Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Are You Smarter Than a Kindergartener?

Those that know me know that I'm not "great" at math.

Well, that is an understatement. I changed my major in college from education to English because I couldn't pass logical math and English would allow me to skip the math classes. Plus, if I figured if couldn't even pass logical math, then I really have no business teaching kids. But, that's beside the point.

Anywho, here's Owen's math homework. Click on the image to enlarge it.



What did you come up with and how did you get it?

Owen hasn't done it yet (he'll do it tonight...we ran out of time last night) but Shane and I came up with the same answer. But, I'm not going to post our answers yet. I'll do that later tonight so I don't corrupt your thinking. :)

Put the answer in the comments section of the post. You don't have to have a google account to post comments. Post anonymously and either put your name or intials on it.

Don't be shy. I could be, and probably am, wrong but I do feel better about my answer knowing that my 8 year old got the same answer. And he's smart. ;)

27 comments:

RobinW said...

You'll need 15 bears on Day 5. You add another row to the bottom each day to complete teh pyramid.

Matt Waldinger said...

Yes, 15. Like Robin said another row. Another way to do explain it is you add the number of bears that correspond to what number day it is - Day 2 added 2 bears, Day 3 added 3 bears, etc.

ginny said...

I cheated and looked at the comments- I guess I'm not as smart as a kindergartener! And that's really scarey when I do accounting for a living! I guess the good thing with accounting is you know what numbers to add together!!!

Micheal said...

15

Micheal said...

I'm probably over analyzing the question after reading it again but the way the question is worded the answer can be debated.

The total number of bears you need is 15 but since you already have 10 on day 4, the answer could also be 5.

Unknown said...

OK, at first I thought the answer might be 12 thinking that it's about adding 3 bears to each previous day. Then I saw the other answers of 15 with the explanation and decided to go with that. It makes sense - and I'm as bad at math as you are, Kim! LOL!

Anonymous said...

15. Each day, you add one bear to the bottom row of the pyramid. Day 5 has 5 bears at the base.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's a little difficult upon first glance. Unless it's b/c as adults we're thinking too much? The answer is 15. With each additional day, you add the same # of bears.

Craig Fels said...

I'm going with 15 as well. It's about the pattern of a pyramid, not a mathematical formula.

Anonymous said...

15. As Craig said, it's about the pattern of the pyramid, not setting up a formula (this IS kindergarten after all).

Unknown said...

It's 15. It's the sum of 1 to n where n is the number of days you're solving for. Not that I would expect someone that young to think of it that way.

Kris said...

Yup, 15. Add another row to the bottom of the pyramid for each day.

Unknown said...

15 bears for day 5.
Day 1 was 1 bear.
Day 2 was 3 or 1 bear + 2
Day 3 was 6 or 3 bears +3
sooooooooo
Day 4 is 10 (6 bears +4)
Day 5 is 15 (10 bears +5)

Kim Eckhardt said...

Okay...Shane and I both got 15.

I got it doing it the exact way that Aaron did. Paralegal/legal
minds must think alike.

But, Shane got it doing it by the patterns and came up with 15. He did it much quicker than I did should I add. Because I overanalyzed it.

Seeing that the two of us came to the conclusion so differently was what made me want to know how other people came up with the answer.

Kar, my next door neighbor got 12 too. But, I don't think that can be right because on day two, you only added two bears not three.

But, again....my math suxs as I've already noted. :)

Jen said...

Obviously based on everyone else's answer, it's 15 but like Kar I thought it was 12. I guess that's why Skye doesn't come to me for math help :-D

Kim Eckhardt said...

June, my neighbor got 12. It makes sense looking at it.

I don't think that there's a wrong answer here. I think that's the point that the teacher is trying to make. As long as the kids can explain their answer, then it's correct.

Or not. Meh.

Kindergarten math is hard. Let's go shopping. :)

Anonymous said...

15 Kim...Aaron's explaination is best......
however...note that each day the bears increase by the ratio = to 1-3-6 for the 1st three days...so the ratio should be the same for the rest as in 1-3-6-9-12...with the answer being 12, but drawing that out and making marks for the same ratio, note that on day 4=10 and day 5=15.
Laura agrees and she's an accountant...the answer is 15....
LOL....
however that is all subject to the premise that someone is feeding the damn bears,on day 5 for them to all stay around, which we all know is not right...
DON'T feed the bears !!!!!

Mary Ann Bowes said...

15 - They're the triangular numbers.

Or... er.... you keep adding one to the bottom row. :)

Unknown said...

What do you need the teddy bears for? If you are giving them away we need to know how many you want to give away. We know that during the first three days you accumulated 10 bears. Assuming none were lost on Day 4, you'd have at least 10 bears on Day 5, but if you need to give away 1,000 bears you would still need 990 more bears. There is no way to answer this question without context.

Anonymous said...

EXACTLY what Darren said.

Unknown said...

I got 15 the same way Aaron did. :)

Anonymous said...

To Kim and everyone

Okkkkkk !!!! for all of you that need to look at it from a kindergarden perspective...

day one has only 1

day 2 equals two on each side or...two is two across/two up= 3 total

day three equals 3 on each side or 3 across/3 up= 6 total

day four equals 4 on each side or 4 across/3 up= 9

day five equals 5 one each side or 5 across/5 up= 12


NOWHERE does it say to add the filler bears into the center of the pyramid..all it is saying and asking is to make the sides equilateral....DO IT PHYSICALLY BY PLOTTING IT OUT....
1,3,6,9,12 and don't re-count the bears when doing it...

duhhhhhh and they ask who's smarter than a 5th grader....
This problem is a trick problem that is actually used by MIT and several other math strong schools to measure congitive thinking...I actually forwarded it to a math PHD I know to see what he said...the correct answer is

12

Try it yourselves and see

Michael B. Klein said...

The answer *would* be 15, under normal circumstances, but these are bears, and everyone knows that bears always kill and eat bears one day older than themselves after a waiting period of three days. So by day 5, the Day 2 Bears will have offed the Day 1 Bear, and the Day 3 Bears will have taken care of the Day 2 Bears, leaving 12.

Yeah, I'm just that evil.

Katie Baca said...

I don't want to say.

I am going to pretend that I came up with the number 15.

LOL

Anonymous said...

The question is a bit ambiguous, but there will be 15 total bears on day 5, having added 5 that day.

I know from the trend of adding a layer to the pyramid each day. On day 4, they'll have 4 rows, the new row needing 4 bears, and on day 5, 5 rows.

You could also say that on each day they are adding that many bears, and just happen to be putting them in a pyramid.

Day 1, 1 bear
Day 2: +2 = 3
Day 3: + 3 = 6
Day 4: + 4 = 10
Day 5: +5 = 15

DrB

Dave said...

15 Bears...you can see that the number of bears on the bottom = te # of the day, then just stack and count.

-Dave

tlwhittle said...

I agree that the total number of bears for day 5 should be 15. I arrived at by assuming each day adds a new bear to the base and enough bears on top to create a triangular form.

That said, the question is "how many bears will be needed?" which implies to me "how many bears will you have to add to continue the pattern?" If this interpretation of the question is correct and the pattern dictates that on day 4 you had 10 bears, on day 5 you'll need to add 5 more bears to get to correct form.

I'm still going with 15, though. I think that's the intent of the questions.

And bears don't eat other bears. Bears eat beets.