5th Grade Math

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 03/17/2014 at 11:02 • Filed to: None

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My 5th grader got this question wrong on his homework. Can you spot the problem with this problem?

You are now halfway down [your Grand Canyon hike] and spot an endangered California Condor nesting about 63 meters from where you are. How many millimeters away is that?

A. 6300 cm
B. 63,000 cm
C. 73 cm
D. 630 cm

Am I missing something here?

Crocket Bernet > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:04

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Lol

Brian Silvestro > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:04

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I'd overreact

Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:04

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cm = centimeters
mm = millimeters

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:05

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Uhm.. well.. ahh.. 6300 cm is 63000 mm.. but... yeah... no...

The answer is E. Whoever made this question needs to go back to school.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:05

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the units are wrong, ALL WRONG.

Racescort666 > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:06

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I don't remember when they started introducing trick questions in school but to be a smartass my answer would be: 0.3131710809 furlongs.

The correct conversion is 6300 cm but that obviously doesn't answer the question.

EL_ULY > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:06

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yup, it's a trick Un 'Murican question! Meters? GTFO! lol :]

N/A POWAAAHH > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:08

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So A., or B with units as mm

CalzoneGolem > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:10

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Cleary the California Condor doesn't nest that far East, duh!

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:11

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That's a trick question.

ttyymmnn > Racescort666 03/17/2014 at 11:12

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Or 12.5268432 rods.

Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:13

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It's trying to get the kids to convert the measurement from Meters, to millimeters and then to the equivalent centimeters. However, the teacher needs to change the cm to mm to avoid confusion next time.

Krieger (@FSKrieger22) > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:13

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The question's in milimeters, yet the answers are in centimeters. Brilliant editing!

Racescort666 > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:13

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Precisely.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 03/17/2014 at 11:13

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It *would* be a trick question, if it was possible to get right. As it is now, it is a "the test-writer is an illiterate fuckhead" question.

ttyymmnn > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 03/17/2014 at 11:14

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More correctly, I think it's a lazy question. Rather than make their own assignments, the teachers are all using printed out sheets and tests from the Internet, many of which come from Rice University (interestingly, where I got my master's degree, but certainly not in math). This isn't the first such error we've caught, not by a long shot. If this screws up his straight A average this term I'll be upset.

ttyymmnn > Krieger (@FSKrieger22) 03/17/2014 at 11:16

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Exactly. As somebody else pointed out, my son could have given his answer in furlongs. It would have been equally ambiguous.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > CalzoneGolem 03/17/2014 at 11:16

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I'm pretty sure there's plenty of people who actually believe that :)

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 03/17/2014 at 11:17

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That's the trick, there's no right answer to choose from.

thebigbossyboss > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:17

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They teach metric in the US? Hell I live in a metric country and had to look this up, because while the government insists we use metric, we really use imperial for everything except speed.

ttyymmnn > Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole 03/17/2014 at 11:18

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Precisely. To be correct, the question should have been, "How many millimeters away, expressed in centimeters." But this isn't a sheet the teacher created, it's one they printed from the Internet (from Rice University). And it's not the first error we've found, not by a long shot.

thebigbossyboss > thebigbossyboss 03/17/2014 at 11:18

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and...I should add..temperautre.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:18

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Write in "63,000 mm"

ttyymmnn > thebigbossyboss 03/17/2014 at 11:19

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They do, since scientific measurements are made in the metric system. They tried a number of years ago to change the highway distance signs to metric, but it was an utter failure. You still see some in the US, notably near the Canadian and Mexican borders.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:19

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They wonder why teacher's don't get paid well.

Apparently we're getting what we pay for.

ttyymmnn > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/17/2014 at 11:21

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As I've said to others, this question wasn't written by the teacher, it was from a sheet printed off the Internet from Rice University (embarrassingly, my master's alma mater). But still, it's clear that the teacher isn't reading the questions ahead of time, and I think she has students mark the papers.

The Compromiser > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:25

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Its 6300 cm. They ask for mm which isn't an option according to your info. its 63000 mm. So its either a trick question or you mistyped something? Unless the California Condor isn't endangered, or doesn't reside in the Grand Canyon. Or you can't hike down/into the grand canyon.

If its a math question and the trickery is in the areas I've identified, then feel free to kick the hippy (obviously from the subject matter) teacher in the anatomy for being a douche.

thebigbossyboss > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:25

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Makes sense. It's kind of sad, I can't use kg, or cm or meters, I have no conception of how big or small these measurements are.

We should have an Oppo game show: Are you smarter than ttyymmnn's 5th grader? I definitely cannot measure as well as him!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:26

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wow.Sorry didn't read any other comments.

I agree with your point that they aren't paying attention to the material they are spewing out though.

ttyymmnn > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/17/2014 at 11:30

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Sorry, I didn't mean to sound testy.

Tekamul > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:30

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My 2nd grader goes through a lot of math homework. I find issues with the questions all the time. What's worse, I usually have her write down a note pointing out the issue. The teacher ignores the note, marks it right or wrong based on the answer key, and never looks back.

Remember this when the school board budget comes up, and the teachers get a contract guaranteed 4% raise. 'MERICA!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:32

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I really hope this question was on a TEST.

If so...I see what you did there...

ttyymmnn > thebigbossyboss 03/17/2014 at 11:32

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Hell, I have trouble with my 2nd graders' math sometimes! The push nowadays is to make math relevant . That means more word problems and less rote exercises. That's all well and good, but then the kids don't know how to do the math in the word problems because there haven't been enough rote exercises. Some of the 2nd grade math problems read like algebra questions, "Solve for x ." I guess at the root of it, though, anytime you are looking for an unknown you are doing algebra.

ttyymmnn > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 03/17/2014 at 11:33

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I'm a punster at heart, but not this time.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 11:41

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Yeah I re-read the original post and realized we missed an OPPOrtunity there.

Leadbull > ttyymmnn 03/17/2014 at 12:22

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Don't let the government-funded school systems use stuff like "the metric system" to turn your kids into commie traitors!