stephaniehaywood.com

Some people look at a mathematical story problem the same way they would look into the toilet at a dirty gas station. Myself, on the other hand, look at a problem like that with enthusiasm and wonder. It is a puzzle that needs to be solved, and if i can be the one to solve that puzzle, I feel fulfilled and satisfied with myself.

However, though I do appreciate a good math problem, what i do not appreciate is a terrible setting in which the student must put themselves into in order to solve the problem. Here is an example of what i mean by that:

bq. Three brothers, Jim, Matt, and Eric, after finishing a meal in a restaurant, ordered a bowl of stewed prunes. While waiting for the prunes to be served all three fell asleep. After a while, Jim woke up and found the prunes on the table. He ate his equal share and went back to sleep. Then Matt awoke, ate what he thought was his equal share and fell asleep again. Eric woke up, ate what he thought was his equal share of the remaining prunes and went back to sleep. Later, all three brothers woke up and discovered that eight prunes were left in the bowl. How many prunes were in the bowl originally?

First of all, I would have to say that this is the stupidest problem I have ever read in my entire life. It is the worst “situationâ€? of a math problem… I almost died trying to read it. Why on earth would 3 brothers go out to eat together, order prunes, and then all fall asleep, occasionally waking up and eating the “prunes” (couldn’t it be something more interesting?), just to turn back around and fall BACK asleep. AT A RESTAURANT! If I, for one, were to fall sleep at a restuarant with two of my siblings, and I awoke minutes later to find both of them sleeping, I WOULD WAKE THEM UP! Split up the damn prunes and go home, where we would all go straight to bed, because we are OBVIOUSLY so darn tired!!!

WORST PROBLEM EVER!!!

Second of all, the answer is 27.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 26th, 2005 at 1:47 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.