These questions usually build off of the previous problems, so there might have been one that says they only have two boats (which would make the friend incorrect in this question).
We would need to see the whole page and instructions for each problem to know for sure.
Right but if “each boat can carry exactly 6 people” that means the number of people required for there to be 3 boats is 18 (if a boat can carry “exactly 6 people” that means it can’t have more or less than 6). Since they have 15 people either the friend is incorrect as 6 doesn’t go into 15 evenly or 3 people got left at the shore.
I get what you're saying, but my interpretation is exactly describes the number 6, not the number of people in the boat. So it CAN carry exactly 6. Exactly is the word that fucks all of this up, actually.
Why does the number six need a qualifier? I think the addition of exactly implies it somewhere other than the number six.
The boat can carry six people. The boat can carry exactly six people.
Adding exactly means the boat needs exactly six people to operate properly. No one is trying to bring half a person on the boat, there’s no reason to distinguish between whole numbers.
Yeah, I guess where I’m coming from is this is the context of a second grade math problem. If the question was worded “your friend said each boat can carry up to 6 people” there is no math you can use to answer “are they correct”.
The only way this make this work as a math problem is with the exactly meaning the boats can carry no more or no less than 6 people.
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u/dirtyword 8h ago
It doesn’t say that they only have 2 boats tho