Can your calculator kid do this math problem?? (grade, exam, difference)

[khuntrevor]

Or can you?

We've had a great discussion on learning Math, I don't think anyone's feelings were hurt. For those that are against the rote learning methods and have otherwise "gifted" kids see if they can solve this problem. I will call it 8th grade and above, however I have seen 6th graders solve it.

a) An IBM supercomputer can perform 4 trillion instructions per second--
How long does it take it to perform 1 instruction. You may use your calculator.

I'm going out to buy my Easter Ham, I will check back in 90 minutes+/-.

Please answer in Decimal form.


YouTube - Jeopardy! Think Music, 1960s 1984-1997

[Old Gringo]

2.5 x 10^-13 sec

The reciprocal of 4 trillion.

[nicet4]

One four trillionths of a second.

[Momma_bear]

0.00000000000025

[khuntrevor]

Originally Posted by Old Gringo

2.5 x 10^-13 sec

The reciprocal of 4 trillion.

not in decimal form.

[khuntrevor]

Originally Posted by nicet4

One four trillionths of a second.

wrong.

[khuntrevor]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

0.00000000000025

Very good. You could possibly get marked down for not putting .00000000000025 SECONDS, but since I don't want the mommies to call and complain, I will give you credit and a rep point.

[Finger Laker]

.0 = tenths
.00 = hundreths
.000 = thousandths
.000 0 = ten-thousanths
.000 00 = hundred-thousandths
.000 000 = millionths
.000 000 0 = ten-millionths
.000 000 00 = hundred-millionths
.000 000 000 = billionths
.000 000 000 0 = ten-billionths
.000 000 000 00 = hundred-billionths
.000 000 000 000 = trillionths
.000 000 000 000 0 = ten-trillionths
.000 000 000 000 00 = hundred-trillionths
.000 000 000 000 000 = quadrillionth

.000 000 000 001 = 1 trillionths
1/4 = .25

.25 trillionths - would slot into the hunded-trillionths

.000 000 000 000 25 seconds

not difficult - just a pain to track it out that far ..... not that hard with a calculator either

most calculators kids are using at that age will not list out the decimals for them to that extent and will show the answer in a different format - they would just need to convert

.25/1,000,000,000,000 = 2.5 x 10^-13 sec and then work from there

however, many scientific calculators would have zero problems with this and kids are moving more and more towards this

for example - this webbased one would give it to you pretty much as you are typing in the inputs

Web 2.0 scientific calculator

[khuntrevor]

You can do it with the Windows calculator (straight decimal format). But, most do not know how to set up the problem--simply 1 over 4 Trillion. I think the problem does let a person demonstrate their command of decimal points. How many of the pharmacy techs at Wal-mart, etc. could do this? Kind of scary, when the difference between .001 and .01 could be fatal. Who was it that said take care of the small things, and the big things will take care of themselves?

[Finger Laker]

that I can agree with

I think a lot of times with math people kind of psych themselve out ... especially when they know it's a math problem

unfortunately many would panic at the start of the question ..... rephrase it to them as "they do 4 in one second how much does each take"

they'll come to 1/4 or .25 usually because that's kind of easy - right

so now all you need to do is make that 4 into 4,000,000,000,000 at which point the hardest thing is to just count when punching it in

my wife is kind of like this - an absolute whiz when it comes to the subjects that she is comfortable with, but just has a block when it comes to math ...... she gets mad because I usually wont let her off the hook without making her break it down first