It’s not a maths question. No mathematical calculations are required to get the answer, e.g. no addition, no subtraction, no division or no multiplication.

It could have some merit in computer programming. You could solve it with logic (AND/OR/IF etc) either. E.g if clock sounding when entering the house, ignore it and wait for ~30 mins. Note the number of chimes, wait ~30 mins again. If number of chimes noted the 1st and 2nd times are 1 then…..etc

I remember doing some AND/OR logic at school, probably in maths. However the beginning and end hamper this and there are probably much better questions for pure logic

With absolute logic:

If the scenario is that she heard a chime when she walked in the door she couldn’t have heard another chime half an hour later (note: not ‘about’ half an hour later) – for the clock to chime 12 times it must have taken a while and thus the time difference could only have been something like 29 minutes and 30 seconds, not the definitive 30 minutes stated in the question.

So its unsolvable.

I claim my chocolate digestive.

If we’re going with pure logic….

She goes into her house and as she opens the front door she hears the clock strike once.

I see the steps implied as

She’s goes into her house. She is now within the house.
She opens the front door.

EDIT: There is a possible explanation. She entered the house by the back door then for some reason walked through the house and opened the front door. But then that messes with the door opening/closing cutting off the clock chimes..
EDIT2 Unless the back door cuts off the chimes…

It could have some merit in computer programming.

Not a bad exercise in deductive reasoning, which is useful for debugging things. The usual conversation goes:

Them: We’ve got this error message
Me: That’s caused by X
Them: But we’ve checked X and it’s fine. This is impossible.
Me: Well it must not be, because you had the error message.
Them: But we’ve checked it
Me: Well, under what circumstances could X appear to be fine, but not actually be? Something else is indirectly causing X to not be fine.
Them: <go away to think about it>
Them: Yeah you were right, we thought about it and it was something that made X look ok but it wasn’t.

There was no clock. Woman has tinnitus.

I would have went with scaredypants answer but…

What time was it as she entered the house and what time was it as she left again? (the clock is working correctly)

The woman is a horologist and when she enters the house it’s ‘time to start work’. She then fixes the clock and when she leaves it’s ‘time to get paid’. It’s only mentions the clock is working correctly after she left.

The correct answer is Google it, top hit (this topic being second) is for a document on a maths site with that very question in it, last page in the document has the answer.

The woman is a horologist

She’s studying Hora?

STW is great. I post a (badly constructed) maths question aimed at 10 year olds and get 48 responses and yet posts on Strava discrepancies and a new bike (albeit challenging the Brompton crown) received nothing whatsoever.

Oh well…

a (badly constructed) maths question

I’d definitely give the feedback to the teacher that it’s not a maths question. It is, as some have mentioned, just the sort of question to put people off “maths”.

The great and fundamental thing about maths is that you can use simple concepts to solve complex problems. No abstract thinking is required. This question goes against that.

She is deaf in one ear and only hears the chimes when her good ear is facing the clock.

By coincidence she manages to be facing the wrong way at the top of the next few hours, and so misses the full sets of chimes…

The correct answer is Google it, top hit (this topic being second) is for a document on a maths site with that very question in it, last page in the document has the answer…

… to the puzzle.

I post a (badly constructed) maths question aimed at 10 year olds and get 48 responses and yet posts on Strava discrepancies and a new bike (albeit challenging the Brompton crown) received nothing whatsoever.

Parent of 3 boys, so threads like this genuinely capture my attention. Bromptons and Strava discrepancies don’t. Sorry 🙂

Why not throw this maths question back at the maths teacher and report back on their answer (with workings if needed)?

Q1. As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St. Ives?

I’d be asking the teacher to set some maths homework instead of brainteasers.

With absolute logic:

If the scenario is that she heard a chime when she walked in the door she couldn’t have heard another chime half an hour later (note: not ‘about’ half an hour later) – for the clock to chime 12 times it must have taken a while and thus the time difference could only have been something like 29 minutes and 30 seconds, not the definitive 30 minutes stated in the question.

So its unsolvable.

I claim my chocolate digestive.

Ha…yes, this.

So you think you’re clever eh Miss Maths teacher.

How many were there going to St. Ives?

5 – Me and Ladypanther and the 3 panthercubs, but not for another 8 weeks.

Do I win five pounds?

Such a stupid question.

She goes into her house and as she opens the front door she hears the clock strike once.

Are we to assume she can’t hear the clock from outside the house if the door is shut?

Half an hour later it strikes again.
Half an hour later it strikes again.
Half an hour later it strikes again.

Are we to assume that it is only striking once?

Half an hour later, just as she is going out of the door, she hears it strike once again.

Are we to assume she has shut the door and that she can no longer hear the chimes once the door has shut?

And then there’s stuff like daylight saving and the inaccurate “half an hour” later. Guess we’re also to assume that the clock keeps accurate time.

The question is very poorly constructed. There is the obvious answer but there’s probably a load of other answers given a different set of assumptions.

How many were there going to St. Ives?

Unknown.

The usual answer is of course 1 one the basis that if you met him he must’ve been coming the other way i.e. away from St Ives. But you might’ve both met at a stop, or you might’ve overtaken him. Also, it’s not clear if the man was actually with any of his wives – he might’ve been on his own simply being married to those wives, or he might’ve been with a few of them. Or anyone else. In fact, anyone could’ve been going to St Ives at the same speed as you but behind or in front of you. The only possible way to answer it is to contact the St Ives tourist information office and ask for typical visitor statistics to St Ives on that particular day. Plus, there’s more than one place called St Ives. Then there are all the people who set off for St Ives but don’t actually get there. For part of their journey they ARE going to St Ives, then they aren’t. But they might still WANT to go, even if they end up on an AA truck to the nearest garage which might be in, say, Truro. So were they going to St Ives or Truro?

