Howard Hoxsie writes:
>[Jeff writes:]
>
>>Q: Person A can paint a room in 3 hours. Person B can paint the
>>same size room in 4 hours. How long will it take for A and B to
>>paint the room together?
>
>... nothing is ever stated about the assumptions made concerning the
>question, so, we can assume, with equal validity, that there is a
>paintbrush for each painter OR that there is a paintbrush for each room.
>
>Since the question asks only "How long will it take for A and B to paint
>the room together?", I will assume that the painters will apply an economy
>of specialization to the task. Painter A will paint the room in 3 hours
>while Painter B cooks dinner and makes Martinis.
When my third-grade daughter brought home a page of badly-worded story
problems for her math homework one week, we had a great deal of fun
finding the "alternative" answers based on different assumptions. Some
were really bad, like "Ann brought 20 apples to school to share with her
four best friends. How many apples did each friend get?"
Well, that was a can of worms best left unopened: half her genes are
programmer genes, and now she does this for *every* story problem she
gets, much to the chagrin of her teachers.
For more fun with bad grade school instruction, see
<http://www.optc.com/~btoback/sciencetest.html>. Unfortunately, I'll be
adding more such pages in the near future.
-- Bruce
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Toback Tel: (602) 996-8601| My candle burns at both ends;
OPT, Inc. (800) 858-4507| It will not last the night;
11801 N. Tatum Blvd. Ste. 142 | But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
Phoenix AZ 85028 | It gives a lovely light.
btoback AT optc.com | -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
Mail sent to [log in to unmask] will be inspected for a
fee of US$250. Mailing to said address constitutes agreement to
pay, including collection costs.
* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
|
