The teacher is fucking stupid. The question says Marty ate more, that is not only possible it is a given.
The teacher is fucking stupid.
The teacher is likely under-trained, overworked, and under-qualified for the class. Common in districts where the focus of the administration is driving down the cost of education rather than delivering the highest quality.
That is, of course, assuming this is a real homework and not some agitprop churned out by a Facebook group or a social media account more interested in generating outrage than education.
With the choice of marker, I’d say its rage bait.
Can confirm. My grad mentor’s grad mentor used green because he’d read a paper that green causes more eye strain and he thought it’d be hilarious to grade in green.
I grade in green because it drives my students nuts.
So you’re not confirming that it’s rage bait but rather that it’s a real graded paper.
I don’t even know anymore. Grading in green is ragebait.
I agree, the kid is correct. This is the only viable answer.
Not true. Marty could have also eaten pizza that was not his.
No, “Marty ate 4/6 of his pizza”
Which does not preclude him also eating 1/6 each of Martha’s, Denise’s, and Sam’s pizzas.
It does not state that Marty only ate 4/6 of his pizza. Nor that he ate only of his own pizza. It defined a minimum pizza consumption threshold for Marty without further details.
You have to use the variables given. He ate 4/6 of his pizza and the other guy ate 5/6. Saying he ate the other guys pizza would result in a tie (not more) and is not an option. The answer they wanted was “impossible”, the kid gave the only real shenanigan proof viable answer.
This is bizarre. The info provided in the question was that Marty ate more than Luis, the question was how would that be possible given that Marty ate 4/6 of his while Luis ate 5/6 of his. The answer the kid wrote (Marty’s pizza was bigger than Luis’) is the only possible correct answer.
The grader is asserting that the information given in the question was wrong and that “actually it was Luis who ate more pizza”–even though it stated as a premise that “Marty ate more”. How are you supposed to give a correct answer on a test if you are expected to accept one premise (proportion of pizzas eaten) while disregarding another premise (Marty ate more than Luis)? How do you decide which part to disregard? Would they have accepted the answer, “Luis actually only ate 3/6 of his pizza, not 5/6)”? Wouldn’t that be just as valid an answer as “Marty actually didn’t eat more than Luis”?
I suspect many commenters are missing the point, the student’s response can only be the correct and expected answer to this question. Teacher has it wrong.
No. The teacher did not have it wrong. Does not mean the student is right … Marty and Luis both had their own pizza. Marty had a big pizza and “only” managed to eat 4/6th of it. Luis had a small pizza, and “only” managed to eat 5/6th of his. If you want to give a nitpicking correct answer: a single pizza does not have (4 + 5)/6th pieces. x/6th implies the pizza(s) were divided into 6 parts … so: it can only be 2 pizzas.
Yes, it can only be two pizzas. The question is “how is this possible” which is correctly answered by the student. The teacher talking like that’s not how pizza works, is indeed incorrect.
4/6 of a 10” pizza is more pizza than 5/6 of a 6” pizza.
I’ve read this a few times and I’m genuinely not sure I understand what you’re saying.
4/6th is a smaller ratio than 5/6 the only way for 4/6 to be greater would be for the area to increase.
Expressed as percentages it would be 66% (approx) eaten vs 83% (approx) where the person that ate 66% ate more pizza. The only way that’s possible is if the area of the pizza that 66% of was consumed was greater. (Strictly speaking the volume could be at play here too but I’m going to assume they’re the same height for the question).
I genuinely don’t see any way his thinking was wrong, or how this could be answered another way.
I might genuinely be missing something but if so this question is poorly worded.
They’re just doing the same thing as the teacher and assuming the two pizzas have to be of equal size and therefore it’s an impossible situation.
The title of this post is disappointing. The given answer is sound and it seems safe to assume it was arrived at by thinking mathematically.
Right? He’s rationally explaining how that was possible given the question of “how” it is possible. In my opinion that question was written poorly.
Teachers that don’t accept an unexpected but true answer are not teaching. The test taker had a correct take, one of the pizzas could be bigger than the other. It was not specified in the question. I am so glad I am out of school
This answer shouldn’t have been unexpected, seeing as how it’s the correct answer.
The test key has the expected answer, which may even be wrong. If the test taker responds with something else, even if it solves the problem, it is not the expected answer. It’s stupid.
It really seemed like my fellow students lost their interest in math as we went through the grades here in the US.
I still remember a kid in 2nd grade who learned how Roman numerals worked because they were interesting. By grade 6, actively detested math.
Curious.
