MENTAL ACTIVITY
Pay close attention and solve this thing. Click to enlarge it, if you need to. Put your answer in the comments, and I'll tell you if you got it right.
MATH MEMORY
Did you learn PEMDAS in school? I used my "magical powers" to solve that tricky problem my daughter posted on Facebook. What magical powers, you ask? PEMDAS for starters. It's the mathematical sequence to follow when you have a string of numbers:
Parentheses,
Exponents,
Multiply or
Divide,
Add or
Subtract. I used that along with my powers of observation. Now go back and try that puzzle again. I've given you a very big clue, right there, to help you solve this visual problem.
CONFESSION
Consolation Prize for all who get it wrong: I forgot to be consistent in my observations — and gave the wrong answer in spite of whatever mental agility I have and using the correct process! Therefore, I was required by the rules to post on Facebook that "
I lost" to my daughter.
12 comments:
That maths one is doing my head in.
Is the answer 12?
No, Helen, try again. Do either of you want me to walk you through this?
Yep, I need help as I keep getting 12 (one shoe = 5, 1 tie = 2, 1 person = 5). What am I missing? :-)
First, enlarge the picture and REALLY look closely at the bottom line. On Facebook, the very bottom was partially cut off, so you couldn't SEE that the man has put on those shoes. Ha! It took me awhile to notice he has BARE FEET in the upper lines. And what's that in his hands? Oh, he has picked up BOTH of those ties (someone called them straps). So now the image of the MAN goes like this:
Man = 5
Two shoes = 10
Two ties = 4
_______________
Total = 19
See how that changes the whole equation? Now let's look at the other two images on the bottom line. Helen, not everyone noticed there's only ONE shoe on the left. Good for you for your good observation. And there's only ONE tie on the right. Another good observation. What you failed to notice, however, was the SIGNS between the images. Oops! That is NOT a plus sign, but an X meaning we must MULTIPLY. So far, so good.
There was a reason I mentioned PEMDAS (in this post). We must use the correct sequence when doing math. In this case, it would be WRONG to reason that "one shoe is 5, plus one man wearing shoes and holding ties is 19, times one tie is 2, equals 48." WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! First, we must multiply; then we can add the other.
Man wearing
shoes holding
2 ties = 19 TIMES One tie = 2
____________________
19 x 2 = 38 (so far)
Now add the single shoe = 5 (Remember PEMDAS where you multiply before adding.)
____________________
19 x 2 = 38 + 5 = 43
Using our powers of observation coupled with knowledge about PEMDAS (where you must multiply before adding). That's why I included the PEMDAS information in my post above. That was not included when I saw this on Facebook. I knew about it, but I wasn't quite THIS scrupulous and consistent in my math and got it wrong myself. Scroll back up to the last line in the blog post above, and click on "I lost." It will take you to my Facebook page. (I don't know if my readers must also be on Facebook, but I know that YOU are.) There you will see that Jean Millner got the right answer yesterday.
It's a lot to keep in mind while you are struggling through all the variables in this puzzle. Confession: I think the designer was MEAN to draw the teensy, tiny shoes on the man and put the ties in each hand. It's almost impossible to see that detail in the picture unless it is enlarged. The real kicker? Changing the last sign to MULTIPLICATION. By the time we've gotten THAT far, we are skimming and making assumptions. My first time through, I "saw" two shoes on the bottom line, and I "saw" two ties, and I never noticed his feet one way or the other. His hands? Who noticed? YOU did, Helen. So feel good about your reasoning powers. I know your field is history, not math. I majored in Philosophy & Religion and in English (double major), but I love numbers and math. Always have.
Oops! Alyssa Person also got the right answer (on Facebook), but she posted it in the comments under Jae Tea's guess. Congratulations Alyssa!
Got it! Way too much detail for me to notice :-)
But Helen, you noticed ALL of the details except the X telling you to multiply. Well, you may not have been familiar with PEMDAS. Anyway, we got to the end with the right answer, according to mathematicians = 43.
19
Hi, Unknown! You are off to a good start. Now go back up and read all of my comments to get to the final answer. And tell me who you are, please. Or at least tell me something about you, like where in the world you live.
20
My friend Mary learned PEMDAS as:
Please
Excuse
My
Dear
Aunt
Sally
My friend Jean just told me (on Facebook) that "it’s now taught as GEMDAS. G=groupings because it could be parentheses or brackets."
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