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> 3. A brick weighs one pound and half the brick. How many pounds does the brick weigh? huh? Good luck 5 year old. This is how you get kids to hate math.

haunter 5y ago
Very classic problem but yeah maybe a bit overkill for 5 year olds http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMT668.Student.Folders/SeitzBrian/EMT669/brick.problem/halfbrick.html http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMT668.Student.Folders/Sei...
- SamBam 5y ago
  That uses the wording "plus half a brick" instead of "plus half the brick." I think the "a brick" wording could be a little clearer for kids.
jayrwren 5y ago
I can't even read this as english. I feel these "problems" are more about poor grammar than they are math.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  I could parse it fine but if I were writing this I would include more redundancy e.g. "weighs one pound and half the weight of the [maybe use our to suggest to the reader it's the same one] brick". The well drilled student would be able to parse both but anyone who can struggle with getting the words into their head in the right order like me could struggle.
- valbaca 5y ago
  Exactly. It would read better as "The weight of a brick is equal to one pound plus the weight of half an equivalent brick" i.e. x = 1 + x/2
- satchlj 5y ago
  in this case, the line between grammar and math is fuzzy - english (or russian) and mathematical symbols are two different languages here which are each capable of describing the same thing. the challenge is to do the necessary translation and rearrangement
- SamBam 5y ago
  Replacing "the brick" with "a brick," I always thought the question was fine: > A brick weighs one pound and half a brick. I could easily imagine a brick being balanced by a one pound weight and a half brick on the other side, and the answer was easy. I agree that "half the brick" is trickier wording.
  - scotty79 5y ago
    The problem might have be created when bricks were hand made and there was no assumption that different bricks have same weight. So it was important to stress that it weighs 1 pound and half of itself.
blagie 5y ago
No. This is how you get kids to love math, if you do it right. There's an American theory that math problems should be doable, that kids should score 90+% if they're doing well, and that struggle makes people hate things. That's contradicted in American sports, where coaches push people really hard, boot camps, frat hazing, and cult indoctrination. There's an Eastern European theory that math problems should be hard, interesting, involve struggle, and often too difficult to solve. On the whole, Eastern Europeans seem to do better for turning out kids who love math.
- culebron21 5y ago
  I actually got to hate math in grade 3 with such problems. Nobody explained to me that I could just write down an equasion, at least my father (physicist) could not. And all I saw in the magazines were cryptic answers like "it's plain obvious that for Jose-Rammstein conjuncture, x = 10" I also met the problem #9 at an interview, and was asked to write the solution in pseudocode, as a kind of fizz-buzz test. (A peasant must take a wolf, a goat and a cabbage across a river in a boat. However the boat is so small that he is able to take only one of the three on board with him. How should he transport all three across the river? The wolf cannot be left alone with the goat, and the goat cannot be left alone with the cabbage.)
  - doovd 5y ago
    I would not blame the problems here, but rather the lack of support.
- senko 5y ago
  > This is how you get kids to love math, if you do it right. No. This is how you encourage kids who already love math. If they're not interested (yet), this is an awesome way to turn them off. If you do it right, you'll incorporate these into everyday life (walk down the street, see something that you can turn into a similar problem, then pose that to the kid). Source: loved these as a kid[1], now parent who wants to encourage a healthy sense of wonder in math/sciences. [1] Here's one for you I loved back in the day: A hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half. How many eggs do six hens lay in six days?
Jare 5y ago
"One Pound and Half the Brick" means one pound is the other half. It's interesting to visually explain it to kids so they start to see that "fraction" (half) doesn't have to mean "weird number".
skyde 5y ago
2 pounds ? brick_weight = 1pounds + 0.5brick_weight
threatofrain 5y ago
> 12. A tide was in today at 12 noon. What time will it be in (at the same place) tomorrow? These problems seem so poorly organized and motivated, I don't understand the curation in putting them together in one document, especially one that goes from ages 5 to 15. Math problems shouldn't feel like random problems where you have to squint really hard or be really clever to see the connection to life. They should build with deliberateness into a worldview or a recognized skillset that a child can later translate into life wins.

haunter 5y ago

Very classic problem but yeah maybe a bit overkill for 5 year olds http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMT668.Student.Folders/SeitzBrian/EMT669/brick.problem/halfbrick.html http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMT668.Student.Folders/Sei...

