I said the same thing first (ok, without the illustration :grin: )...where's my reeeeeeeeeeeeep?!?!?!
You still solve the problem with fractions: 1/10 = 2/x x = 20 The mistake the teacher made was she thought time spent is proportional to the number of pieces you're left and so she had the wrong numbers in the numerator. Based on the wording of the question and the illustration, that's not the case. Time spent is proportional to the number of cuts that are made.
By the time she is done, it takes Marrie 5 minutes to produce each piece (unless she doesn't cut all the way on the first cut.) Go reread it. I tried explaining it. The illustration is just that, an illustration. It's useless and irrelevant if it doesn't give any dimensions. I'm not giving up my Saturday for this, but let me say this. Who the hell takes 10 minutes to saw a 2x4?
There is a serious flaw in your logic. By this logic, it takes 5 minutes to produce one piece. It doesn't take any time to produce one piece, since the wood is in one piece before any cuts are made. The actual answer key even says that the answer is 20 minutes; 10 minutes for each cut. You (and the OP's teacher) are wrong.
I seriously thought the thread would die after the clown cartoon post. Thank you, CFs, for the LULZ. Fight the good fight!
Nope. The answer key showed the 20 as the correct answer. The grader was just as stupid as a lot of BBS posters apparently.
So you believe that it takes her 5 minutes to produce one piece of wood out of one piece of wood and 10 to produce two. Got it. She is the worst carpenter of all time if it takes her 5 minutes to turn one piece of wood into one piece of wood. You should skip this argument and spend your Saturday at Sylvan Learning Center since you are dumbfounded by a 2nd grade math question.
You know what's hilarious about this? This is GRADE TWO math and people are getting stumped by it. lulz 15 would only be the correct answer if you were giving production rates. Ex: 2 pieces of wood are produced every 10 minutes, how many minutes would it take to produce 3 pieces? Dumb teacher is dumb.
The question can't be answered until you know the length of the pieces. Not enough info to answer Why did I just read through 10 pages of arguing without a mention of that?
Because the length doesnt matter when it takes her 10 min to make a cut. This thread just continues to shock me.
<br> Just when I thought things couldn't get any dumber, you decided to post this brilliant bit. Kudos, sir.
If its a square board, you cut it in half, you now have two shorter pieces. It takes half the time to cut which would make 15 minutes But you cut it long ways each time, you have the same length to make each cut making 20 minutes It depends on the length and shape and which way you cut it.
If the lengths of the cuts were different, the time it takes to make a cut would be a variable and there wouldn't be enough information to get an answer. For the question to have a definitive answer, the time it take to make a cut needs to be a constant which means it should be assumed that all the cuts are of the same length. I have mentioned that before.
If...If....If....If.... We're not talking real life problems here....you use what the paper gives you. and nothing more.... People trying to look smart....are looking dumb.
