Education and Schools

[Ian]

A place to debate knotty problems

[Ian]

From the DP:

"Work set by teachers has left many digging out their calculators and trying to remember how to do algebra and equations.

But even work being set by primary schools is proving to be tricky, with families turning to social media and forums for help.

One mum had her friends and family scratching their heads trying to work out a maths problem that was set for her eight-year-old son.

She said: "I was trying to work it out all day and wondered whether it was me just being thick. I thought it was really hard for an eight-year-old."

The problem  was this:

The aquarium has 198 guppies, angelfish and catfish altogether.
There are 4 times as many guppies as angelfish.
There are 6 more angelfish than catfish.

How many catfish are there?

Part of the problem (quite a huge part) is the way in which the question is asked. In the real world, we'd simply count the catfish. But some teachers and some who set maths problems thrive on making the question far harder than it needs to be.

Try to solve it before reading the solution, posted below.

[Ian]

The solution:

It's solutions like this that convinced me that maths was essentially illogical. But see what you think.

I’m going to refer to the guppies as “g”, the angelfish as “a” and the catfish as “c”.

We know there are 198 altogether.

g + a + c = 198

There are 4 times as many guppies as angelfish, so 4 lots of angelfish is the same as the number of guppies

4a = g

And also, we know that there are 6 more angelfish than catfish, so catfish is angelfish minus 6

a – 6 = c

If we substitute the g and c into the first equation, we get

4a + a + a – 6 = 198

Tidying this up gives us 6a = 204 (we’ve added 6 to both sides of the equation )

So a = 34  (angelfish)

We know that catfish is angelfish minus 6, so catfish = 28

We also there are 4 times as many guppies as angelfish, so guppies = 136

Just to check we need g + a + c = 198

34 + 28 + 136 does equal 198.

So the answer is 28.

[DVT]

The question is flawed!

By the time you've worked it out the guppies will have reproduced and increased their number !!!

[Ian]

Exactly! The question is not only unrealistic and as far removed from real world problems as it's possible to be, but it's asked in the most confusing way imaginable.

[Hugo]

Plan to merge two North Wales schools sparks redundancies warning
A proposal to formally merge the two schools is set to go out to public consultation
oved by Conwy Council's cabinet next week. Despite the council championing the benefits of streamlining the two schools, a report has warned the move could lead to staff redundancies.

Councillors will be asked to rubberstamp a consultation on plans to amalgamate Ysgol T Gwynn Jones (Infants) and Ysgol Iau Hen Golwyn (Juniors) into a single, unified school. If approved, the new school would continue to operate across both existing sites but under one management structure.



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