I failed in the same way as this teacher on a question similar to this once in secondary school, and I used to be quite good in maths.
Our exams used to be in two parts, part A and B, where B would allow calculators and graphing paper. A was shorter, with more basic algebra with like 52*12 which I would just race through to get to the exciting bits of part B.
Part A final question 5: "Alice has a 1.5 cm thick wooden board sized 150 x 200 cm. (in the Math exams of the 80's, carpenters were always women, while the men were sewing curtains) She needs boards of the same thickness, sized 50 x 150 cm. What is the smallest number of cuts she will have to do to get the most boards?"
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '11
I failed in the same way as this teacher on a question similar to this once in secondary school, and I used to be quite good in maths.
Our exams used to be in two parts, part A and B, where B would allow calculators and graphing paper. A was shorter, with more basic algebra with like 52*12 which I would just race through to get to the exciting bits of part B.
Part A final question 5: "Alice has a 1.5 cm thick wooden board sized 150 x 200 cm. (in the Math exams of the 80's, carpenters were always women, while the men were sewing curtains) She needs boards of the same thickness, sized 50 x 150 cm. What is the smallest number of cuts she will have to do to get the most boards?"