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Post by johnofgwent on Feb 5, 2023 9:51:47 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ?
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Post by Toreador on Feb 5, 2023 11:06:59 GMT
Some years ago a group of 16 year olds were given a mock GCE from the fifties, as I recall only one or two passed. Once over it was announced that the mock exam was not in fact a GCE but an 11-plus......sounds about right.
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Post by Steve on Feb 5, 2023 11:21:17 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? Pretty easy bit of algebra for anyone with a decent IQ (say over 110) Shame that GB News and many of its readers are too thick to understand that median IQ is 100 so many people didn't qualify 55 years ago and won't now. Appalling that GB News made a supposition about maths teachers and offers no evidence to back that. But then they knew many GB News followers wouldn't spot that. |
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Post by johnofgwent on Feb 5, 2023 11:29:47 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? Pretty easy bit of algebra for anyone with a decent IQ (say over 110) Shame that GB News and many of its readers are too thick to understand that median IQ is 100 so many people didn't qualify 55 years ago and won't now. Appalling that GB News made a supposition about maths teachers and offers no evidence to back that. But then they knew many GB News followers wouldn't spot that. I think the point is those sort of questions in that style were commonplace in my junior school class but i doubt either of my kids would know where to start. I hear my grand daughter has just walked through the front door stressed off her face over her grade 3 ballet exam she will be taking at 2pm, i will chuck this at her to give her something to divert her worrying to … it will be interesting to see if she knows where to start with it |
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Post by Steve on Feb 5, 2023 12:16:52 GMT
Algebra is one of those things so many people just do not get. Truth it for most people they have no need for it but for anyone wanting to design something of any complexity it's essential.
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Post by wapentake on Feb 5, 2023 12:33:01 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? Yes got it John and remember such things from my childhood,it all depends on the way you think though me I thought when I saw these I pictured “If it takes a man a week to run a fortnight how many apples in a pound of pears” Who cares,and I didn’t there are people like yourself John utilised that skill to good effect in your work I’m afraid I’m impatient and of fly by the seat of my pants and great at ordinary maths but found what was then mental gymnastics a turn off. It is horses for courses and I was a non runner  ,what I did see recently was the advent of AI and a teacher presented with a number of essays and had to spot the two AI generated,he spotted one. They interviewed some kids who said they use it regularly,the professor and expert in this said there was nothing wrong with kids typing the question and an essay being generated and printed at the touch of a button  ? Now that I don’t get. www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/04/ai-bot-chatgpt-stuns-academics-with-essay-writing-skills-and-usability |
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Post by Montegriffo on Feb 5, 2023 13:07:03 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? “If it takes a man a week to run a fortnight how many apples in a pound of pears” 453.592 grams |
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Post by johnofgwent on Feb 5, 2023 13:10:29 GMT
I think to be honest there are a lot of people who cannot do "ordinary" maths.
As a much younger man i did my time pulling pints behind the bar at my local to earn my university term beer money and it taught me a lot.
The tills in those days were like Arkwrights "Granville Fetch A Cloth" finger castrator and woe betide you if you did not know to the exact number of groats the price of sixteen pints of your finest ale three rum and blacks and a cherry brandy.
As you say horses for courses. Many claim they never used any of the things they learned at school, I would say I've had a wider range of matters to apply those things to and had many occasions to thank whoever it was for making me remember it. But yes, I fully agree, many who were forced to learn the differential calculus never got much use for it. And if I'm honest, apart from the time i needed to research the stuff for the nuclear reactor at Torness, I didn't need the details either!
