Wordless Wednesday: Are you smarter than a third grader?

by Lori Lavender Luz on January 11, 2012

in Wordless Wednesday

I dare you to try…

Granted, it was for extra credit.

Took me 15 minutes and 9th grade algebra to get the answers. I mean, help Reed find the answers. Seriously — Grade 3!?

I’ve got a $5 Starbucks card to the first person with correct answers. Show your work!

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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }

Daria January 11, 2012 at 9:27 am

Holy Toledo! 3rd grade? Answer (bc I want starbucks

Shelley – 29
Sophie – 34
Tyler – 90
Hal – 9
Perlin – 135

P+H+T=7.85
(H+15).25+.1H+(10+h).05=7.85
.25H=$3.75+.1H+.5+.05H=$7.85
.4H=3.6
H=9

Sophie=(Sh+5).50
.01(shelley) = Sophie – 16.71
.01Sh=(Sh+5).5-16.71
.01Sh-.5Sh=-14.21
-.4sh=-14.21
sh=29

Lavender Luz January 11, 2012 at 9:48 am: Ding ding ding! You win, Daria, and you MUST use the card in my presence !

Reply

Daria January 11, 2012 at 9:28 am

By the way – my 4th grader isn’t anywhere close to getting this kind of math…

Lavender Luz January 11, 2012 at 9:49 am: Neither is my 3rd grader. And the teacher didn’t respond to my note asking if he was REALLY expected to be able to do this.

Reply

Debbie Schwartz January 11, 2012 at 9:36 am

I think the correct answers are:

“No, I am not smarter than a 3rd grader.”

and

“Yes, I’m smarter than a 3rd grader because I know better than to spend time working out the answer to this problem only to earn a $5 Starbucks card.”

…so…since I am right on both counts (no pun intended), do I get the prize???

Lavender Luz January 11, 2012 at 9:50 am: *SNORT*

You may be the smartest on of all, Debbie!

Reply

Chris Bird January 11, 2012 at 12:28 pm

Good for Daria! I wasn’t even going to try. College Algebra was my first and only F. I learned my lesson then.

Kate January 11, 2012 at 1:42 pm

Gah, and this is why I will encourage my child to collect bills. Not coins. Bills.

Theadoptedones January 11, 2012 at 2:54 pm

I disagree with part of the previous answer and my math skills aren’t great and my work is chicken scratch until I figure it out…

Sophie and Shelly is easy because Sophie only has to have more coins in half dollars than Shelly has in pennies. Shelly has a set amount of 16.71 less than Sophie.

Sophie has 34 half dollars and Shelly has 29 pennies
17.00 = (34 coins)
0.29 = (29 pennies)
17.00 – .29 = 16.71
agree with previous answer

Tyler has nickles and must have 10 more coins than Hal
Hal has dimes
Perlin has quarters and must have 15 more coins than Hal
Combined they have $7.85 in coins

Tyler has 19 nickles for a total of $0.95
Hal has 9 dimes for a total of $0.90
Perlin has 24 quarters for a total of $6.00

Lavender Luz January 11, 2012 at 4:54 pm: Ruh roh! I didn’t check Daria’s answers thoroughly. In fact, you, Theadoptedones, came up with the same answers that I did, the same ones that meet the criteria.

So Starbucks is on me!

Smartypants

Reply

a January 11, 2012 at 6:04 pm

Aw, I got here too late for the math quiz! That would have been fun! Except I don’t patronize Starbucks.

I can’t believe that’s 3rd grade math…

Baby Smiling In Back Seat January 11, 2012 at 6:20 pm

Hey, I think I made that coffee mug!

Also, is Perlin really a name?

JCK (Motherscribe) January 11, 2012 at 9:38 pm

I’ve got coins coming out of my ears. So glad that Daria figured it out, so I could just breathe through it…

Kathy January 11, 2012 at 10:41 pm

Why? Why would you do this? Math is not my friend. Not then, not now. I can’t believe I tried. However, I do not have that much spare time and I already know that I will have nightmares over math. I’m going to go over to the corner and cry now.

Jamie January 12, 2012 at 9:01 pm

Those cause me even more frustration as an adult than they did as a student! You can keep your Starbucks card!!’n

Daria January 16, 2012 at 10:21 am

LOL – this was fun – maybe you can make it a weekly series Lori

Denver Laura January 16, 2012 at 1:57 pm

Took me 2 minutes and I came up with the same answers as Theadoptedones. Of course, I failed algebra both in high school and college so I used a spreadsheet. Theory is the same, but other than showing my code I can’t tell you how I figured it out.

jamie January 18, 2012 at 8:50 am

I HATE MATH! And I’m past being able to help my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader with their homework. I’m lucky I can still help the Kindergarten kid!

Stopping by from wordless wednesday. New follower.
littlebishopcreations.blogspot.com

Susan January 19, 2012 at 12:53 pm

I’m not even going to try it, because I know I’m not smarter than a 3rd grader. I gave up helping my daughter with her homework when she was in 3rd grade last year. Math is a whole other animal and taught completely different than when we were kids.

Julie luvs keurig coffeebrewer January 22, 2012 at 10:53 pm