Hmmmmm...suspect 11-12yr old Maths questions...

[Koing]

Br did a test and he had some suspect questions...

1b) Using the 'likelihood scale' (wtf is that?!)

What is the probability that a pink elepant will fly over Woking (our town) this weekend?

My bro answers "No chance". He was marked with a red cross.

Technically their could exisit an elepant somewhere in the world that was pink and that could fly. So the likely hood of it flying over town isn't 'no chance' but very small right? But no pink elepant that can fly exisits right?!

3a) Using only 3 cards from below make the biggest number you can:
5 0 8 9 1

My bro picks up 9 + 8 + 5 = 22. This again gets a wrong answer.

Not sure what they are asking here.

 

[theMan]

maybe they mean to make digits, like 9, 8, 5 makes 985.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Or 5^8^9?

 

[Cooler]

Originally posted by: Koing
Br did a test and he had some suspect questions...

1b) Using the 'likelihood scale' (wtf is that?!)

What is the probability that a pink elepant will fly over Woking (our town) this weekend?

My bro answers "No chance". He was marked with a red cross.

Technically their could exisit an elepant somewhere in the world that was pink and that could fly. So the likely hood of it flying over town isn't 'no chance' but very small right? But no pink elepant that can fly exisits right?!

3a) Using only 3 cards from below make the biggest number you can:
5 0 8 9 1

My bro picks up 9 + 8 + 5 = 22. This again gets a wrong answer.

Not sure what they are asking here.

I would do Limit x->0 for chance of the elephant. Or 0% as this is elementary school.

They were looking for the largest number using these digits.

 

[confused1234]

while no pink elephant exists, there is a very small chance one could be born.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: theman
maybe they mean to make digits, like 9, 8, 5 makes 985.

True...but either way it is a shady question.

The elepant one I think he was suppose to to put down 0% as another membe said.

Koing

 

[Leeroy]

infinitely improbable.

 

[Cooler]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: theman
maybe they mean to make digits, like 9, 8, 5 makes 985.

True...but either way it is a shady question.

The elepant one I think he was suppose to to put down 0% as another membe said.

Koing

I Agree that these questions are not worded correctly. If this affected your brother's grade I would talk to the teacher.

 

[pennylane]

I don't even know what those questions are testing your brother for. Seems like a complete waste of time (unless this is some math competition type thing).

 

[glugglug]

On the first question, someone could paint an elephant pink, and put it in a airplane.
Pretty sure that's not what they are looking for either though.

The questions are way the heck too vague, and the teacher would know this too, if he/she wasn't a complete idiot.

Oh, and if the correct answer to the first question is 0, your brother's answer is then correct also, but the grader doesn't understand the whole concept of probability.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Cooler

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: theman
maybe they mean to make digits, like 9, 8, 5 makes 985.

True...but either way it is a shady question.

The elepant one I think he was suppose to to put down 0% as another membe said.

Koing

I Agree that these questions are not worded correctly. If this affected your brother's grade I would talk to the teacher.

It's just a school Maths test. They are crappy questions and I suppose I could lodge a complain at the 'shite'ness of the questions .

When I attended the school I had amazing teachers with tests that were good. Maybe they were crappy at the time?

Koing

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: glugglug
On the first question, someone could paint an elephant pink, and put it in a airplane.
Pretty sure that's not what they are looking for either though.

The questions are way the heck too vague, and the teacher would know this too, if he/she wasn't a complete idiot.

Granted that is a possibility but every sane guy here knows that isn't what they are asking for.

Koing

 

[BlancoNino]

Your brother picked 9, 8, and 5? Either way, isn't that the correct answer?

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Your brother picked 9, 8, and 5? Either way, isn't that the correct answer?

I think the correct answer is

9 8 and 2 but put together so the biggest number is "982".

Koing

 

[drinkmorejava]

The problem is, by the logic of elephant question, pretty much everything has some chance of happening, which is idiotic.

The number one is too ambiguous, it doesn?t say how to make it; it?d get torn apart at any older age. Hell, I could even do 5E98 or something ridiculous.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Your brother picked 9, 8, and 5? Either way, isn't that the correct answer?

I think the correct answer is

9 8 and 2 but put together so the biggest number is "982".

Koing

How is 982 bigger than 985?

 

[shoegazer]

The probability should be something like "extremely unlikely." I would consider the answer "no chance" as more incorrect than an answer of "extremely likely" as "extremely likely" implies that the event is possible while "no chance" implies that it is impossible.

 

[johnjbruin]

Idiotic teachers with stupid questions FTL.

All the people saying there is the possibility of some chance - just STFU - stop teaching your kids dumb things. The chance of a flying pink elephant is zero for gods sake --> 0 = no chance.

The digit one makes sense - it could have been 985, but is also arguable.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Your brother picked 9, 8, and 5? Either way, isn't that the correct answer?

I think the correct answer is

9 8 and 2 but put together so the biggest number is "982".

Koing

How is 982 bigger than 985?

Sorry typo

Koing

 

[shoegazer]

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
Idiotic teachers with stupid questions FTL.

All the people saying there is the possibility of some chance - just STFU - stop teaching your kids dumb things. The chance of a flying pink elephant is zero for gods sake --> 0 = no chance.

The digit one makes sense - it could have been 985, but is also arguable.

I think it's extremely important for students to understand the presence of uncertainty. Phenomena like gravity are not definite. There is always the possibility that we can drop a ball and have it float up.

The recognition of uncertainty is an important part of science and many people don't understand this.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: shoegazer
The probability should be something like "extremely unlikely." I would consider the answer "no chance" as more incorrect than an answer of "extremely likely" as "extremely likely" implies that the event is possible while "no chance" implies that it is impossible.

Agreed. Especially because of the ambiguity. I think the ambiguity was intentional. Especially if that's what they were studying in class. Oh, and the biggest number thing? The problem didn't say anything about adding. Besides, if you're going to use an operator, why not use multiplication or something.

 

[johnjbruin]

Originally posted by: shoegazer

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
Idiotic teachers with stupid questions FTL.

All the people saying there is the possibility of some chance - just STFU - stop teaching your kids dumb things. The chance of a flying pink elephant is zero for gods sake --> 0 = no chance.

The digit one makes sense - it could have been 985, but is also arguable.

I think it's extremely important for students to understand the presence of uncertainty. Phenomena like gravity are not definite. There is always the possibility that we can drop a ball and have it float up.

The recognition of uncertainty is an important part of science and many people don't understand this.

But seriously, at age 11 you want to teach philosophical concepts of uncertainty? I think at that age we can limit to what is real and what is not.

Hypothetically speaking, everything is possible if you can argue about it with a lot of 'IFs'.

 

[shoegazer]

I don't really think that the concept of uncertainty is beyond an 11 year olds understanding.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Mmm Heisenberg...

(Even though that has very little to do with uncertainty in this case)

 

[oynaz]

Agreed. If the teacher wants to teach i little philosophy, the questions are actually rather good.

If we speak mathematics, though, the questions make no sense. So I guess the answers do not have to either.

The correct answers are "Giant hamsters ate my poodle" and "15x+5x+12 = Pink bananas"