Can you do this math problem without a calculator? (SAT, requirement, geometry)

[truckingbronco]

Is this an idiot test?

[martinez4]

Just did it in mine lil'old head but, shoot,.....we used an abacus in school in the late 60's. Calculators these days are so involved.....inevitably I hit the wrong FN key and end up with an answer soooo wrong that I would have been better using my fingers and toes!!!!

[Lethal_Poison]

I can do this in my head no problem and Im a child of the 80's-early 90's, but I do understand where you are going with this.

I dont neccessarily think its a huge issue to integrate all the technological advancements available in to education. For instance, take CAD drawing, and architectual engineering in general. Why on earth would you teach stoneage slide rule methods of doing things, and all these huge engineering equations to someone, who is going to be using a computer to do these complex items in seconds when they enter the workplace?

Of course, you cant let the basics completely die, everyone should know at least basic order of operation algebra, or conversion of fractions (as the problem suggest here), and Ive met many a person who struggles with those, and it is sad.

Then again, most of the people who struggle with simple items such as that, also put a low value on education and intellect as well. This is not the fault of the school systems, but the fault of America as a whole. For too long we have been "anti intellectual", and it has filtered all the way down our population.

When parents think their children should play basketball or be a movie star over a doctor or scientist, there is a major problem there. You will never find that in any of the countries who are quickly catching up with us, or past us in technological capacity.

Chinese, German, Korean and Japanese kids use calculators in school as well, and use computers for complicated equations rather then sixteen pages of paper. The only difference is, they value education and intellect as a society, and America is completely backwards in that respect. We value wealth, power, individuality and beauty, they value intellect, advancement and community, and the US is paying for that in every imagineable way.

[gallowsCalibrator]

Personally, this took no brain power in the slightest to do. Then again, I can do calculus in my head...

Oh, and I most definitely started school after 1950.

[crbcrbrgv]

You should add another poll option titled "I am not retarded"

[gernat]

Seems like you touched a nerve in some people!

[Tek_Freek]

I am smarter than a fifth-grader!

I'm somewhat confused by the 1950 cut-off. I started in 1953 and never used a calculator in school. Even in high school physics and geometry we used a slide rule. The first time I remember using a calculator was in the early 1970's. It was a Casio with orange "stacked" digits in the readout.

Even in the 1980's I would irritate the company engineers (who thought that calculators were the best thing since sliced bread and indispensable) by popping out answers using my built-in calculator faster than their big bucks machines.

My wife (accountant) still asks me to give her the answer to problems to check her calculations.

In your head: Multiply the number of Snow White's dwarves by the number of states in the Union. Divide that by the age at which you are eligible to become the President of the United States. What is 1% of that answer?

(Jeopardy music playing....)

[UNITE]

Well, I have a 15 year old who thinks he knows the answer. He did it within 3 minutes. I don't know what the answer is cause I am very UNEDUCATED. So I will ask his father tomorrow, (who is a math person) if he is right. But back to the calculater. Ditch it!! No, he did not use a calculator, by the way. Our kids are lost on paper. I try to talk mine into working it out on paper every chance he gets. Ya know what he tells me? Don't have time in class. Not enough class time to write all that. We are stuck in a calculater curriculum. I said that. I like the idea of technology ok, but I really think they should learn manually as well. I think it is really neat when they can do it in their head.

[arkana]

It is very easy. Nobody would need a calculator for very basic multiplication and subtraction.

[SteelCityRising]

Wouldn't 4/5 of $100,000 be $80,000? Wouldn't a $100,000 sale -$80,000 in costs equate to a $20,000 profit? What's so difficult about this problem? I technically only have a high school education, yet it took me just a few seconds to solve this problem in my head. Is this a trick question, or are people in this nation just THAT slow?