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Tue 17 Jul, 2007 12:27 pm
One in 14 baffled by maths poser for child of 8
17/07/2007
Telegraph UK
One in 14 adults cannot answer a basic maths question aimed at eight-year-old children, according to a survey released yesterday.
The results from a poll of 2,000 adults follow comments made earlier this month by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary.
Mr Balls has announced a review of children's policy for the next 10 years.
He announced a major inquiry into the way children are taught maths amid concern that too many school leavers are unable to add up.
The survey found that basic numeracy skills were on the decline, with 96 per cent of those aged 55 and older able to answer a "simple" question, taken from an eight-year-old's maths paper, correctly - compared with 88 per cent of those aged 18 to 25.
The question posed was: What is one eighth of 32?
The answers were: a) 6 b) 4 c) 2 d) 8 e) None of these f) Don't know.
The research, by ITV DVD, also showed that parents are starting to realise the extent to which pre-school learning helps later in life.
It found that 74 per cent of adults believe watching educational programmes as a child helps learning.
The statistic changes significantly when broken down by age with 56 per cent of parents aged 45 and older
preferring their children to watch entertainment rather than educational programmes compared with 29 per cent of those aged 25 to 34.
The majority of parents said the most important programming for their children should contain some education, preferably to encourage numeracy skills, even more so than literacy-based programmes.
Any youngsters still pondering the arithmetic question, the answer is b) 4.
OK. The story tells us that one in 14 adults couldn't get this third-grade math problem right. (That's actually not a surprisingly huge percentage.) Unless I skimmed the story too quickly and missed something, the survey says nothing about how many eight-year-olds get it right. I'd be willing to wager they'd be way ahead of the grown-ups because, for them, this is stuff very recently learned.
I'm begging yuh..... please, please, let us use the metric system.
I get tired of teaching people that 5/16 is smaller than 3/8.
and
It's impossible for Americans to solve the following:
a piece of 1/2 inch sheetrock
plus
a 5/8" thick closet rod bracket
needs how long a screw to penetrate
halfway through a 1 3/4" stud??
Joe(take your time)Nation
Joe Nation wrote:I get tired of teaching people that 5/16 is smaller than 3/8.
There must be a common denominator hidden in there somewhere.
3/8 = 6/16 which is smller than 5/16. usually.
6/16 maybe smller than 5/16 in Nick's world but not on my ruler.
Joe(how about 7/16? Isn't that about halfway there?)Nation
Nick must be smoking that leafy substance again.
2 and 7/8's
I'd buy a 3 inch screw and just leave a little bit of it sticking out the wall.
I could wrap my string of dental floss around the extra space when I'm not using it.
That's really a good idea, because I'm always losing it now.
My 8 year old neighbor just filled me in. I was of slightly in my calculations. 5/16 and 6/16 are almost the same. One's just a little smaller than the other
2 centimters (~ 1 inch) isn't a measurement in construction business, old bricklayers used to say here :wink:
Chai wrote:2 and 7/8's
I'd buy a 3 inch screw and just leave a little bit of it sticking out the wall.
I could wrap my string of dental floss around the extra space when I'm not using it.
That's really a good idea, because I'm always losing it now.
Chai is correct except for the part about leaving some of the screw sticking out.
Joe(dental floss is an excellent hygienic device)Nation
I think we're all mathematically confused. How would adopting the metric system eliminate the need for an understanding of fractions, Joe? Oh, I see. You're referring to making measurements in construction work. Centi- and mili- meters would replace whole number plus fraction. Not a major problem for most people who do that kind of work, I should think. A student would still have to understand the concept of fractions and know that 3/8 and 6/16 is the same thing.
Merry (not to even mention 12/32) Andrew
(Joe looks longingly to the world beyond the USA, which, even though it is the most major major super duper power on the planet, remains, along with Bermuda, Liberia, Guyana and backward portions of Britain, stuck with the foot, inch and pound.)
Who wouldn't want to add
20mm plus 35mm plus 70mm ?
Joe(Americans know how big a 2 liter bottle of Coke is, they just don't understand how you could have a liter of gasoline.)Nation
Not to talk about the gallon: a gallon is slightly less that 2 bottles of 2 liters.
How come that drinking a gallon of milk is worse than drinking two big bottles of coke?
Drinking a gallon
US surveyors control how we measure stuff. They calculate in feet and tenths and this carries over to the whole damn country. Metric is much more sane but , hey, go change al our maps.
The USGS is the only one that does all its maps in every known mesuring stnadard including giga feet per fortnight.
I correctly answered the first math question. (4)
The second math question is harder. I do not know the answer. I do know that I would want more than a three inch screw in the closet. Sometimes size matters.
Oh God Francis, I was eating breakfast when I started that video.
"Was" being the operative word.
Is this what boys are doing nowadays instead of circle jerks?
Chai(that would have happened with 4 liters too)Tea
sweettart wrote:The second math question is harder. I do not know the answer.
Just curiuous, how did you attempt to solve Joe Nations problem? Could you show us what steps you took?
Chai(no pressure now)Tea
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