r/mildlyinfuriating • u/djuseless12 • 1d ago
Damn one way or the other. 6th grade math.
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u/Hoppie1064 1d ago
The $22 package costs less.
The $24 package costs less PER ROLL.
Math teachers should be precise in their language.
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u/Electric-Sheepskin 1d ago
Yeah, the imprecision of questions like that drove me mad. It really is ambiguous.
Unrelated, but it reminds me of how I hate all of those personality questionnaires—because I always feel like I don't have enough information to answer the questions properly. "At a party, do you prefer to sit and talk to one or two people or mingle around the room?" I don't know. Do I know anyone at the party? Is it daytime or night? Am I hot? Am I tired? Is the music loud? I need more information!
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u/Proper_Fun_977 1d ago
Pack A costs less.
$2 less.
Those are the correct answers to the question as written.
If they wanted price per roll, they should have asked for it!!
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u/zerostar83 1d ago
Especially since word problems usually include unnecessary information to throw off guessing and have kids use critical thinking.
The answer is Brand A. It's $2 less.
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u/Curious_Baby_3892 1d ago
I'm more concerned that whoever made this can't spell 'much'
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u/TrickInvite6296 BLUE 1d ago
and can't use commas
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u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 1d ago
And can’t conjugate “cost”
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u/SpecificEquivalent79 1d ago
but other than all that it’s great!
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u/this_place_suuucks 1d ago
Aside from the ambiguity of "how much less"
Total?
Per roll?
What is it asking for? I would assume "per roll," but it should be specified.
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u/Mesa_Gal 1d ago
Answering the question as written, A is correct, by $2.00. The question does not ask about value each roll, just how much $ is leaving your wallet.
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u/RebekkaKat1990 1d ago edited 1d ago
In 9th grade, I had received written feedback from my English teacher on a paper I had written, and while I was reading her comments I noticed she had used the wrong “too.” It was just the “to,” but still as a teenager and English being my favorite class, I thought it was funny and pointed it out to my teacher. She apparently did not think it was funny and took it as a HUGE sign of disrespect for me to point it out to her. Like bitch you tell us to proofread everything we submit to you and you can’t even hold yourself to the same standard? One of my first real lessons that people in positions of authority don’t always practice what they preach.
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u/Right-Phalange 1d ago
I had a college finance teacher who wrote a problem on the board starting with "investor's expect a 5% rate of return". I came up to her quietly before class started to ask if we could remove the apostrophe. She told me "it's fine". I then noticed all her tests were like that.
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u/JecaChan 1d ago
Technically brand A costs less since $22 is less than $24 and it doesn’t specifically say which is less per roll or which is the better value.
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u/Illustrious-Eye1673 1d ago
They can't mix their q's. If B is correct, then it is correct based on price per roll. So the kid was right. Also, what is with the comma after "towels" ??
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u/palpatineforever 1d ago
I was thinking just that, it costs less, it just costs more per towel... it is horrible
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u/DeBlasioDeBlowMe 1d ago
Nice product placement by Costco into this grade school curricula also. Why name the store??
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u/USSHammond Karma and repost bot exposer. Ban them all. 1d ago
I suck at math so lets see if the kid was right. First order of business is to get a matching price for 10 rolls for A
22 / 8 * 10 = 27.50 for 10 rolls. That's 2.75 per roll
24 / 10 = 2.40 per roll.
2.75 - 2.40 = 0.35.
Result: the kid was right, my guess, they maybe expected the kid to use 0.35 instead of .35?
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u/uglyunicorn99 1d ago
Nurse here, leading zeroes are drilled into us in school, so that was my immediate thought why this is wrong
I know 6th grade math isn’t nursing school though
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u/zipperfire 1d ago
He was correct and there was no room in the box to put in "per roll" Sloppy work on the part of the math teacher.
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u/smb3d 1d ago
Correct answer is to compare the total square footage on the package and see which on get's you the most for your money! :)
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u/Axman5055 1d ago
Brand A might be thicker double ply towels too, if you consider that its a steal by sq ft
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u/theproblemdoctor 1d ago
Still A costs 2$ less noone said it's price per roll or price per ply or price per kilo for all I care
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u/sswishbone 1d ago
This question is insufficient as it does not contain the thickness of sheets or quantity of sheets on each roll.
So technically neither is correct
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u/GruntledVeteran 1d ago
The 8 rolls cost less overall, but the 10 rolls cost less per roll. Not enough information to know which they want, so you get a 50/50 chance. Lol
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u/claudiaishere 1d ago
The question is wrong because it doesn’t ask “per roll”. Brand A is cheaper by $2.
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u/SadAbroad4 1d ago
The question was which brand costs less. Logic says brand A cost less by $2.00. if the questions is how much per roll does brand B cost and by how much it is less than brand brand A per roll the correct answer is B by $0.35 per roll.
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u/FunRutabaga24 1d ago
Not enough information. Are they both standard rolls? Is one mega and the other ultra size? Sqft should be compared here, not roll count.