See, it’s all bollocks.

It’s not a maths question. No mathematical calculations are required to get the answer, e.g. no addition, no subtraction, no division or no multiplication.

GCSE maths exams include questions where no mathematical calculations are needed.

How many were there going to St. Ives?

How many of what were going to St Ives? You know the person posing the question is going, but that’s about it.

Are we to assume she can’t hear the clock from outside the house if the door is shut?

from looking at the answer then yes, she cannot hear the chime through the door or otherwise she would have to leg it down the path to avoid hearing the next chime after she had closed the door.

Not inconceivable with a grandfather clock, we have a damper on ours to keep it quieter than normal.

No mathematical calculations are required to get the answer, e.g. no addition, no subtraction, no division or no multiplication.

That would be arithmetic. There is a little more to maths than that. 😀

I’m probably alone in
a) Liking the question
b) Enjoying working through it in my head
c) Feeling clever when reading that the first reply concurred with my thought
d) Not caring whether it’s maths or not 🙂

with that many bongs, I’d have thought the clock struck 4:20

No mathematical calculations are required to get the answer, e.g. no addition, no subtraction, no division or no multiplication.

That would be arithmetic. There is a little more to maths than that[/quote]

Well, first I put mathematical operations but that didn’t seem the right terminology. You can add to that list that there is no algebraic substitution, no trigonometry, no calculus… but I thought these might be beyond the average 10 year old

GCSE maths exams include questions where no mathematical calculations are needed.

Do you have an example?

EDIT: I’ve thought of one, algebraic substitution or rearranging. Perhaps my terminology wasn’t the best…..

Overall, I’m trying to state that there is no maths in that question as I see it

GCSE maths exams include questions where no mathematical calculations are needed.

Do you have an example?[/quote]

Off the top of my head:
* Write 5674 in words
* Measure the length of this line: ________________
* Draw a 45 degree angle
* Construct an equilateral triangle with sides of 6cm
* Draw a rectangle which is 90mm by 35mm
* Name a 2D shape with 7 sides
* How many edges on a traingular pyramid?

Maths is a subject of absolutes and problems that can be solved with a set method. Now correct me if I’m wrong but you can’t solve a formula with more than one variable. In the given scenario, who knows how many variables there are?

As I said, unsolvable and as others have said not appropriate for building confidence.

As I said, unsolvable and as others have said not appropriate for building confidence

We’d need to know the context in which the question was set, and something about the teacher and the class. Perhaps the teacher sets a ‘tricky’ lateral thinking question each week?

Now correct me if I’m wrong but you can’t solve a formula with more than one variable.

Presumably you mean ‘equation’ not formula.. and you solve whatever problem the question asks, number of variables not an issue 🙂

[quote]GCSE maths exams include questions where no mathematical calculations are needed.

Do you have an example?[/quote]
Off the top of my head:
* Write 5674 in words
* Measure the length of this line: ________________
* Draw a 45 degree angle
* Construct an equilateral triangle with sides of 6cm
* Draw a rectangle which is 90mm by 35mm
* Name a 2D shape with 7 sides
* How many edges on a traingular pyramid?[/quote]

Here no abstract thinking is required and answers are absolute. Also, apart from the first and last two, you can test your answer to confirm it’s right.

Here no abstract thinking is required and answers are absolute. Also, apart from the first and last two, you can test your answer to confirm it’s right.

Which wasn’t your original definition? No calculations are required in those examples…

It’s also why we need the context in which the OP’s question was set. If it was “here’s a maths question:”, then it’s a stupid question to be setting. If it’s “here’s a tricky/fun problem to solve:” then there’s no issue.

Off the top of my head:
* Write 5674 in words
* Measure the length of this line: ________________
* Draw a 45 degree angle
* Construct an equilateral triangle with sides of 6cm
* Draw a rectangle which is 90mm by 35mm
* Name a 2D shape with 7 sides
* How many edges on a traingular pyramid?

Are those genuinely GCSE level questions? If so, exams certainly have been made easier over the years!!

Are those genuinely GCSE level questions? If so, exams certainly have been made easier over the years!!

Yes.

GCSEs assesses every student, from a G grade upwards. These are very early questions in the Foundation (G to C) paper, designed to tell whether a student is a U, a G, or an F grade.

The questions on the Higher paper to distinguish between an A grade and an A* are slightly trickier.

There are n sweets in a bag.
6 of the sweets are orange.
The rest of the sweets are yellow.
Hannah takes at random a sweet from the bag.
She eats the sweet.
Hannah then takes at random another sweet from the bag.
She eats the sweet.
The probability that Hannah eats two orange sweets is 1/3.

(a) Show that n^2 – n – 90 = 0
(b) Solve n^2 – n – 90 = 0 to find the value of n

GCSEs assesses every student, from a G grade upwards. These are very early questions in the Foundation (G to C) paper, designed to tell whether a student is a U, a G, or an F grade.

Fair enough, that makes sense. Maths was never my strong point at school (20+ years ago) and I was thinking I probably would have been ok with that level of questions!

Which wasn’t your original definition? No calculations are required in those examples…
It’s also why we need the context in which the OP’s question was set. If it was “here’s a maths question:”, then it’s a stupid question to be setting. If it’s “here’s a tricky/fun problem to solve:” then there’s no issue.

Yes….we seem in agreement. It’s not a maths question. I expanded on my ‘definition’ too if you follow through the posts 😀

molgrips
See, it’s all bollocks

😆

and you solve whatever problem the question asks, number of variables not an issue

How does that work?

v = u+at

u=1 a=5

Find v

Or should I have specified unknown variables? And yes, equation.