Any maths teachers on this forum?
Posted by: mista h on 29 April 2014
320
20
20
320
20 : The number of Premiership clubs which probably won't include Fulham next season. 
20 : The number of Premiership clubs which probably won't include Fulham next season.
No probably about it,call it a Defo.
Mista H
20.
The trick sequence is multiply, divide, add & minus. Grasp this basic and you wont be wrong! Itz is also like how you switch on & off your Naim system 
By convention:-
brackets
Multiply; divide
add; subtract
Usually best to add barckets temporarily.
(4*4)+(4*4)+4-(4*4)
16 + 16 +4 -16 = 20
Looks like our Richard failed A level maths as a young lad !!
Must say we have some very clever posters on this M/B,must all be retired maths teachers.
Mista H
Maths not my strong subject Mista. I forgot about multiplication taking priority, so yes, the correct answer is 20.
I hate these questions, written only to catch people out. My view is that brackets should always be used to make it clear. On the basis that the writer should make sure that the reader does not misinterpret - it's poor communication otherwise. reminds me of the passing of the port - an example of etiquette written to catch people out, whereas proper etiquette is applied to make people feel at their ease
And I most definitely passed maths A level - my recollection is that i would have got a right telling off from my maths teachers if I wrote something out so badly.... so I was not taught this convention
What I have trouble conceptualising are very large quantities. For instance, I can conceptualise the figure 100 easily enough, 10,000 I can also grasp. But a very large sum such as 1,000,000 is beyond my imagination. What does 2 billion look like, if we were to scale, say, a pea, to two billion times it's original size?
I ask this because people use the words millions and billions when talking about debts, expenses, or company profits, as if they were talking in easily conceivable amounts such as hundreds.
If your annual income is £1million. (excluding bonuses and pension contributions by your employer), then one billion (one thousand times as much) isn't at all difficult to imagine.
You simply need to change your job !
I hate these questions, written only to catch people out. My view is that brackets should always be used to make it clear. .........
..................... my recollection is that i would have got a right telling off from my maths teachers if I wrote something out so badly....
+1
Of course it doesn't help that the billion means different things whether you're talking about money (finance) or mathematics/science. In the former it is a thousand million and the latter is a million million.
I got 20 but big deal. I bet that most who got 320 reached for a calculator or "smart" phone. When I was in school we learned to do square roots of large numbers by hand, but I'll be damned if I could do it now. No need to. The spreadsheet and calculator have replaced all those long-hand methods.
When I was a teen I could remember tens, maybe up to one hundred phone numbers in my my head, but the cell phone has done away with all of that. I honestly could not tell you even the area codes for my parents or siblings phones, but that has yet to be an issue for me when I call them thanks to the cell.
A chance for Richard to make a comeback !!
| 1. | If 7 is equal to 13 then what is 16 equal to? |
Of course it doesn't help that the billion means different things whether you're talking about money (finance) or mathematics/science. In the former it is a thousand million and the latter is a million million.
I think even the scientists have adopted the American version of a billion these days.
A chance for Richard to make a comeback !!
| 1. | If 7 is equal to 13 then what is 16 equal to? |
in a base 4 system it would equal 40.
But quite often these sorts of questions are as pointless as the various answers.
Right Don. There is practical knowledge, there is useful knowledge, and then there is trivia.
Well then, I guess I'll take my practical knowledge and try to put it to good use in my trivial endeavors .
Of course it doesn't help that the billion means different things whether you're talking about money (finance) or mathematics/science. In the former it is a thousand million and the latter is a million million.
I think even the scientists have adopted the American version of a billion these days.
There might still be country specific differences on this (which also confuse some and also create mistakes in translations). Here the following are used (in both finance and science):
1000 million = 1 milliard
1000 milliard = 1 billion
I thought a billion was a million million, but the USA couldn't cope with that so it became a thousand mill.