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u/rebel_alliance05 1d ago
Whoever designed the question needs help. The question should be which is a better deal cost per roll?
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u/Mostspicy 1d ago
The savings is 35 cents a roll... However, the math problem does not state the savings per roll. The overall savings is $3.50 if you extrapolate $0.35 a roll times the 10 rolls.
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u/SuperRegera 1d ago
I get that the price difference per roll is 35 cents, but the question doesn't really make it clear that it's asking for that. How do we know there is an option to buy individual rolls? In practice, the answer could be $2.
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u/Horror_Role1008 1d ago
How many square inches for each roll at 8 for 22 and 10 for 24? Unless we know how many square inches per roll we can't really say which is cheaper.
In real life not only is the price per square inches important but quality as well.
Cheap paper towels are usually not near as good as the more expensive ones and sometimes the more expensive ones are preferable over the cheap ones because the expensive ones will get the job done better enough to justify the higher price.
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u/PrintdianaJones 1d ago
She went wrong because as they might be cheaper, they're also made cheaper so you're using more. Math now includes real life variables.
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u/Hopeful-Flounder-203 1d ago
A costs less. $22 is less than $24. B costs less PER ROLL, but that is not what's being asked.
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u/No_Point904 1d ago
So brand A is $22, and brand B is $24. A is $2 less. Is this something trick question?
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u/RazorSlazor 1d ago
It's 0.35
.35 is a spoken thing, but doesn't always register that way when typed online.
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u/ted_anderson Get off my lawn! 1d ago
The problem that I have with this question is that there's not enough context. It's asking, "which costs less?" but is it really asking "Which costs less PER ROLL?"
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u/Helpful_Sir_6065 1d ago
The answer as the question is written is Brand A, $2.00.
The kid did the correct maths for determining the price difference per roll of TP.
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u/Greenmantle22 1d ago
Complain to whatever vintage arcade game has replaced your child's principal and/or teachers that this bogus little quiz is formatted the way old people fuck. It's riddled with spelling errors and failed formatting.
Did they buy this quiz from a North Korean busboy at 2am?
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u/CoffeeStayn 1d ago
Missing a 0.
And apparently there's something wrong with their literacy skills since they can spell "purchasing" so their H key is working, but in three attempts at spelling "much" they can't seem to find the H key except the one time.
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u/Treat-Reasonable 1d ago
First question is why I cannot get into math. Based on the wording it should be A and I would have picked A.
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u/thedevillivesinside 1d ago
A is $22, b is $24
A is $2 less than b
If they want to know which is cheaper per roll, they should specify that
Is brand a luxury paper towels that have less paper towel per roll? We dont know any specifics other than what we have, and what we have is that its $2 less to buy brand a
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u/Dizzy-Caregiver-352 1d ago
Where is this teacher??? The way this is written, the correct answer is A.
If the teacher wanted the answer to be B, they should have asked which paper towels cost less PER ROLL.
I'm infuriated for you because this is a badly worded question with poor punctuation. If my child showed this to me, I would be so upset I'd demand they be switched to another class with a more competent teacher.
Probably though, as others have said, it wants you to type a 0.
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u/Funny_Tank8531 1d ago
Fault in the ability to say per roll as answer would be $28 if you were buying comparable amount i.e 80 rolls
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u/Bovine_Arithmetic 1d ago
At my last job, we had a training manager who would write crap like this and defend it, saying “the correct answer is $0.35. The question was in the format [$XX.XX] so the answer has to be in the same format.”
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u/Temporary_Thing7517 1d ago
Maybe they’re looking for 3.50, as they are saving .35 per roll for 10 rolls, for a total savings of 3.50
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u/SupremeBeing000 1d ago
The way the question is written A is cheaper by 2 dollars. But I guess you have to assume they mean cost per roll. Your kid got it right. Ask the teacher. They make mistakes… systems make mistakes…
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u/SLevine262 1d ago
Ok but the question is incomplete. How many towels on each roll? Are they full size or those half size sheets? Single or double ply? Sale price or regular?
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u/Optimal-Dot-9365 1d ago
$22.00/8 = $2.75
$24.00/10 =$2.40
Answer is .35
Child is correct. I wonder what the teacher thinks the answer is.
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u/BitemeRedditers 1d ago edited 1d ago
Brand ✓ A cost less.
How muc less? $ ✓ 2.00
It's mildly infuriating that they said B was the correct answer.
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u/CollarsUpYall flair flair flair more flair even more flair! 1d ago
Which brand costs less? Brand A - it’s $2 less. If it’s asking which brand has the cheapest price per roll, then it should say so.
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u/ScowlyBrowSpinster 1d ago
We need to know how many paper towels per roll to calculate the savings.
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u/happynlucky7 1d ago
Depends on if the size of the rolls are the same. They trick you that way with marketing in packaging all the time.