SamBam 5y ago
That uses the wording "plus half a brick" instead of "plus half the brick." I think the "a brick" wording could be a little clearer for kids.

jayrwren 5y ago

I can't even read this as english. I feel these "problems" are more about poor grammar than they are math.

mhh__ 5y ago
I could parse it fine but if I were writing this I would include more redundancy e.g. "weighs one pound and half the weight of the [maybe use our to suggest to the reader it's the same one] brick". The well drilled student would be able to parse both but anyone who can struggle with getting the words into their head in the right order like me could struggle.
valbaca 5y ago
Exactly. It would read better as "The weight of a brick is equal to one pound plus the weight of half an equivalent brick" i.e. x = 1 + x/2
satchlj 5y ago
in this case, the line between grammar and math is fuzzy - english (or russian) and mathematical symbols are two different languages here which are each capable of describing the same thing. the challenge is to do the necessary translation and rearrangement
SamBam 5y ago
Replacing "the brick" with "a brick," I always thought the question was fine: > A brick weighs one pound and half a brick. I could easily imagine a brick being balanced by a one pound weight and a half brick on the other side, and the answer was easy. I agree that "half the brick" is trickier wording.
- scotty79 5y ago
  The problem might have be created when bricks were hand made and there was no assumption that different bricks have same weight. So it was important to stress that it weighs 1 pound and half of itself.

blagie 5y ago

No. This is how you get kids to love math, if you do it right. There's an American theory that math problems should be doable, that kids should score 90+% if they're doing well, and that struggle makes people hate things. That's contradicted in American sports, where coaches push people really hard, boot camps, frat hazing, and cult indoctrination. There's an Eastern European theory that math problems should be hard, interesting, involve struggle, and often too difficult to solve. On the whole, Eastern Europeans seem to do better for turning out kids who love math.

culebron21 5y ago
I actually got to hate math in grade 3 with such problems. Nobody explained to me that I could just write down an equasion, at least my father (physicist) could not. And all I saw in the magazines were cryptic answers like "it's plain obvious that for Jose-Rammstein conjuncture, x = 10" I also met the problem #9 at an interview, and was asked to write the solution in pseudocode, as a kind of fizz-buzz test. (A peasant must take a wolf, a goat and a cabbage across a river in a boat. However the boat is so small that he is able to take only one of the three on board with him. How should he transport all three across the river? The wolf cannot be left alone with the goat, and the goat cannot be left alone with the cabbage.)
- doovd 5y ago
  I would not blame the problems here, but rather the lack of support.
senko 5y ago
> This is how you get kids to love math, if you do it right. No. This is how you encourage kids who already love math. If they're not interested (yet), this is an awesome way to turn them off. If you do it right, you'll incorporate these into everyday life (walk down the street, see something that you can turn into a similar problem, then pose that to the kid). Source: loved these as a kid[1], now parent who wants to encourage a healthy sense of wonder in math/sciences. [1] Here's one for you I loved back in the day: A hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half. How many eggs do six hens lay in six days?

Jare 5y ago

"One Pound and Half the Brick" means one pound is the other half. It's interesting to visually explain it to kids so they start to see that "fraction" (half) doesn't have to mean "weird number".

skyde 5y ago

2 pounds ? brick_weight = 1pounds + 0.5brick_weight

threatofrain 5y ago

> 12. A tide was in today at 12 noon. What time will it be in (at the same place) tomorrow? These problems seem so poorly organized and motivated, I don't understand the curation in putting them together in one document, especially one that goes from ages 5 to 15. Math problems shouldn't feel like random problems where you have to squint really hard or be really clever to see the connection to life. They should build with deliberateness into a worldview or a recognized skillset that a child can later translate into life wins.