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Can you solve the maths question for Singapore schoolkids that went viral?


pongo

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I also really liked this problem.

 

 

I'm still not certain I can explain WHY you get the answer you do - other than it being intrinsic to the universe/multiverse/mind of god/our man made assumptions etc, but considering the problem involves irrational numbers and square roots of irrational numbers it really is quite surprising.

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So,

 

Wrighty, good effort, 1/2 marks

 

MTP - Top of the Class

 

Gladys, John Wright, Dilligaf - Not good enough, see me, must try harder, etc....

 

Why only 1/2 marks, he got the same answer as your video.

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The problem is I saw the Youtube video and used the figure from the Youtube video which gives less information than the figure in the actual test - it doesn't say the figure is rectilinear.

 

Wrighty assumed the figure was rectilinear - he did state this.

 

MTP refused to state any assumptions and stated it could not be solved with the information given.

 

Wrighty - a practical, open and problem solving approach which gets to the point the test was trying to get the pupils to understand.

 

MTP ... whistling.gif ... though I'm sure he'll correctly assert his approach was 100% right.

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Why only 1/2 marks, he got the same answer as your video.

Because the correct answer to the original question as posted here is "no".

 

The original question posted here was "can you work out what the perimeters of these two figures are with the information available?"

 

That's not the same test as the one in the video - where the shapes are described as rectilinear.

Edited by pongo
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I think I prefer wrighty's approach to MTP's.

 

If you need to build a raft to escape a desert island you'd rather someone who says "well it looks like right angle, let's carry on" to someone who says "we don't know if that's a right angle, let's sit here until someone tells us if it is a right angle or not".

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