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u/poizun85 1d ago
This is a stupid question to me and doesn’t pertain to my real life unless it’s asking unit prices which it doesn’t.
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u/betterThanYoux3 1d ago
Is it the missing dollar sign? In elementary/middle school I remember being told even if the number is right, we would lose points if we didnt label it correctly. Maybe shes looking for 35 cents or $0.35. Its electronic though so idk
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u/WestDelay3104 1d ago
This does not ask "how muc [sic] less" it is per roll or per package. Specifically, semantically, it's asking about the rolls as a unit or package when asking "which brand of paper towels, (why the fkin comma here?) cost less?", not per roll. With as poorly worded as this is, I do believe the ACTUAL correct answer, if not taking or making inference of "per roll in a unit". the real answer would be "A" and $2.00. If we are to take or make inference, they mnigh be flipping between "per roll in a unit" and "overall", which would then be "B" and $2.00. Or as others have said, you need to place a 0 before the decimal in .35, which would mean the inference is taken/made for the whole problem.
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u/GunpointG 1d ago
I mean it doesn’t say how much less per roll. I’d say $2 isn’t an unreasonable answer lol
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u/botoxedbunnyboiler 1d ago
Who ever graded this is wrong. Show the math written out in a piece of paper and send it back asking for an explanation on why his work was marked incorrect.
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u/JamesMattDillon 1d ago
It is correct, but should have put it as 0.35
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u/bloodfeier 1d ago
That is also my guess. I’d also guess that talking to a teacher would probably get credit for it anyway.
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u/Loisalene 1d ago
It's impossible to know unless you know what the amount in each roll is. Brand A's rolls could contain 500 squares, while brand B's rolls have only 350.
Why yes, I do shop by unit pricing, tyvm....
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u/jrp55262 1d ago
My neurodivergent brain is screaming: which brand costs less? Per package, or per roll? The test writer didn't specify, and they're expecting the student to read their neurotypical mind. This is a supposed to be a test of math, not of mind-reading or language games...
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u/RedKiller626 1d ago
Those of you saying A is the answer really don't pay attention. Brand B being the answer is clearly marked as correct, the value entered AFTER that is what is marked wrong and confusing OP and us.
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u/KeyboardEnthuse 1d ago
Maybe the correct answer the teacher was thinking of was 3.5. 22/8 = 2.75 -> 10 rolls = 27.5 24/10 = 2.4 -> 10 rolls = 24 27.5 - 24 = 3.5 per 10 rolls. Just my assumption. Not a well worded question
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u/MrPartyWaffle 1d ago
Your kid was right and the question didn't even ask them to do that specific form, and still marked them wrong... Complain... Because if a simple mistake like this exists there will be more! And sure as fuck I wouldn't want your kid to get marked wrong in shit they're right about!
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u/coveredwithticks 1d ago
Paper towel math is the second hardest math.
Toilet paper math is the hardest math because it involves the butt.
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u/Kimmus2008 1d ago
You win the prize for the most useless answer. Congratulations!
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u/OkAngle2353 1d ago
The system is probably looking for $00.35, $0.35 or some similar format. If you bring it up to the instructor, they should be able to override it.
Edit: A hover text showing the actual formatting would be very helpful, but creators of these systems don't think of this unfortunately.
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u/Miss-Anonymous-Angel 1d ago
This ended up happening so much in med school for me that questions ended up saying instructions like: “If the answer starts with a decimal point, please add a ‘0’ before it, so for example: 0.35 instead of .35.”
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u/ZombieAladdin 1d ago
The question asked is ambiguous. It doesn’t ask which brand is less per roll, just which one costs less. Another correct answer would be Brand A by two dollars because we’re disregarding how many rolls there are per pack.
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u/spinjinn 1d ago
Isn’t it obvious that brand A costs $2.00 less than brand B? Oh, you meant per roll?
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u/PaleEntertainment304 1d ago
And here's yet another reason it's a crap question. Costco? Only 8 rolls? Not bloody likely!
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u/roundabout-design 1d ago
A ridiculously poorly worded question.
The 'correct' answer is Brand A costs less. It's $2 less.
But I assume they MEANT to ask the question in the context of 'per roll'. Which they simply did not ask.
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u/Ok_Paleontologist974 1d ago
The computer is looking at the answer as text instead of as a number meaning it will not tolerate the answer not being a 100% match for the provided solution even if the numerical value is equal.
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u/finnchuu 1d ago
the answers are correct, usually when teachers make quizzes on schoology there’s only the one correct answer so it’ll only accept “$0.35” and not .35
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u/Comfortable-Life9972 1d ago edited 1d ago
These systems don’t register . As having a 0 infront of it.
The system doesn’t think .35 is the same as 0.35 Just message the teacher. Sometimes they put in things far too quickly and it spits out crap like this.
I went through a LOT of this shit in med school.
Edit; since some of you don’t seem to understand. This is a reference to programming. The author can choose that 0.35 can be represented multiple ways to still be correct. Similar to capital letters.