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Feb 5, 2023 13:45:46 GMT
I think to be honest there are a lot of people who cannot do "ordinary" maths. As a much younger man i did my time pulling pints behind the bar at my local to earn my university term beer money and it taught me a lot. The tills in those days were like Arkwrights "Granville Fetch A Cloth" finger castrator and woe betide you if you did not know to the exact number of groats the price of sixteen pints of your finest ale three rum and blacks and a cherry brandy. As you say horses for courses. Many claim they never used any of the things they learned at school, I would say I've had a wider range of matters to apply those things to and had many occasions to thank whoever it was for making me remember it. But yes, I fully agree, many who were forced to learn the differential calculus never got much use for it. And if I'm honest, apart from the time i needed to research the stuff for the nuclear reactor at Torness, I didn't need the details either! Do you use matrices? I never really got much of an idea from the teacher when I asked what these things were for, but now I see them used a lot. I wonder if they are still in the pre-16 maths syllabus. Do you know? All I could find was mention of "further maths" which was an A level in my day. One big application in addition to computer graphics is they form the basis of an AI system's calculations. Naturally these things are not used for the dumb fucks who work in pubs. Every time the news talks to "business" almost they ask a publican or a restaurateur. The UK has stopped doing post-Enlightenment science. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2023 14:54:08 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? You know I can do it! Anyway, they really should make it clear there was no money in his wallet before he collected his winnings.  |
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Post by johnofgwent on Feb 5, 2023 16:03:29 GMT
I think to be honest there are a lot of people who cannot do "ordinary" maths. As a much younger man i did my time pulling pints behind the bar at my local to earn my university term beer money and it taught me a lot. The tills in those days were like Arkwrights "Granville Fetch A Cloth" finger castrator and woe betide you if you did not know to the exact number of groats the price of sixteen pints of your finest ale three rum and blacks and a cherry brandy. As you say horses for courses. Many claim they never used any of the things they learned at school, I would say I've had a wider range of matters to apply those things to and had many occasions to thank whoever it was for making me remember it. But yes, I fully agree, many who were forced to learn the differential calculus never got much use for it. And if I'm honest, apart from the time i needed to research the stuff for the nuclear reactor at Torness, I didn't need the details either! Do you use matrices? I never really got much of an idea from the teacher when I asked what these things were for, but now I see them used a lot. I wonder if they are still in the pre-16 maths syllabus. Do you know? All I could find was mention of "further maths" which was an A level in my day. One big application in addition to computer graphics is they form the basis of an AI system's calculations. Naturally these things are not used for the dumb fucks who work in pubs. Every time the news talks to "business" almost they ask a publican or a restaurateur. The UK has stopped doing post-Enlightenment science. I did use matrices, mainly to hold data for my mathematical modelling, but these days i suspect anything that heavy gets thrown at a data warwhouse. |
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Post by Steve on Feb 5, 2023 16:37:32 GMT
I couldn't stand matrices esp those highly contrived matrix AxB is not the same as BxA multiplication rules.
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Post by Montegriffo on Feb 5, 2023 17:46:30 GMT
I prefer futons to matrices.
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Post by sandypine on Feb 5, 2023 19:21:40 GMT
www.gbnews.uk/news/parents-left-totally-stumped-by-simple-maths-question-for-10-year-olds-can-you-solve-it/436659I’ll set the question as it would appear in the 11+ I took 55 years ago ‘john has won three times his weekly wage at the horse racing. His brother needs some of the winnings to pay the debt man so john gives him a third of what he has. Later that day his sister asks for £12 to put a deposit on a house. Now john has half as much money in his wallet as he came home with. How much was that ?” The names have been changed to reflect Britain in the 60s as have the reasons for having that much cash to splash. But GB News says many parents struggled with the question. They day this is why Sunak should abandon his maths pledge Well, they should have asked the grandparents who had to sit the 11+ not the mollycoddled youff who only needed to show up to pass the exam Fact is i structured the algebra to give me the answer in my head after reading the original article once at speed and once in detail. I then solved it in my head after about five minutes juggling because i was eating the bacon and eggs Moira ran up for me so running off to get pencil and paper would have been a tad annoying… The answer is at tbe bottom of the article but can others do it ? You know I can do it! Anyway, they really should make it clear there was no money in his wallet before he collected his winnings. I was confused there as well did he have his wages as well as his winnings and was his stake included. If I recall correctly he would have paid tax at the time as well unless he paid up front and that is a whole complication. |
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Feb 5, 2023 19:38:23 GMT
I couldn't stand matrices esp those highly contrived matrix AxB is not the same as BxA multiplication rules. Non-commutative, as they say. |
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,what I did see recently was the advent of AI and a teacher presented with a number of essays and had to spot the two AI generated,he spotted one.
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