interesting one and most USA kids can get the answer in a few seconds but adults get it wrong. Its a Bus.... The entry door is on the other side... (as you can't see it) so it must me going left (in the USA)

eracode

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#1421307 5-Nov-2015 04:02

Jaxson: This took me about 10 seconds. How is this difficult?

That may sound knoby but I found that china (?) car parking sequence one WAY more difficult, and that was for 7 year olds...

F*** you, Mitsubishi. I don't like your cars anyway.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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