Any geniuses out there?

Wim weighs 500 Kg
Wilf weighs 300 Kg
Walt weighs 200 Kg
Will weighs 700 Kg

I suggest they all go on a diet...

hmmm

Wim weighs__500___Kg
Wilf weighs __300_Kg
Walt weighs_200___Kg
Will weighs_700___Kg

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Hmmm - I worked the rest out on my fingers, seems seagull swooped in while I was moving the string from my finger to thumb...

genius indeed sir.

Now, there are currently 11 people here (incl. teachers) trying to work it out. So, how the bloody hell did you do it?

Cheers
Scottyc

walt=200
wilf=300
wim=500
will=700

Edit - just seen the other post so here's my working;

Lose the W's to save confusion
Walt=X, Wilf=Y, Wim=Z, Will=A

1) X+Y = Z
2) A +Y = Z+500
3) X+Z=A
4) A=Z+200

3) and 4) give X+Z=Z+200 so X=200

which gives
1) 200+Y =Z
2) A + Y =Z +500
3) 200+ Z = A
4) Z = Z +200

1 & 2 now give
200 + (Z-200) = Z +500
so A=700

Which then gives
3) 200 + Z = 700, so Z=500

and finally
2) becomes 700 + Y =500 + 500, so Y=300.

Edited for typo!

[This message was edited by Stephen H on Thu 27 May 2004 at 13:07.]

.

subs will=wim +200 from 4 into 2 gives wilf = 300

equate 3 and 4 (eliminating wilf) gives walt = 200
The rest drops out.

Simon

What Simon said

Right

only one person here has managed to do this so far and she is the finance manager. It took her 40 mins and she more or less played with numbers till she got the right answer.

I think that this is too difficult for a 10 year old girl!!!!!

Scottyc

I can't remember how difficult the algebra was when I went to school, but I'm a little surprised that adults were struggling so much. Maybe it was the similiarity of the names?

Regards,
Steve

It does seem tough for a ten year old

Rasher,

that's my point. Adults where I work, (incl myself) have all struggled. One of these was a very good scientist with good algebra/equation skills. He gave up in the end. Maybe we were trying to make it more difficult than it is.

Oh, and btw. The title at the top of the worksheet is:

UNIT 26: multiplying and dividing.
Now as far as I can tell there is adding and subtracting but no multiplication and division!

Scottyc

quote:

---

Originally posted by scottyc:
One of these was a very good scientist with good algebra/equation skills. He gave up in the end. Maybe we were trying to make it more difficult than it is.

---

I would suggest he/she isn't that good a scientist or at least she/he does not have good algebra/equation skills.

Does seem difficult for a 10 year old.

It's easily solved with basic algebra, as was taught to me when I was 14 years old (25 years ago). I would expect it to be tough to do it algebraically at 10 years old, although I certainly could have solved it in some fashion when I was 10. Then again, I had an IQ of 140 when I was 16, and was in the 95-98th percentile with most math skills.

I knew only one kid who had better 3D envisioning skills than I did; one day he designed a bizarre experiment using a candle, a mirror, and some string, with which he managed to measure the distance from the earth to the moon with only a 5% error. I still don't fully understand how he did it.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

If a bunch of teachers can't solve that little problem then God help our children.

This does seem hard for a 10 year old because it requires multiple substitutions to solve the problem, (the names add a bit of confusion). However I would expect anyone with any maths qualification (CSE, GCSE, 'O' level) to solve this in <5mins

It took less time to solve than it did to write the names down.
I agree it would be hard for a 10 year old, but I also agree with Dobbin that for teachers not to be able to solve it is very worrying indeed.

Steve D

Chaps

I took 4 minutes to calculate the equation.

If a teacher cannot do that sum then frankly they should be sacked.

I would agree that it rather tough for a ten year old.

Regards

Mick

I got it in about 20
mins.

