The school maths question dividing the internet

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sxz

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Topic # 183952 4-Nov-2015 13:33

From the Herald. How did you get on? The answer is at the bottom of the article. I thought it was fairly easy (although I had to think about it for a few minutes) and definately an appropriate level for year 12 students.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11539869

What do you reckon - too hard for year 12 students?

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Reply # 1420747 4-Nov-2015 13:35

I showed it to my year 11 son last night, he got it fairly easily. It helped that he was in the middle of studying similar problems for his NCEA maths exam next week.

reven

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Reply # 1420752 4-Nov-2015 13:41

The possible answers make it pretty easy to work out, it clearly is greater than 45 degrees, so that narrows it down to 2, then it looks closer to 60 degrees than 72 degrees, so the answer is 60 degrees.

now if it was a question without multiple choices, I would not have of gotten it (well maybe if I was at school and could remember any of that stuff :))

kiwitrc

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Reply # 1420755 4-Nov-2015 13:42

What is year 12 in form numbers? 6th form maybe?

reven

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Reply # 1420757 4-Nov-2015 13:43

kiwitrc: What is year 12 in form numbers? 6th form maybe?

form 6.

kiwitrc

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Reply # 1420786 4-Nov-2015 13:45

reven:
kiwitrc: What is year 12 in form numbers? 6th form maybe?

form 6.

Ta, then no its not too hard.

Blanch

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Reply # 1420795 4-Nov-2015 13:54

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LOL

"F*** you 50 cent, I didn't like your music anyway," one defeated Year 12 student posted, according to The Age.

MadEngineer

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Reply # 1420797 4-Nov-2015 13:57

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The world needs more of this and less of the likes of dressgate

Inphinity

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Reply # 1420798 4-Nov-2015 13:57

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That's really terrible if they can't work that out. This is basic geometry I would've expected year 9/10 students to handle fairly easily, not year 12 to struggle with.

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kiwitrc

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Reply # 1420801 4-Nov-2015 13:59

Blanch: LOL

"F*** you 50 cent, I didn't like your music anyway," one defeated Year 12 student posted, according to The Age.

That would be the guy I would employ over the guy who got it right :)

Jaxson

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Reply # 1420804 4-Nov-2015 14:05

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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...

Hammerer

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Reply # 1420808 4-Nov-2015 14:07

The Internet doesn't care.
The external angles of a polygon adding up to 360 degrees is NCEA level 1 so level 2 students should know it. The ability to solve the problem using algebra is also taught at level 1 so it should be no major issue at level 2.

Behodar

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Reply # 1420810 4-Nov-2015 14:09

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I came to my answer quickly... and then second guessed myself because they reckoned it was hard. After spending a couple of minutes on it I decided to trust my original answer, which was correct :)

sbiddle

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Reply # 1420823 4-Nov-2015 14:31

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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.

Inphinity

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Reply # 1420837 4-Nov-2015 14:42

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...

He's parked in 87.

timmmay

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Reply # 1420838 4-Nov-2015 14:43

Took me about 5 seconds once I read the question, using option #1. I wasn't 100% confident of my answer though.

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