Actual math problem of the day

[conuly]

Mom divided 56 crayons so that Margie got 8 more crayons than her sister. How many crayons did Margie get?

Eva: Wow.
Me: WHY WOULD SHE DO THIS?

We did eventually do the math, but seriously, what's with the favoritism? In this problem, Margie's sister isn't even given a name.

Comments

[larryhammer]

... wow ...

[conuly]

It's not the most humorous math curriculum out there, either, which is why her occasional forays into silly word problems always surprise.

[alatefeline]

Sheesh!

[conuly]

INORITE?

I think the writer, like us, was tired of "Max and Sam divvied up their pay unequally..."

[jhetley]

Would've been worse if "Mark" got 8 more crayons than his sister . . .

[conuly]

I suppose. Still.

[bibliofile]

Better if Margie got more crayons than her brother -- but not much. Geez.

[conuly]

Sh, sh, let's not excite any lurking MRAs.

[redbird]

Cattitude suggests that this is because Margie's sister will just eat the crayons.

[conuly]

So why give her any crayons at all? No, that's no good unless her plan is to murder Margie's sister with crayons.

[mindstalk]

Bribery to prevent the tantrum.

[bibliofile]

OR INCITE REVOLUTION!!!! No one remembers the bit about the revolution (or murder) until it's Too Late.

[raino]

This could be a creative writing prompt. I sort of want to know more about this strangely dysfunctional family.

[conuly]

I bet Margie got all the sharpened ones too, and her sister got the ones that were nubby.

[archangelbeth]

Maybe Margie's unnamed sister broke 8 of Margie's crayons last time, and was therefore expected to use the ones she broke? (So if that's the case, counting each broken crayon as two, how many crayons does Margie's Sister have now? O;D )

[conuly]

I still think Margie is getting short shrift here. If the budget is that tight, why buy crayons at all?

[archangelbeth]

Well, it might not be a tight budget thing, but instead a Fairness. Margie needs more crayons for the school project, see, but her sister broke several, and maybe some wandered off gods know where (like all the crayons and colored pencils HERE did) and now new ones must be gotten for the darn projects...

...I perhaps can come up with many theories on this one. >_>

[conuly]

Wandering crayons are a menace. They end up in the dryer and then damn, there goes your favorite shirt.

[archangelbeth]

Happily, that somehow never managed to happen. I dodged a crayon there!

[sgamadison]

Seriously. Who writes these math problems?? :-)

[conuly]

People without sisters. Or people with sisters. Not sure.

[mindstalk]

It's good pedagogy! You and Eva will remember it for life!

Like language sentences. "The elephant ate the umbrella" or "I had died."

[conuly]

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously?

[flexagon]

The went grasses a had.

[conuly]

Don't recognize that one.

[jack]

The thing is, this could be entirely reasonable. It doesn't say they were equally desirable crayons. If they divided them in some way that everyone wanted that just happened to have that number, the sentence would sort of be correct. But it strongly implies that the important thing was the number.. .

[conuly]

Well, it is math. The numbers have to be important or it's not math anymore.

[smile_n_cuddle]

That's hilarious!!!

[silveradept]

Ah, math. Making fools of us all.

[stardreamer]

Algebra problem? Because that's how I solved it.

[conuly]

Pre-algebra using bar models.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

So Margie gets 32 and Cinderella gets 24, is it? Yeah, and doubtless Margie gets the nice new ones, while Cindy gets the old broken ones, because sometimes life sucks as much as math.

[conuly]

Yup. (But math doesn't suck.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Math doesn't always suck - or even most of the time - and neither does life. But sometimes they both do suck, especially when your sister gets more crayons.