Commendable for the kid to be thinking outside of the box, and a bit shitty of the teacher for not giving them maybe half a point (because it’s a correct answer, but not the correct/expected answer). The test maker is also to blame - they should’ve taken care to eliminate all ambiguity - it’s a math test after all.
The teachers response is incorrect. It is stated as fact that marty ate more pizza.
Oh, yes, you’re right! I read the question again.
P.S. And if really is a fake/made up test like some other folks claim in the comments, just look at how much of a discussion it throws us into.
The kid’s answer is the only correct answer. It’s not half right, or 5/6 or 4/6 right. It’s the only correct answer that fits the question. The teacher is a moron who has no business in a math classroom except as a remedial student.
Marty could’ve eaten someone else’s pizza besides his own, which would also make it a correct answer. The question didn’t say he ate 4/6 of his pizza and nothing else
I like it!
My wife has pointed out that there is indeed one other correct answer. One kids is bigger – OR, the other kid’s is smaller. TWO right answers.
Ah, a teacher that does not comprehend the barometer
Two other right answers:
- Luis’ pizza is at least <whatever is the correct fraction> smaller than Marty’s (which is basically the same answer as the kid’s)
- Marty ate someone else’s pizza besides his own
And, for funsies:
- Luis’ pizza is 50% crust, so it doesn’t fully count as pizza
- Luis doesn’t like pizza and actually fed the dog while nobody was looking
- Marty is many years older than Luis, therefore he has eaten many years’ worth of pizza ahead of Luis
This is completely unrelated but I cannot believe Calandra is a real world name.
The designers of the video game Path of Exile should’ve called their super rare item “Kalandra’s Barometer” instead of “Kalandra’s Mirror”.
correct fraction = 4/5, as in, Luis’ pizza is smaller than the 4/5 (80%) of Marty’s pizza.
Take that to the principal, stupid teachers shouldn’t teach
… or have a bit of empathy and talk to the teacher like a human.
I… Um… I’ve been looking at this for a minute and I can’t tell why the answer is unconventional, nor what the fuck the teacher is on about.
The kid answered correctly, it’s not unconventional at all, the teacher is just stupid
It’s fucking dumb. No where did it say the pizzas are equal size. So the kids answer is just as right as her bullshit answer.
No, the kid’s answer is not “just as right”, it is the correct and expected answer. The teacher’s answer is wrong and proof the teacher doesn’t understand the question. The entire point of the question is understanding that fractions of a whole are relative to that whole and you can’t directly compare fractions from different wholes like that. 5/6 > 4/6 doesn’t mean Luis ate more pizza than Marty, it means Luis ate a larger share of his pizza than Marty ate out of his own.
This is not a Maths test. Its a comprehension test for a test card series, the question is titled “Reasonableness”.
But… The teacher is just flat-out wrong. It says right there in the problem that Marty ate more, and then uses that fact as a foundation for the question of “x is true, HOW can x be true”. It’d be different if the question was “someone claims x is true; is it?”
I’m actually not sure this is real. I’ve had some shitty abusive teachers but even they would be capable of basic logic.
It is entirely possible and his answer was correct. Question was phrased incorrectly, if the teacher wanted an answer “it is not possible” he should have said both pizzas were the same size.
A third option is that there is a third pizza eater who also ate 4/6th of their pizza and gave 2/6th up Marty in exchange for the 2/6th Marty didn’t eat.
Or yeah maybe it was a larger pizza.
This is genuinely baffling. What was that teacher on.
“This is not possible because…”
This kid is never going to trust teachers again.
He was right. The question is not even worded ambiguously. It was just written very poorly.
Will the teacher admit that? Or is the expectation that this (likely neuro divergent) student should have just understood the expectations based on context clues or something?
This kid is never going to trust teachers again.
If one bad response is enough to turn you off from anyone else teaching you anything ever, then you’re carrying some enormous trauma that has nothing to do with a single math question.
If one bad response is enough to open your eyes to the fallibility of individuals and lead you to think more deeply about where you get your information and how you evaluate the correctness of a response, then you’re going to go far and develop a much deeper understanding of the world.
The question is not even worded ambiguously. It was just written very poorly.
Its not a Maths test. Its a comprehension test.
Which the teacher failed (assuming this is real)
This kid is never going to trust that teacher again.
This brings back memories of when I realized that I was smarter than most of my teachers.
Curriculum and unappetizing methods of teaching are the problems.
This kid has the right to question, to speak out what’s really logical, and is likely to be more street-wise.
The statement and question make perfect sense. The kid has the only “reasonable” answer.