A ten year old could never get that,(unless their name was Ruth Lawrence)

Whatever happened to Ruth?

Took me about three minutes to solve - simple substitution. I am amazed if teachers and a presumably numerate finance manager cannot solve this in a similar amount of time.

"Whatever happened to Ruth?"

She got her PhD at about 17, went to Harvard and as now a Professor of Mathematics at Michigan specialising in Knot Theory. She is married with at least one child.

She is currently working holomorphic invariants of 3-manifolds and q-gamma functions altough personally I felt it failed to live up to the promise in her earlier work on Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants of Seifert manifolds.

http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~ruthjl/

Matthew

quote:

---

Originally posted by DJH:
Took me about three minutes to solve.

---

Slowcoach. I got it in 5 seconds - by scrolling down to Seagull's answer. The moral: cheat.

Davie

Four simple equations, four unknowns, not exactly rocket science(*). I reckon we were doing that kind of thing at age 10. We were certainly doing the 'if it takes 5 men 12 hours to dig a ditch how long will it take 2 men?' type of thing which seems conceptually trickier.

(*)I spent 6 months of my gap year being a rocket scientist.

Paul

Some of the replies in this thread remind me of a satirical piece titled "The College Application Essay".

Joe, of poor spacial abilities and average IQ

_______________________________________________

quote:

---

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas. I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook 30 minute brownies in 20 minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello. I was scouted by the Mets. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang-gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a travelling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several cover operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life, but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a Mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prize-winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet. I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet been to college.

---

It is strange how late in childhood most of us are taught algebra. I had real problems with arithmetic as a child, and think I would have found it a lot easier and more interesting if I had been taught algebra early on.

In India it seems to be the norm (among those lucky enough to have Western standards of living) to learn algebra at the age of 10 or 11 - an improvement, at least... I must admit, though, that in 1971/2 at the age of 9 I was flabbergasted to find that a two and half year old Indian cousin had a page of reading, a page of writing and a page of arithmetic as homework every day! I didn't learn to read anything other than flash cards until I was 5.

Re IQ tests: I like to imagine that they measure something useful, since I got 168 on the Mensa test (nyeh nyeh nyeh ). However, being the most spectacularly unsuccessful person I know, in all aspects of life, has not inclined me to change my view that IQ is not a measure of anything generally useful (although I really don't know enough to know). Interestingly, although my forte seems to be abstract spatial reasoning of the type measured by IQ tests, I am probably below average at more practical forms of spatial reasoning such as reading maps and learning routes, where you actually have to remember things for more than few seconds.

Even those employers who use IQ tests don't seem to take them very seriously, if one experience is anything to judge by: I got good marks in all sections of the test, and was told I got only one question wrong in the spatial reasoning section, which I was told was far better than anyone else had ever done. I still didn't get the job, despite having being told that the interview was a formality. No, I did not claim, at interview, to be a visitor from Zeta reticulum or any such thing. While I'm on this topic, it's worth asking why we think of IQ as a fixed thing. I've had very varying marks on tests, and in fact failed to qualify for an interview the first time I took a similar (but not the same) test with the same employer.

I suspect computer programming (i.e. coding) may be simple and logical enough for IQ to be a good indicator of potential because it seems to need the same sort of intuitive grasp of logic.

Hmmm... I have a weird feeling I've said every word of this on the forum before - spooky, eh? I suppose if I stay long enough I'll reach a point where every post can consist of links to previous posts.

[This message was edited by JeremyD on Thu 27 May 2004 at 20:28.]

quote:

---

She is currently working holomorphic invariants of 3-manifolds and q-gamma functions altough personally I felt it failed to live up to the promise in her earlier work on Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants of Seifert manifolds.

---

Ohh I agree, her work on Seifert was a literary triumph.

quote:

---

(*)I spent 6 months of my gap year being a rocket scientist.

---

Now Paul, you've got us all on the edge of our seats - tell us more!

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio