I Wanted To Punch My Teacher Because Of This...

[s-l-u-g]

So, I remember, long ago when I was just a young guy in high-school [only a few years. Really.] and I was sitting in Maths class. Nothing violent about that, I know. Whole Mathematical strain can cause severe frustration and combustion in some humans, I am not, nor was I, one of them.

There I was, doing my work, when I came upon a question in my book. It baffled me. Terribly. I read it over a hundred times. Maybe a hundred and two. I read it, analyzing every last letter to see if I was missing something. The question went like this:

'Mr. [X] is a teacher. On Saturday he walked [X amount of] miles. How far did he walk on Sunday?'
X has replaced the unimportant information.

Yes. I know. It's a strange one. I pondered, and pondered, and lost interest, and gained interest again, then pondered some more. Eventually I said 'fuck this' and went to the teacher, book in hand, and showed him the question.

Do you know what he said to me?

He said "I think you're reading too far into it."

WHAT THE HELL!?!!?

Needless to say I had to restrain myself from shoving the fucking book down his throat.

Thoughts?

 

[Pimppeter2]

Clearly he walked across the street and was hit by a flying godzilla

Come on dude do your own homework.

 

[Davey Woo]

"John decided to go out into his garden and pick up ten leaves, he measured the length of these leaves and noted them down. Calculate the..."

"John needs to get a fucking girlfriend."

Maths questions are, have always been, will always be. Totaly fucking stupid.

I hate maths.

 

[Simalacrum]

hmmm... it does seem strange that he would say that considering you were just pointing out a possible flaw in the textbook...

I advise kidnapping his family and holding them ransom ignoring the situation and moving on.

 

[AcacianLeaves]

Either your book is stupid or you didn't show us the whole question.

What's 'what the hell' about it? The fact that its unsolvable? The fact that it includes a teacher? I don't get it.

 

[The Last Nomad]

the answer is 42.

 

[Jamienra]

the answer is 42.

no no. thats how many roads must a man walk down?

tried miles before. doesnt work you see

 

[crudus]

Your teacher is right. The correct answer is N.E.I. or Not Enough Information. You can't answer the question because there is no correlation between how far you walk on Saturday and how far you walk on Sunday.

 

[El Poncho]

I did a Math Past Paper to revise yesterday, one of the questions went like this, John found a cardboard triangle in his attic, John measured 2 sides of the cardboard triangle what is side x? I will tell you what side x is, it's fucking measure the rest of a cardboard fucking triangle since you've already done 2 sides you lazy fuck:|

 

[Ninja Tank]

On my believe he walked 0 miles since I cut his legs off on Saturday.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

'Mr. [X] is a teacher. On Saturday he walked [X amount of] miles. How far did he walk on Sunday?'
X has replaced the unimportant information.

Thoughts?

Uh, X amount of miles to get back home?

Don't hate maths. Maths is awesome if you get the right sort of maths.

As a taster, how about Euler's Identity:

 

[TheLastCylon]

It's a trick question, there is no possible way you can answer it. That's why he said, "you're reading too far into it."

 

[geldonyetich]

Punching your teacher because the company that made the math question made a mistake isn't very sporting.

That said, I suspect that what either happened was:

A) They were quizzing your logic, asking you to answer, "not enough information was provided"
or
B) The missing information was located somewhere else than in the problem.

 

[super_mumbles]

I had a similar question in maths once.
It was something like:

"A box of chocolates contains n-amount, what amount are toffee?"

No a single person in the class could anwser it.
The teacher attempted to answer it, but eventually gave up after about 20 minutes.

Never was a fan of maths

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"A box of chocolates contains n-amount, what amount are toffee?"

Again, easy enough. 0. As all are chocolates.

But, as another awesome maths moment: The Paper Calculator

 

[Random Argument Man]

You should have marked "0", because he walked saturday and not sunday.

EDIT: I had something similar and I was the only one in the class that got it right.

 

[nick_knack]

Wait, I don't get it. It doesn't tell you anything about Sunday, so isn't the answer: "0 miles"?
or "insufficient information?"

Because if you have to ask us, I think he is right.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

As a taster, how about Euler's Identity:

Why should that relationship have a proper name?

It's not like cos(180[sup]o[/sup]) + 1 = 0 is called anything special.

 

[gamefreakbsp]

7 miles