Maths challenge...

[silentbrown]

Just saw this article, with this 'teaser'



My first thought was "they've left off some measurements", briefly followed by "d'oh!".

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greate...

I guess Economics 1sts are easy to come by now.

[sparkythecat]

Isn't the answer to both 44?

[silentbrown]

Yes.

[dazwalsh]

Jaysus that had me stumped for a while until i figured out what was going on with the right hand boxes

Edited by dazwalsh on Tuesday 7th June 21:00

[rsbmw]

I can see kids finding it tricky (although one would presume they're covering similar examples in class) but adults, really?

[silentbrown]

dazwalsh said:

Jaysus that had me stumped for a while until i figured out what was going on with the right hand boxes

Yeah, the right-hand boxes befuddled me briefly.

I think this is one of those questions where knowing that it's solvable is 95% of the battle. The article sets up the problem as though it's possibly a printing error or similar.

[defblade]

It's not entirely clear whether the 2cm pertains to the horizontal or vertical line of the inset. It must be the vertical to be solved, but my initial reading of it was that it was the horizontal.

[kambites]

As long as you know (or can guess) what "rectilinear" means it seems a reasonable enough question except for the ambiguity about what the "2cm" refers to (and that's obvious if you know it's solvable).

Possibly not easy if you're 10, though. I don't know.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 7th June 21:12

[BigBen]

defblade said:

It's not entirely clear whether the 2cm pertains to the horizontal or vertical line of the inset. It must be the vertical to be solved, but my initial reading of it was that it was the horizontal.

Looked like the horizontal to me also but as you say it can't be solved if that is the case.

They don't seem that easy for a kid to me but also assume they will have been given examples in class.

[sunnydude]

yea, I think this would be a struggle for me if I was 10.

I'm 26 with an MEng Mechanical Engineering degree and I had to spend several seconds on them, mainly the 2nd one.

[Troubleatmill]

To be fair it took me a bit to work out.
Once I re-read the question without speed reading - it was obvious.