Algebra Problem....

[Ramnares P.E.]

So how many folks are losing their PE license now?

 

[goodal]

<--- this guy is.  I missed the trick part of the question even though I knew there was one.  That's why I suck at riddles.  I take things too literally. 

 

[matt267 PE]

This is less of an algebra problem and more of a details/assumptions problem.

 

[MA_PE]

You know what I didn't pick up was that there was a double boot and a single boot I think that's why most of us came up with 42

Yup.  that is the trick, not the complexity or the order of operations (but I'll bet that gets a lot of people too.)

 

[csb]

?

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

I still can't believe so many people have trouble with order of operations.  Not in this forum, per se, but I've now seen this posted elsewhere.  It's disheartening.

 

[snickerd3]

I still can't believe so many people have trouble with order of operations.  Not in this forum, per se, but I've now seen this posted elsewhere.  It's disheartening.

stupid common core math?

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

stupid common core math?

There has to be more to it than that.  It's to the point of willful ignorance.

 

[snickerd3]

or just not being taught the importance...for non-science/engineering people the importance of that concept isn't really important.  My cousin's kid is having a really hard time with algebra in middle school because it is being taught the way we learned math, not the common core approach that's being taught in elementary.

 

[Road Guy]

both of my kids are in Calculus in High School, I cant really tell that they are teaching it any different than "they way we learned"  although it does seem to be very watered down compared to college calculus - I admit not doing it every day it takes me a minute to remember things when I *attempt* to help them..

 

[MA_PE]

both of my kids are in Calculus in High School, I cant really tell that they are teaching it any different than "they way we learned"  although it does seem to be very watered down compared to college calculus - I admit not doing it every day it takes me a minute to remember things when I *attempt* to help them..

I hated when my kids would ask me at the last minute to help with their math home work and the new method of teaching was totally confusing.  I get the correct answer but they didn't see what I was doing because the method they were being taught was some ***-backwards way of looking at things that was unnatural to me.  I'd need to read and go through the text book examples to see how they were explaining to the kids.  I'm not convinced it's an improvement.

 

[Road Guy]

I can usually get the correct answer, but my way does involve at least a 2:1 ratio of more "written out solutions" than the way the teacher does it...

last year when one of my kids was in ALG II they actually did a lot of homework with these stupid animals and "boots"  instead of all numbers so the kids couldn't cheat and look up the answers on google or something.. It was pretty funny, my daughter was like, how does 4 Horse = 7 Dogs?

 

[Dleg]

Dog + man = 

 

[P-E]

 

[ptatohed]

So, here's what I get for the solution:

Let:

H = 1 Horse

S = 1 Horseshoe

B = 1 Boot

 

H + H + H = 30;  3H = 30;  H = 10

H + 2S + 2S = 18;  10 + 4S = 18;  4S = 8;  S = 2

2S – 2B = 2;  2x2 – 2B = 2;  4 – 2B = 2;  2 = 2B;  B = 1    

B + H x S = 1 + 10 x 2 = 1 + 20 = 21

 

 

 

 

 

[mudpuppy]

You're assuming the symbol with one boot is equal to half of the symbol of two boots. That's a dangerous assumption to make,since there was no definition of the one boot symbol and no operation defined to convert these symbols. IMO you can just as easily assume any value for one boot and thus there are an infinite number of solutions. 

In the real world,this is sloppy problem and a careful engineer would have to do more research before making a conclusion. 

 

[MA_PE]

You're assuming the symbol with one boot is equal to half of the symbol of two boots. That's a dangerous assumption to make,since there was no definition of the one boot symbol and no operation defined to convert these symbols. IMO you can just as easily assume any value for one boot and thus there are an infinite number of solutions. 

In the real world,this is sloppy problem and a careful engineer would have to do more research before making a conclusion. 

sounds like sour grapes from someone that did not want to participate.  There's nothing wrong with stating your assumptions and devloping an answer.  The assumption of assignng a numerical value to each of the symbols is logical and rational and what separates us from robots, although AI is getting to where a robot woud respond with a simialr assumption

 

[ptatohed]

You're assuming the symbol with one boot is equal to half of the symbol of two boots. That's a dangerous assumption to make,since there was no definition of the one boot symbol and no operation defined to convert these symbols. IMO you can just as easily assume any value for one boot and thus there are an infinite number of solutions. 

In the real world,this is sloppy problem and a careful engineer would have to do more research before making a conclusion. 

This was already discussed. 



So, yes, an assumption has to be made.  But, given the facts (the first three equations), it is a perfectly reasonable and logical assumption to make, when solving the question asked (the fourth line). 

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Actually, to mudpuppy's point, if this was a real world problem I would not feel comfortable making the assumptions that led to 21 being the answer since we have no information regarding the relationship between those components other than what's presented. Suffice to say what's presented is incredibly limited.  

 

[mudpuppy]

sounds like sour grapes from someone that did not want to participate.  There's nothing wrong with stating your assumptions and devloping an answer.  The assumption of assignng a numerical value to each of the symbols is logical and rational and what separates us from robots, although AI is getting to where a robot woud respond with a simialr assumption

No sour grapes here, and I did posit my answer long before ptato posted his solution. The fact is ptato's solution isn't any more correct than anyone else's.

This was already discussed. 



So, yes, an assumption has to be made.  But, given the facts (the first three equations), it is a perfectly reasonable and logical assumption to make, when solving the question asked (the fourth line). 

Would you make this assumption if someone's life was on the line?  There is absolutely no information in the problem statement to support this answer, and the assumptions you're making may not apply.  For instance, what if this isn't base 10 (decimal) system?  It's dangerous to assert an answer when you don't have all the facts.