What math level is required?
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From: Ostap S. B. M. Bender Jr. on 15 Jan 2010 02:21 On Jan 14, 10:23 pm, mike3 <mike4...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi. > > I saw this: > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6589301.stm > > "The UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is offering a £500 prize to one > lucky but bright person who answers the question below correctly. " > > What sort of math level would that require (to be able to do problems > like the one on that Chinese test)? > Well, in my youth in Russia, we studied stereometry (3-dimensional geometry) in 10th grade. But it doesn't seem that for this problem you even need to know stereometry. It is just straight basic Euclid geometry. Lots of right triangles. I know that some chemists are not familiar with mathematics beyond 6th grade, but the Royal Society of Chemistry is being careless in offering their prize, because they may get tens of millions of correct answers from China, Russia and all over the World. Dozens from BBC viewers and readers alone!
From: Ask me about System Design on 15 Jan 2010 02:26 On Jan 14, 11:08 pm, "Ostap S. B. M. Bender Jr." <ostap_bender_1...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > On Jan 14, 10:43 pm, "Peter Webb" > > > > > > <webbfam...(a)DIESPAMDIEoptusnet.com.au> wrote: > > "mike3" <mike4...(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message > > >news:d4f6fc15-c015-4833-b108-06d60390b18d(a)l30g2000yqb.googlegroups.com.... > > > > Hi. > > > > I saw this: > > > >http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6589301.stm > > > > What sort of math level would that require (to be able to do problems > > > like the one on that Chinese test)? > > > Well, I haven't tried to solve it, but not much I suspect. > > > Alternatively (and equivalently) you could restate the problem in the > > language of cartesian co-ordinates and vectors, and solve it algebraically > > rather than geometrically. This still only requires high school maths. > > You can do THAT in the 5 minutes or so allocated to this problem on > the exam?! You must be a walking supercomputer.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - I did not see where it was supposed to take only 5 minutes. Having not practiced such problems in over a decade, it took me less than 20 minutes to do in my head, with iii) being the challenging part. In my heyday, I could have probably done it in 5 minutes with pencil and paper, and perhaps another minute to check my work. Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2009.01.14
From: Gottfried Helms on 15 Jan 2010 02:30 Am 15.01.2010 08:26 schrieb Ask me about System Design: > Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2009.01.14 Are you sure you did not do some time-travel lastly?
From: Ask me about System Design on 15 Jan 2010 02:33 On Jan 14, 11:30 pm, Gottfried Helms <he...(a)uni-kassel.de> wrote: > Am 15.01.2010 08:26 schrieb Ask me about System Design: > > > Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2009.01.14 > > Are you sure you did not do some time-travel lastly? Even taking relativistic effects into account, the problem shouldn't take long to solve. And, what's a year here or there? You're as young as you feel. Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2008.01.14
From: Ostap S. B. M. Bender Jr. on 15 Jan 2010 03:54
On Jan 14, 11:26 pm, Ask me about System Design <grpad...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Jan 14, 11:08 pm, "Ostap S. B. M. Bender Jr." > > > > <ostap_bender_1...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > On Jan 14, 10:43 pm, "Peter Webb" > > > <webbfam...(a)DIESPAMDIEoptusnet.com.au> wrote: > > > "mike3" <mike4...(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message > > > >news:d4f6fc15-c015-4833-b108-06d60390b18d(a)l30g2000yqb.googlegroups.com.... > > > > > Hi. > > > > > I saw this: > > > > >http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6589301.stm > > > > > What sort of math level would that require (to be able to do problems > > > > like the one on that Chinese test)? > > > > Well, I haven't tried to solve it, but not much I suspect. > > > > Alternatively (and equivalently) you could restate the problem in the > > > language of cartesian co-ordinates and vectors, and solve it algebraically > > > rather than geometrically. This still only requires high school maths.. > > > You can do THAT in the 5 minutes or so allocated to this problem on > > the exam?! You must be a walking supercomputer. > > I did not see where it was supposed to take only > 5 minutes. Having not practiced such problems in over > a decade, it took me less than 20 minutes to do in my > head, with iii) being the challenging part. In my > heyday, I could have probably done it in 5 minutes with > pencil and paper, and perhaps another minute to check > my work. > You solve trivial geometry problems in your head by "restating the problem in the language of cartesian co-ordinates and vectors, and solve it algebraically rather than geometrically?" What for? Wouldn't straightforward geometry be much easier on your head than this weird algebraic approach? OK, you got me intrigued. So, describe to me in detail how to solve this problem algebraically please. |